ladiemarmalade wrote:
1. Where is the best place to live for about 8 week? I will study at the business school, how close is that to housing for international students?
Whatever they arrange for you. Otherwise if you get picky, they show you the street. If you get lucky, you get something close by, but you may need to commute. Don't worry, the public transport is unlike the USA, you're a dumb hick if you're not on the public transport.
2. What are some social norms that a foreigner must know and adhere to fit in as much as possible?
Dunno, what Flossie said up there might be a good general advice to Americans. If you go on OMG about small flats and dinky toy cars nevermind how cheap everything is in the USA, people will tell you to piss off home then - you are talking to people having to live here, you remember. Its not "like at home", which is kind of the idea of a foreign country, so the standards are different - what "you think" is often irrelevant as thats "all wrong" when it comes to body language and manners. You also need to drop any chips off the shoulder as you might be feeling all of a sudden like Rosa Parks on the bus. This ties up with question 4:
3. Because of its location, I know there aren't many people of African decent in finland. If there is anyone on this forum that can speak candidly to their experiences in Finalnd as a person of African decent that would help tremendously.
Naah, you got it wrong and right. Theres not a
history of black people except a few, but these days a lot of 2nd generation and recently immigrated Africans and they're the African-Africans. What you want to be is American. If you get mistaken as an African - especially by the African menfolk - you get treated worse than a gangsta ho... once they realise you're American they'll propose marriage and want a green card even their Finnish wife is there hand-in-hand
. You read about Somalians getting a bit in trouble with the black community in the USA even? Guess what the reception would be like in some vanilla white hood... Chances are as you're in the university circles you don't encounter much other than the good old anti-americanism as the universities are bastions of old communists. So Ok, "y'all fat and stupid and don't know wbout foreign countries lest you go bomb them"... On the street, depends where you are, drunks are drunks and may yell something unitelligible gibberish - usually sparked by some unfathomable reason - like hearing a foreign language spoken on the phone... so its going to be something along the lines of "go home you dirty wetback!" just like in the good US of A
And yeah, you can blame gangsta rap for a lot of what Finnish kids think of African-Americans nevermind the language. My generation at least had Bill Cosby
4. Recommendations for learning Finnish
Snarf. For 8 weeks? You prodigy or somethin? First step would be to the "learn the alphabet", as the pronunciation of the letters goes all different from the English, so you can figure out where you are going or ask from people as they won't understand you.
But in generally, I wouldn't worry too much. The HSE is quite used to foreign students and they in general organize stuff for exchange students, so it seems they don't have much time to actually study it seems
I mean seriously, 8 weeks... 8 months would be something you might get worried about homesickness or coping up with eating deep-fried chicken feet but in 8 weeks you don't even learn which buses take you home at night...
