University of Helsinki
Hi, I’m Reza. I am a master student at the University of Helsinki. I came to Finland last year and started my stay here with the Helsinki Summer School. That was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life; everybody was happy and excited, we had a lot of fun there. It was not only an adventurous beginning for my student life in Helsinki but it also gave me, a newcomer, a marvelous view about Finland.
The very advantageous idea was that I joined the HSS Finnish course. I had no clue of Finnish at that time; I had never heard anyone speaking Finnish nor did I know anything about Finno-Ugric languages. Disappointingly I had read on the Internet about it: “hardest language ever”! However, you cannot imagine, after three weeks we all could manage short conversations in Finnish! A few everyday use sentences might not be very much in learning a language but it helps you in many ways, at least you don’t think like you are an absolute stranger who attends an English program, speaks English to everybody and has no connection to the Finnish speaking life.
The HSS intensive Finnish course was not just about the language; we also had daily short lectures about Finnish culture which were quite interesting and in my point of view necessary for people who are going to stay in Finland for 1-2 years. We also attended some seminars about Finnish language and watched Finnish movies every week. Later, when the academic year started I registered to the next Finnish courses and I’m still keeping on.
I made many friends on the HSS Finnish course. Most of those who stayed in Helsinki started their studies and we still enjoy visiting each other and partying sometimes.