English test at work

Today I had a chance to do an English test at my workplace. The test was made by EF, and it had two parts. The first part was about reading skills and the second part about listening. Both parts had several different exercises, and at the end the result was told. The test was a little bit under one hour, both parts taking about half of the time.

The results were really surprising for me, because I didn't expect them to be so good. I got 74/100 points of reading and 84/100 of listening, so the average was 79/100. Those results put me to level C2 in CEFR scaling and between 8,5 and 9,0 in IELTS scaling, which I couldn't believe. I have always thought that my skills aren't so good. Is it only lack of self confidence, or how accurate was the test?

If my results had been worse, I could have participated to an English course at work also. But my level seems to be well enough, so I don't get the course.


Independent studies so far: 18/51

Field trip group so far: 15/20

Pub Quiz -night 5.4.

We went with the Field Trip group to a pub quiz night to Molly Malone's on Wednesday. Actually, there were only three of us, so not so many. Our team was probably one of the smallest.

The pub quiz is held every month's first Wednesday in Molly Malone's, and it's in English. There are several rounds in the quiz, and they are about different subjects. I found it quite hard to understand the accent of the person, who was hosting the quiz and asking the questions. Luckily my team members were better in that, and usually at least one of us understood what the question was about. But we also realized, that to be able to do well in the quiz, it would have been much more likely if we were from an English speaking country or little bit older.  Anyway, in every round we got at least some of the questions right, but not enough to win any of the rounds.

The pub quiz was fun, and I actually think it would be fun to go again.

Independent studies so far: 17/51

Field trip group so far: 15/20

Seminar at work

On Thursday we had a seminar day at work. I work in a company, which is owned by a Danish company. Once a year we have a seminar day, in which some chiefs from Denmark come to Finland to tell us how things are going and talk about their plans for us. This time we had two visitors from Denmark, I had met the man before but the woman was new to me. Both of them had presentations in English. The Danish accent is usually quite simple to understand after getting used to it, so I didn't have so much difficulties this time, although the subjects of the presentations were hard. I should be better in knowing economic vocabulary in English because of my work, but I still have difficulties with them. During the latest year I have started to understand more and more.

The Danish woman who was talking about figures and last years profits. I noticed, that she wasn't so used to presenting in English, because she seemed to be really nervous and forgot to talk to the audience. She was too often staring at the screen behind her, which made her voice not hearing so well.

After the seminar, we had an evening event with dinner. I was really tired after sleeping only four hours the night before, so I hoped that after very tiring seminar, I could sit down with some colleagues and relax. Luck wasn't on my side, because I got seated across the table to the Danish woman. And next to us were people, who don't really speak English too well. Naturally then, I needed to keep company to the foreign guest. I'm really not so good in small talk, but I just had to force myself to start the conversation. Luckily I could find out some topics to discuss about with the person, and actually she was really nice. Even though talking in English during the dinner took quite much effort, I felt really happy afterwards, that I handled the situation so well. I also got good feedback from my boss about that. I found out, that I can manage these situations, which is really good. It looks like I will have a trip to Denmark coming in the future, so then I might need to do something similar again.


Independent studies so far: 17/51

Field trip group so far: 11/20

Visit to The National Museum of Finland

On Wednesday the Field Trip group did a visit to The National Museum of Finland. I'm part of the museum group, who organized this visit too. We met at the museum at 4 pm, and went to see the exhibitions. Our main interest was the exhibition which is called "Come to Finland". There's a collection of old tourism posters, that are advertising Finland as a traveling destination to foreign people. There were many interesting posters, that were advertising for example old ferry companies, airlines, cities and nature resorts. I wasn't aware, that many famous artists, for example Akseli Gallen-Kallela, have done also this kind of tourism posters. One of my hobbies is traveling, so it was interesting to see how Finland has been presented in these posters in the history. Some of the posters were actually really funny! Here are some examples of the posters:

We also went to see other exhibitions, the other temporary exhibition was called The Arctic Spirit. There were some artifacts of people, who live in Arctic areas. The collection was quite small. We also went to see some of the permanent collections, parts of it are closed at the moment because of the museum's updating process. Since one of us studies art history, she could tell us a little bit more about the objects shown at the exhibition.

