This post is linked to the previous post about English in Finnish Higher Education. I would like to share how Finnish students learn English. I’ve attended a lesson of Business English course taught for Finnish students. It’s quite a secret why Finnish students are very good at English but I think it’s both the teacher’s approach and students’ ability to concentrate their mind on studying thoroughly. Despite that I already have completed a Master’s degree in Business Administration in English in Finland, I found the lesson very interesting and even learned some new words which I haven’t used or encountered before.
Students were sitting in the class by groups of four or five at round tables and the teacher Anna-Riitta Pettinen was speaking English with them. She gave everyone materials for the lesson printed on paper and also projected materials on a white screen on the classroom’s wall. She spoke very clearly and in a calm manner. The first task was to understand news and write down numbers after listening to them.
I liked that we used only up-to-date information on the lesson. For example, next task was a case of establishing a company in Finland by a foreigner. We needed to answer case questions using a real document from Finnish Tax office.
All official information in Finland is available in perfect English and can be used even to study English language together with knowledge of the real world.
To my great pleasure Anna-Riitta Pettinen knew about Kazakhstan (and usually in Finland people don’t know much about my country) since her friend is working in a Finnish company in Kazakhstan. Moreover one of Anna-Riitta’s students is from Kazakhstan. This is quite rare occasion when you can meet a Kazakhstani in Finland (or anywhere in the world except Kazakhstan). We Kazakh are quite exotic and rare individuals abroad =)
