【Travelogue】Excursion in Finland——Education & Study

After one highly effective semester experience in Finland, I feel there is too much to show and too much to say that I couldn’t find where should I start. To be simple, I just want to pick up the most impressive part of my exchange experience in Aalto University, which is the education system in Finland and my real study life in Helsinki.

Like every foreigner going to Finland, I was quite impressed by great language skills of local people. For example, in Helsinki, from 9 years old young pupil to 90 years old granny, most of people can speak English to foreigners fluently. In Finland, it’s not unusual that most young people are able to speak 3 to 5 languages. If you ask why and how, they would tell you, apart from official languages, Finnish and Swedish, they start their first foreign language, normally English, at 9 years old, then after every 2 years, they are encouraged to select another foreign language. By the time when they are 15 years old, most of them have studied 5 languages already.

With further study, I get to know that Finland is quite famous of its education system, especially in elementary education. According to OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), Finnish Education System has been ranked the top in every 3 years PISA (Program FOR International Student Assessment) since it started from 2000. Finnish teenagers performed exceptionally in reading, mathematics and science among contemporaries worldwide, reform and restructure of Finnish secondary, higher and adult education are steadily in progress as well.

To explore reasons behind the laurel of honor, I paid special attention to information, discussion and occasions related to education in Finland. Needless to say, one of the greatest contributors of Finnish education is its egalitarian education system, with no tuition fees and free or discount meals served for students. I met a lady, who is about 40 years old from Vietnam. She told me that she has been studyin