We were totally two hours at the museum, we needed to leave at 6 pm when it closed. It was nice to see others again, next week we will have a meeting again.


Independent studies so far: 14/51

Field trip group so far: 11/20

Holiday in London

Last week I went to London for a holiday. Travelling to an English speaking country is a good way to practice English skills too. I have been to London a couple of times before too, so I had seen the main sights already on previous trips. The idea of travelling to London once again formed in my head, when I heard that there will be two Finnish fighters fighting in UFC in London 18th of March. I was lucky enough to get the tickets (it surely wasn't so easy that one might imagine), so I booked the plane tickets and hotel too only three days after getting the idea. So, in the middle of March I headed to London.

We traveled to London with my husband already on Thursday morning, though the UFC event wasn't until Saturday. We hadn't had our winter holiday yet, so we had some extra holidays to use for the trip. On Wednesday evening we went to see a movie,  which was called Lion. It was a story of a young Indian boy, who got lost and apart from his family. After some incidents he ended up to an orphanage, and got adopted to an Australian family. When he grew up, he wanted to find his family in India, and though it was hard, he finally succeeded in it. The movie is based on a true story, and in the end of the movie they showed also some photos of the real events, when the boy traveled back to India to meet his family. The movie was really emotional, I cried a couple of times during the movie. The first part of the movie was spoken in Hindi, so there were subtitles in English. The Australian part of the movie was spoken in English, so it was a little bit harder for me to understand everything. But I understood the main points anyway, and could follow the story line quite easily. Here's the trailer of the movie, if you are interested in it.

On Friday evening we went to see a musical. I'm actually not a big fan for musicals, neither my husband, but there was one particular show that we were interested in. It is called The Book of Mormon, and it's written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the same men who are behind the animated series called South Park. The musical tells a story of two Mormon boys, who are sent to Uganda for their missionary time. The time they spend in Uganda trying to convert local people is really hilarious, and not to be taken seriously at all. I laughed so many times during the show, and it felt good to understand most of the jokes the musical contained. The sense of humor of the writers is really harsh, not everyone is able to laugh for raping babies to cure HIV etc. I was sitting next to an old man, who didn't laugh even once during the show. I really enjoyed that it was possible to drink wine etc in the theater seats also, that never happens in Finland.

On Saturday evening was finally UFC event. UFC is worlds most famous mixed martial arts organisation, which arranges fight nights in different countries. They have never had an event in Finland, though nowadays there are a couple of Finnish fighters participating too. The event in London was in the O2 arena, which is huge, it's capacity is 20 000 people. We had bought tickets to really good seats, we were quite close to the cage. We could see the fights really well from where we sat, which was good. It wouldn't have been as nice to sit somewhere far, where you could have only watched the screens to be able to follow the matches well. There were totally 12 fights that evening, one with female fighters and the rest with male. The first Finnish fighter Teemu Packalen was fighting on preliminary card fight, but Makwan Amirkhani was on the main card. Both of the matches were supposed to be 3 times 5 minutes, but Teemu Packalen got knocked out already in the beginning if his fight. That was quite disappointing for us, but anyway the whole event was so good, that it didn't matter so much.

The people around us were all British, and they were quite interested in us. We talked to many of them, and they were surprised that we had traveled all the way from Finland only to see the UFC. Some crazy Finns! People there were really friendly, and they felt bad for us after Finnish fighters losses. I found it a little bit difficult to talk about the matches with the British because of the lack of my vocabulary. I have practised some self defense sports myself, but I knew the vocabulary only in Finnish. We bought the handbill, in which there are info about the rules etc. I will take some time to read it through and learn the vocabulary later.

On Sunday it was time for us to come home. The whole weekend was such a nice getaway from the everyday life of mine. =)

Independent studies so far: 14/51

Field trip group so far: 8/20

Ice skating

Yesterday we went to ice skate with the Field Trip group, although there were only three of us. We met on the ice rink which is located next to the main railway station in Helsinki. We bought the tickets, put on our ice skates and headed to the ice. It was the first time for me during this winter to ice skate, so it felt quite weird in the beginning. I also tied my laces too tight in the beginning, so I needed to loosen them after a couple of rounds. I like the ice rink in the city center, because they also play music there. But on the other hand, it makes talking to each other a little bit more difficult.

