Sep 5
Went to several photography exhibitions with J and S. It's the first day of The Backlight Photo Festival, so naturally, we had a lot of free drinks.
Went to several photography exhibitions with J and S. It's the first day of The Backlight Photo Festival, so naturally, we had a lot of free drinks.
Sep 6
J brought a DVD. It was a film about a Finnish poet's life. The poet, who led a life full of genius and craziness, used to live in Tampere.
Sep 7
Went to a huge flea market at the Keskustori (center sqaure), and later to the forest.
Sep 8
Birthday.
Sep 9
First day that I and T studied together. After working for a local newspaper for many years, she decided to go back to university, where she got Master's degree in Finnish language and Education. She said, all Finnish teachers have very detailed 'manuals' on what to teach and how to teach at each class hour, and that's why there is little difference in the teaching between cities and rural areas, as well as between schools. Apparently, the little difference in the teaching has led to little gap in students' performance.
T taught me a lot of things and gave me a great deal of encouragement.
It rained today.
Sep 10
First day at the Finnish class. Somehow I have a feeling that making friends here is not going to be easy.
J brought a DVD. It was a film about a Finnish poet's life. The poet, who led a life full of genius and craziness, used to live in Tampere.
Sep 7
Went to a huge flea market at the Keskustori (center sqaure), and later to the forest.
Sep 8
Birthday.
Sep 9
First day that I and T studied together. After working for a local newspaper for many years, she decided to go back to university, where she got Master's degree in Finnish language and Education. She said, all Finnish teachers have very detailed 'manuals' on what to teach and how to teach at each class hour, and that's why there is little difference in the teaching between cities and rural areas, as well as between schools. Apparently, the little difference in the teaching has led to little gap in students' performance.
T taught me a lot of things and gave me a great deal of encouragement.
It rained today.
Sep 10
First day at the Finnish class. Somehow I have a feeling that making friends here is not going to be easy.
Sep 11
I visited T again. I showed up with a flower pot and she handed me a piece of paper. It was an article from today's Helsingin Sanomat newspaper about a Chinese man who compiled and published a Finnish-Chinese dictionary. We read the article together.
Sep 12
When I went in a second-hand bookshop on Laukontori, a young man was busy sorting out books.
He asked, "do you need help?"
I said, "I just started learning Finnish, and I'm looking for books that might be useful for it."
He came back a few minutes later, with three books in his hands. They were all comic books written by Finns or Swedes, with English translations in the bottom.
I said, "They are all Nordic, which means.."
"Sick," he said.
"Depressive," I said at the same time.
The comic books were amusing, but I didn't buy any.