A Hint of Japanese Culture in Finland

In October 2014 we were glad to have seven students and their professor to visit us from Shikoku University.  This wasn’t the first time for the professor Yuki Kataoka, actually it was already the 5^th trip to Finland with different students. It was the second time for me too, to guide them around Tampere.

My name is Eveliina Anttila, I am third year social services student here at TAMK.  My duty for this week was to arrange program for our visitors. They wanted to see Finnish social services from many angles, so we had a tight schedule. It’s not easy to show everything in just one week you see! But gladly I got lots of help from the teachers Ulla-Maija Koivula and Tapio Salomäki, thank you!

Our visitors arrived on Saturday 18.10., and they had few days to explore Helsinki and Tampere by themselves. Our program started on Monday 20.10. with a tour around the main building of Tampere University of Applied Sciences. The building was new for the professor too; on their last visit the school of social services was still located at Pyynikki. On their first real visit they got to know about the Finnish elderly care at one of the dementia home of Sopimusvuori Association.

Tuesday started by taking a bus to Hervanta. We headed to a meeting point for Immigrant women which is called Naistari. There we had a nice breakfast and info about their work. In the end we made together some origami and have a lot of fun! 

We also visited Monitoimitalo 13, which is a youth house in the city center. There we had an opportunity to get to know youth work is done in Finland. Even though the communication was a little bit challenging, the conversations were productive. For example, we had a nice conversation about Japanese video games they had there! ;-) 

On Wednesday our quests were with Ulla-Maija Koivula. They visited a place for preventive child welfare, which is called Toimela and in the afternoon they tried TAMK’s own dark cafeteria organized by young persons from the Association for the Visually Impaired.

Wednesday evening I had planned social evening for the students and their professor. It happened to be my birthday, so it was logical to have a party, right? I had already made some makaronilaatikko, which is similar to American macaroni & cheese.  And for the dessert, of course I had cake, this time it was apple pie with some candles on it. 

Our quests wanted to offer something themselves too, and my kitchen suddenly was full of laughter and joy.  They made us rice triangles and rice flour balls, which were seasoned with Japanese flavors. And would this visit be complete without the extraordinary souveniers? Of course not. That is why we had dried  squid and fish plus plenty of Japanese sweets and snacks. After we all were full of eating, there were birthday song and more souvenirs to give. I also got a birthday card which is still placed on the door of my fridge. Thank you for that!

 

But the week wasn’t over yet. On Thursday we headed to Nuori Kullervo. Nuori Kullervo offers apartments and support for youngsters on the edge of the adulthood. We had nice info, tea, coffee and Fazer chocolate candies! There were a lot to ask, but we had strict schedule, which told us to move to the next place, which was Iltalinjalla –project.

Iltalinjalla –project is a free time place for intellectually disabled people. We had a little bit free time there and we used it by making some origami again! Here’s a few pictures from Iltalinja: 

Our last day together was Friday. We planned it to be a visit to A –guild, which is supportive work for people with intoxicant background. After A-guild information moment, we made a trip to the backyard, which had a fire place and a nice lake view! There we grilled some sausage by Finnish style and ate bread and drank juice. We had so much fun and great time, although it was cold. 

And to sum up this week, this was my second time to host our Japanese student on their visit.We had a busy week with many places to visit. I can’t fit all the stories in this blogtext!

We were all tired on Friday, but it was still worth it and I hope that our quests enjoyed as much as I did! I got an invitation to visit Japan someday, and I think I am going to use that opportunity! ;-) 

Text: Eveliina Anttila

Photos: Eveliina Anttila and Ulla-Maija Koivula

Visitor from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Ms. Aleksandra Jama (in the middle) is discussing with the International Coordinators, Mr. Janne Hopeela and Ms. Ulla-Maija Takkunen and the CUAS students Felix Wiesinger and Magdalena Hamm.

TAMK was privileged to have a guest from our Austrian partner university, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS). The Head of International Office, Ms. Aleksandra Jama, was here to discuss about the future cooperation in student and staff mobility.

TAMK and CUAS have many common study fields and interests in higher education so the partnership will be fruitful in the following years, too. At the moment, CUAS is a possible exchange destination for TAMK students in Business, Hotel and Restaurant Management and Social Services.

Ms. Aleksandra Jama met also the CUAS students currently in exchange at TAMK so they could share their first impressions of the Erasmus period in Tampere.

Text and photo: Kaisa Merilahti, TAMK International Services

Erasmus IP: See me! - Creative methods with youngsters at TAMK.