At the moment there is a demonstration of asylum seekers who have got negative decision for their applications for asylum, and they are protesting against Finland's politics about asylum seekers. The demonstration is next to the ice rink, so we saw those people all the time while skating. On the other side of the rink was another demonstration, it was about "Suomi ensin" (Finland first), and those people want to get rid of all the asylum seekers in Finland. There were a lot of less people on that side of the rink. While skating, we discussed about the situation of the asylum seekers, who are in danger to be sent back to their home counties. We all thought, that it feels really wrong to send people back to the countries, where they have a risk to get killed.

We also had a small break, when the ice resurfacer came to fix the ice. We went to the cafe and bought hot chocolates. We had hard times remembering which is the name that is often used for the ice resurfacer machine, but then one of us remembered that it's Zamboni. I looked it up just now, and that name comes from the man, who invented the machine. The first Zamboni was built in 1949.

After finishing the hot chocolates we headed back to the ice rink, and ice skated some more time. We talked about different subjects, like parties in the University and student associations. We also talked about different kind of ice skates, like the ones used in speed skating are different from ours. We had a good time. After some time we thought that now we are finished, took off our ice skates and left to go home.

Independent studies so far: 8/51

Field trip group so far: 8/20

Visit to The Finnish Museum of Photography

Today we did a visit to The Finnish Museum of Photography with a small amount of people from the Field Trip group. Only five persons showed up, so not too many. The museum is located in Kaapelitehdas, which is an old cable factory in Ruoholahti area. I have always liked that building, it has beautiful white halls with black velvet curtains. I had never visited the photography museum before, although I enjoy looking at good photos a lot.

The first exhibition that we saw was part of The Festival od Political Photography 2017, and it was called Post-Food. There were photos from several different photographers, and all of them had different themes that were somehow about food and politics around it.

I enjoyed much about the photos, that were taken by Tim Franco. The collection was called Metamorpolis, and the photos were taken in Chongqing area of western China. The area around the metropolis used to be for farming, many poor people got their living out of it. But the growing of the metropolis had taken lands from the farmers, who are still trying to cope by farming in the city. They still have small farming areas next to skyscrapers and motorways. This collections also gave me some ideas how the life is in huge cities in China. I haven't been to China yet, but I'm trying to visit at least one new country every year, so I think that China will be my destination some day.

I also liked Yann Mingard's collection called Deposit. It was about how humans have started to deposit the world's biological heritage. People have built vaults to store seeds and DNA information of different species. The vault that I have heard before is located in Svalbard, and the seeds of each crop known to mankind is stored there. I found some of the photos, especially those about collecting semen samples from animals, quite harsh.

The most emotional part of the exhibition for me was the photo collection from Pablo Ernesto Piovano, which was called The human cost of agrotoxins. He had taken the photos in Argentina, where a company called Monsanto has used toxic pesticides on their fields, where they grow genetically modified soybeans. On those areas the amounts of cancers, miscarriages and malformations among people have increased. Even though it's now known that the pesticides are the reason for it, the use of them is continuing, because mainstream media hasn't reported about it. The photos show people with extreme malformations standing on the fields. Pablo Piovano has said: "If major corporations have control over seeds and food production, they also have control over our health and our freedom."

We also went to see another exhibition, which was called Mobile Albums. It had mobile photos from some asylum seekers, who had arrived to Finland. The asylum seekers had chosen some photos from their phones, that meant really much for them. Some photos where taken before they left from their home countries, some were from their travel, and some even from the time spent in Finland. I found it very interesting, because I do volunteer work among young asylum seekers, so I got some more ideas of their thoughts again.

During the museum visit we discussed only in English, and when we wanted to know more about the photos, we read the information in English. 

