Joep Dominicus 2016

Joep's Article April 2017

My Finnish adventure

Terve, minun nimi on Joep. Olen belgialainen. As you can see, I can speak Finnish perfectly, but just because I like to show off, I will do the rest in English ;) . During my last year studying to become a English and History teacher, I got the opportunity to do an internship in another country. I chose Finland and quickly found the Mutalan Koulu in Joensuu. I didn’t really know what to expect of the education, country or the people. Now that my time here is almost over, I can honestly say that it has been an amazing experience. I quickly fell in love with the country and the city, with its beautiful nature, language (which I studied for a couple of months before coming here) and calmness. The best part however were the people. Finns have the reputation of being somewhat closed and distant, but the people I’ve met here are some of the nicest, friendliest and most helpful I know. They made me feel very welcome from day one, showing interest in me, helping in whatever way they could and treating me like a real member of their team. The school and its education system are great as well. I have seen and witnessed so many amazing ideas about teaching that I will definitely take with me to Belgium. It’s clear to me now why Finland has perhaps the best education in the world. Because I didn’t just come to the school to teach my lessons but was also here to assist and observe during the remaining hours, I quickly got to know the pupils quite well. It’s been a real pleasure being their teacher and I hope they learned something from me, because I certainly learned something from them. I wish them nothing but the best and I know they have a lot of good things coming for them. I have no regrets whatsoever coming to Finland, Joensuu or Mutalan Koulu and if people considering coming here are reading this, don’t hesitate and choose this place. You will have a great time with great people (not to forget the other international students who you can hang out with) and if I could I would definitely stay longer. Lastly I just want to thank all the teachers, assistant teachers and international students for making this an adventure I will never forget, particularly my mentor Hanna-Kaisa for taking such good care of me. I will miss all of you and I will say goodbye instead of farewell, as I would love to come visit you again soon.

Kiitos

Joep

(You can learn more about me, my country of Belgium and my reasons for choosing Finland in my Powerpoint presentation)

Joep and Magritte project

Joeps Article

Deze Week Magazine

5.4.2017 page 6

Joep Domenicus in a local newspaper about his trip to Joensuu

“I’d heard Finnish before, and thought it sounded nice”

Sunday 9 April is the Day of The Finnish Language. Not every language is blessed with its own day, but with words like Rautatieasema, Joulupukki or elokuva, which make foreigners scratch their heads, that special status is more than deserved. Joep Dominicus traded his dorm room in Leuven for an internship in Finland.

Before heading to more northern regions, Dominicus went to CLOT in Leuven every Tuesday, one of the few places in our country where’s it’s possible to study Finnish. “My goal was to have some basic knowledge of Finnish before I went to Finland”, Dominicus says.

“I would go do an internship after all for my teacher training. Here in Belgium I was studying to become a teacher in History and English. In our training we get the opportunity to do an internship abroad. When I saw Finland was a possible destination, I applied as candidate immediately. I had never been there before, but it spoke to me, one reason being the good reputation of the Finnish education system. I was definitely not familiar with the language. I’d heard Finnish before, and thought it sounded nice, but I didn’t really understand much.

make do a bit

With a couple months of CLT Dominicus tried to change that. “Those were definitely fun classes, but Finnish definitely didn’t seem easy. Last academy year I followed class for one trimester, before heading to Finland. There I would teach English in an elementary school, as they learn it at a very young age already. I didn’t have to speak a lot of Finnish in class, but it helped that I could make do a bit.” Even though it was mostly exactly that: make do. “When Finnish was being spoken, I just understood the words that I knew. Deriving something from the context, like you can do with French for example, isn’t possible. The language sounds so different from what you’re used to, that you have no idea what’s being talked about.”

Despite this Dominicus didn’t regret his choice for Finnish and Finland. “Right before I arrived, it was -30, but eventually I didn’t experience those kind of temperatures. I did see a lot of snow, which was quite nice. Also the fact that, even in the city where I lived, there was always a lot of nature nearby, was very appealing. Currently there are now plans in that direction, I’m in my dorm room in Leuven again, but should the opportunity ever arise to go live and work in Finland, I would do it, I think. And thus trying to master the language once more.”