Erasmus Intensive Programme for Social Services studies has begun on Monday the 13th of May. In total, there are over 60 participants, both teachers and students from six countries: Lithuania, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands and Finland.

See Me! Erasmus IP participants during the introduction day

During the two week programme the participants will get to know each other, work and study together and familiarize themselves a little with Finland and it's culture as well. In the programme there are several different workshops, visits and a lot of international teamwork!

Course participants prepared some special treats and drinks as a greeting from their region for the students and teachers of other countries. How nice!

See Me! -learning style. Fun!

Teamwork for the win!

Students and treats from Sevilla

Here in Finland we have this thing called Letkajenkka

Text: Panu Alanko
Photos: Sanna-Maria Anttila & Eveliina Anttila

Music brought exchange students together

Farewell Party for Social Work X-Change Students

Hi everyone! My name is Flo. I´m 30 years old and I have been a German Exchange student at Tampereen Amattikorkeakoulu in Finland. It was such a great time! If you like the colder regions, love the pure nature or want to challenge your sensibility of adoption then Finland could be the right choice for you! You get to know different people from different countries. There are a plenty of things you can do in Finland and I obviously have not managed to participate in every happenings or activities.

I met two guys from Africa, who also love music like I do. So we decided to found a band „Came 4 Exchange“ should be named. We practised a lot nearly every day. We also played a lot for Social Organizations, on birthday parties and also were invited to play on the Universities X-mas Parties. 



Universities Student´s X-mas Party  



Additionally the academic options here are really nice. I appreciated the way how the records will be evaluated. You have to do a lot of projects, presentations, essay´s and sometimes at the end there will also take place a small examination. It´s hard for me to keep it short because I am still impressed about Finland and the plenty of „faces“ and options there. 

My conclusion is. I definitely had in Finland the best, nicest time and it was for certain the greatest experience in my life! I would love to do it again anytime! By the way if you are interested in watching some music of us find the links below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gitnK4lvrk8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UikLV7RLdr8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp8AWP4H4nc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spu4Gkif2Mc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffgEyel2OvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLE9vHgGck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQXJHZnXq4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puw8GSG_XAk

Text and photos: Florian Gollwitzer, Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, exchange student in Social Services in Autumn 2012

International Social Services intensive course in Budapest – GIVE & GET

The Social Services intensive Erasmus programme CRÉME - The Social Pedagogy and Creative Methods in Substance Care was organized for the third time. This time the event was held in Budapest, Hungary between 2nd and 13th of May 2011.

Almost 70 students from eight different universities and six countries attended the event. The attending Universities were TAMK and HAMK (Finland), Fachhocschule Nordhausen (Germany), HAN Hogeschool (the Netherlands), University of Pablo de Olavide and Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), Kaunas College (Lithuania) and naturally the hosting University from Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). Additionally, 16 teachers from different countries attended the intensive course.

The intensive course programme included lectures and workshops. The discussions were centralized around the topics of comparing the national welfare systems for drug prevention and rehabilitation. Interesting was also to compare the current status of drug related problems between countries

In the workshops the students improved their skills using different methods for their work. The methods included art, music, creative group work and photographing to name a few. These skills are especially needed when working in the intoxicant welfare system.

The second week was mostly about workshops where the students worked with Megállo Group Foundation, an organization specialized in intoxicant welfare. The workshops were done to help the secondary school Green Rooster, which is specialized in taking care of dropped out youngsters.

Megállo employees taught the students in various creative methods. The course topic was simply put “Give & Get”. TAMK School of Wellbeing and Social Services sent students Tuula Jokinen, Suvi Laakso, Aino Rinta-Jouppi, Hanna-Maria Ritoniemi, Markus Pakkala and Kirsi Saarinen to Hungary. Ms. Merja Repo, one of TAMK’s professors conducted a workshop with HAMK professor Ms. Seija Pajari- Stylman.

The week’s epic final was held in theatre Merlin where students, Megállo clients and the Green Rooster youngsters created a fabulous show worth to see. The local television company filmed the whole show and the whole intensive course got a lot of publicity.

Here everybody can find the broadcast which was shown on the Hungarian TV.
Please enjoy!

The course will be covered in a pdf publication later this year. In the pdf you will find articles and photos from the Budapest intensive course and additionally some material from the previous courses which were held in Tampere (2009) and in Sevilla (2010).

Senior lecturer in Social Services, Ms. Ulla- Maija Koivula has made terrific work organizing the intensive courses. Due to her input, she received a silver decoration from ELTE University.

Photo U - M Koivula
Text: U- M Koivula and Elias Suominen