Independent studies so far: 8/51

Field trip group so far: 5/20

The Hazara of Central Afghanistan

Most of the asylum seekers that have come to Finland from Afghanistan are Hazaras. Hazaras are the most threatened ethnic minority in Afghanistan, and they are tyrannized by the other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. I wanted to learn more about them, so I searched for an article about them. From the University's electric library I found an e-book, which has a chapter of Hazaras. The book is called "Disappearing peoples? Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Minorities in South and Central Asia". The chapter is 16 pages long.

Reading of this text felt actually easier than what I had thought. There were of course many words that weren't familiar to me, but anyway I understood the sentences and main ideas of the text without checking the words. I think that when I'm reading English texts for example for exams, I should focus more about understanding the ideas than checking all the words. Searching the meaning of all the new words just makes the reading much slower, but doesn't change the understanding so much. I actually felt quite good in reading this way, because I could focus more about the content than the vocabulary.

(Kuva: https://hazaranewspakistan.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/norway-hazaras-protest-against-violence-in-quetta/#jp-carousel-899)

Independent studies so far: 8/51

Field trip group so far: 2/20

How do you verify the age of child asylum seekers?

I have already told, that under-aged asylum seekers are kind of close to my heart, because I do volunteer work with them. It's also quite likely, that in the future when I work as a social worker, some of my customers have come to Finland as asylum seekers. So when I found an article from BBC about verifying the ages of child asylum seekers, I immediately got interested in the topic.

There weren't so many new words in the article this time, so learning them was easier. I got so into the topic, that I also read some related articles only because of interest.

New words:

• eligible = oikeutettu
• demeanour = käytös
• allay = lievittää

Independent studies so far: 7/51

Field trip group so far: 2/20

Reading articles in English

As a part of my ALMS I decided to read articles about different subjects from foreign newspapers and websites, like BBC and CNN. I think it's a good way to learn new vocabulary from the subjects that are interesting to me. On my studies I often have to read books in English, and the books are related to social politics. To make the reading easier to me, I need to learn more vocabulary.

Today I found this article about the difference between an expat and an immigrant. I have never thought about it, so the headline caught my interest. The word expat has meant to me just what is written in the article, a person who has moved to another country voluntarily to work or just live. It was interesting to read opinions of other people too.

I gathered all the new words to me from the article and memorized them. After that I told to my husband in English what the article was about and tried to use all the new words too. It was hard!


New words:

• connotation = sanan oheismerkitys tai sen luoma mielleyhtymä
• preconception = ennakkokäsitys
• abruptly = äkillisesti, yhtäkkiä
• siege = piiritys
• referendum = kansanäänestys
• arcane = vaikeaselkoinen
• squalid = rähjäinen
• confiscate = takavarikoida
• moniker = nimike, lisänimi

Independent studies so far: 6/51

Field trip group so far: 2/20

The first counselling and meeting the field trip group

I had my first counseling meeting with the teacher on 2nd of February. I showed him my plans that I had done for the course. The meeting was quite short, and everything seems to be okay.

After the counseling meeting was the first meeting of the field trip course. For this ALMS English course we need to participate also to at least one support group. I joined field trip course, because the meetings of that group can be arranged in the evenings. I work full time, so all the groups that are arranged during days were not an option for me.

In the first meeting we got to know other group members by practicing small talk. We talked to each other in pairs about different subjects, that the teacher told us. People are always really interested in my major, because many people aren't familiar with it. I study social work, which isn't so well known. People are often interested in what kind of career I can have with those studies.

After the small talk we discussed all together, what kind of activities we would like to do during the course with the field trip course. We also formed smaller groups, which are responsible to arrange different kind of activities. I joined the group which is responsible to arrange museum visits. There are some museums in Helsinki that I'd like to visit, so I hope that the other group members were interested in those too. Let's see how it will be!

