Well. I have been interested in visiting Finland for a long time now. There is something fascinating about a country so different from yours in so many ways, be it history, culture (there is so much to be said about this. I´ll come back to it!), food, social expectations and even climate. And the language, too! I´ve always loved the sound of Finnish. So when I decided I wanted to be an EVS volunteer, I didn´t have to think too hard about my target country; Finland it would be!
Finland has it all and I'm living the dream
Of course, even though I had done a lot of research on both Finland and Pyhtää and Kotka (going as far as looking up the locations of every single youth house in Kotka on Google street view - I was a bit obsessed), there is a huge gap between theory and practice, and the number and nature of differences - especially cultural differences - I encountered has been surprising!
As for the finns themselves, well... this isn't completely true, but maybe like, a little bit true?
Youth houses, for instance, don't have the same importance is France as they do here. There are fewer of them and I would guess fewer youngsters visit them (I have never been in a french youth house myself - it's just not somewhere most youngsters think of going). This is probably due in part to the fact that our schooldays are much longer than in Finland.
In France, a typical schoolday for a primary schooler is probably 8h30-16h30. Wednesdays are typically free, however - Wednesday in France is "children's day", and this is when all the little french kids attend their football or tennis or dancing lessons! From secondary school on, we unfortunately lose this privilege, although Wednesday usually remains a shorter day, where kids only work in the morning.
There are so many major differences between the french and finnish school systems I would have to write a separate post about it, lest this one become a giant wall of text, but here are a few key differences that might give you food for thought:
* Attending a (public) school is free in France, however school lunches, notebooks, pens and all the material we use are not. Schoolbooks are typically lent by the school, but they have to be returned at the end of the year - preferrably undamaged!
* In french public school, you are not allowed to wear any obvious religious signs. This applies to every religion equally in theory, but sadly, in practice, there tends to be more leniency towards christian children who still choose to wear a cross around their neck rather than, say, muslim girls with their headwear.
* The french school system is pretty old school, really. There is a lot of emphasis on "intellectual" subjects such as maths, physics, history etc. and more manual and creative subjects, namely music and visual arts (no textile work, home economics or woodworking for us!) are seen as less important and not really valued, unfortunately. Sciences are almost always viewed as superior because of the prestige associated with them, and the kids who thrive neither in sciences nor humanities and who prefer sports or arts will face judgment.
I'm painting a pretty bleak picture of the french school system here but really, it's not all bad. I do think however that the finnish system is much kinder to the kids and much more flexible than the french one is... but this is becoming a wall of text, precisely what I wanted to avoid, so I'm gonna leave you with a couple pics from an arts and crafts activity I ran this week at Nuorisotalo Welho. The club will run again this Tuesday from 3 to 5 and is targeted at kids between the ages of 7 to 12, though it's open to anyone really, so feel free to join!
A flock of colourful birdies made out of styrofoam balls!
Nahia