The field trip group will be totally 20 hours, and the first meeting lasted two hours. Totally my studies are now:


Independent studies so far: 5/51

Field trip group so far: 2/20

Movie night

I and my family are volunteering as a support family for two young boys from Afghanistan, who arrived to Finland almost two and half years ago as asylum seekers. They were under-aged when they arrived, and they came alone without their families. It has been really rewarding to spend time with them and try to teach them about Finland, Finnish people and culture. In the beginning we had some difficulties, because we didn't have a common language to share. But nowadays they already know Finnish better, so we can have deeper conversations too. I have learned so much about life in Afghanistan and heard heartbreaking stories. We have sometimes cooked together, so I've also got to taste Persian foods, which have been delicious.

Last weekend we went to movies together. There was Helsinki Documentary Film Festival called DocPoint, where they showed documentary movies from different countries. The boys hadn't gone to movies in Finland yet, because English movies with Finnish subtitles and Finnish movies would still be too hard for them to understand. But now DocPoint had one movie that was in Farsi, a Persian type of language that the boys can understand. The subtitles were in English, so I could understand the movie too. The movie was called Raving Iran, and it was a story of two Iranian boys who played electronic music and arranged secret rave parties in the desert. They then got a chance to play in a music festival in Switzerland, and traveled to Europe. The movie was really interesting, I learned a lot of the culture in Iran. I also got a different point of view to the thoughts that these Afghan boys maybe have. I really want to understand their life here in Finland, because I study to become a social worker and probably will work with foreign customers also. I especially wish to work with young people and teenagers.



If you want to check the movie trailer, it can be found on the movies internet page here. The photo is from the movie.

Hours studied: 2
Total hours so far: 5

Stand up!

I enjoy going to stand up clubs and get a good laugh. I knew that there's a stand up club called Comedy Idiot in Helsinki in English, and they have shows usually on the last Thursday of every month. That was the case also in January, so I asked some foreign friends to go there with me. There was another Finnish with me, and also a girl from USA and a boy from Dominican Republic. We headed to Cafe Mascot in Kallio neighborhood and got quite nice seats close to the stage.

The show started around 9 pm and lasted 2,5 hours. There were several comedians, some of them Finnish and some from other countries, but they all performed in English. The foreign ones were Scottish, English and Swedish-Argentinian, and also the other host is from Canada. And like it quite often happens in stand up shows, you enjoy about some comedians more than the others. The Scottish guy Ray Zambino had a really strong Scottish accent, so every now and then it was quite hard for me to understand what he said. Some of the subjects that he talked about had also quite difficult vocabulary. That is maybe the reason what separates native speakers from the other English speakers, because they use more difficult words. Anyway, he was talking about the news that some researchers had succeeded to create human-pig embryos and were hoping to grow replacement organs for humans. After the show I needed to find the article and read it, here you can also read what The Huffington Post writes about it. New words that I learned are embryo and chimera, really useful, right?

The English comedian was Paul Westlake, he is an old man who has lived in Finland for tens of years already. He had some pretty funny viewpoints to Finnish people and Finland. I have seen him performing earlier too, so I knew some of his stories before.

My favorite comedian of the foreign ones was definitely Sven Fernandez, who is partly Swedish and partly Argentinian. He had so hilarious stories about categorizing people by their races. He had a story of his exchange year in USA, when he decided to mark himself as a black person to his dormitory's personal data form. He also told, that he's often questioned carefully at airports, because he has Swedish passport and looks like a terrorist!

All in all the evening was really fun, we all had a good laugh. When the show ended, we needed to hurry home to be able to wake up early in the morning to go to work and school. Maybe I will go to the club in February too, we'll see.

Hours studied: 3
Total hours so far: 3/71

Let the studying begin!

I'm studying in Helsinki Open University, and the course I'm taking at the moment is English. The course is arranged in ALMS method, which means autonomous learning modules. The course basically doesn't have normal classes, but the students will need to plan their studies by themselves. If you want to know more, you can read about it here. In the beginning of this year I will study English 71 hours, and I will have some kind of bookkeeping of my studies in this blog.

I will have my first counselling meeting with the teacher on 2nd of February. After the meeting I will also participate to a support group meeting. All the students need to participate at least one support group during the course. Because I work full time during days, I didn't have so many groups to choose from, because many of them are arranged during daytime. I decided to take part to a Field trip group, which I think will be fun!

Let the studying begin!