Refugee-free Language School in Tampere?

[HerraMopsi]

Hello there,

I've been in Finland for few weeks and am looking to get my Finnish to a functional level as soon as possible. I would like to attend a Finnish for Beginners course in Tampere, the more intense, the better. Tuition fees will not be an issue.

I have heard many horror stories about the courses attended by students undergoing their 'integration plan' and would like to avoid those.
Could anyone recommend a course/school in the Tampere region where I would be confident that my fellow students are there to actually learn the language and not just to collect government benefits?

Thanks in advance.

[Honest]

Depends what are you doing here and why have you come here. If you are here as a student or on a job contract, in most of the cases you are not entitled to courses where people in their integration period are participating. If you are yourself a refugee/on a spouse visa, then you can't avoid your brothers and sisters.

[Pursuivant]

Generally, if you need to pay for it yourself, you get more motivated students. The university courses ('summer university' or 'open university' they call it) are good, intensive, and you need to queue up like for a rock concert ticket...

[HerraMopsi]

Tampereen Kesäyliopisto it is, then. Thank you.

[masao]

Hi.
If the fee is not an issue, why don't you get a personal tutor? Put an ad in the supermarket bulletin board and you'll get one without waiting for the summer.
One thing leads to another. Maybe you may fall in love with the tutor.
t, masao

[misu]

Why are you in Finland? Are you here on an RP with the intentions of staying? Or are you here for studies or work or vacation?

You would only get put into an 'integration plan' course with refugees/immigrants and the like if you yourself are on an integration plan. That said, not all integration plan courses are the same. At least in my city they offered integration plan courses sorted by educational background. I was in two fulltime intensive integration plan courses for A1-B1 Finnish which was open only to immigrants with a university degree. That way someone with a BA or MA or whatnot would not have to be in the same course as someone who is illiterate in their native language or never had any schooling at all. I was really happy with those courses -- my classmates were great and the teaching was very high quality. I found them better than any private language course I've taken here.

[HerraMopsi]

Why are you in Finland? Are you here on an RP with the intentions of staying? Or are you here for studies or work or vacation?

I am currently here as a tourist, will soon become a family member of a Finnish citizen and apply for the relevant RP.

I was originally thinking of taking this course: http://www.tnnky.fi/suomen-kielen-kurssit.html but figured something this cheap has to be subsidised, which probably means it is one of the courses people on their integration plan get directed to. Is that wrong?

[RareGuest]

Hi!
Try to use http://www.finnishcourses.fi/en
Avoid ”easy-going” (etenee rauhallisesti) or smthg like that
I'd recommend http://www.onnenkieli.fi/fi/ . Outdated info about courses (soon is Joulu) but try to contact them.
Courses are subsidized when you get RP, register in TE-palvelut etc.
Good luck!

[misu]

I am currently here as a tourist, will soon become a family member of a Finnish citizen and apply for the relevant RP.

I was originally thinking of taking this course: http://www.tnnky.fi/suomen-kielen-kurssit.html but figured something this cheap has to be subsidised, which probably means it is one of the courses people on their integration plan get directed to. Is that wrong?

I don't know from where you've acquired your prejudice regarding integration plan courses. Perhaps you've happened to come across and heard from only those people who have had bad experiences with them? Or perhaps the problem is worse in Helsinki than in other cities and those are the people you've heard from? Maybe I've just had good luck with these courses? I have no idea. But from my experience (and I've taken all kinds of language courses here over the years spanning many different institutions and schools), they are like anything else -- some are great, some are crap, some are so-so, and it's not really whether your classmates contain refugees or not which determines the quality of the class. Usually it's about the teacher and/or the institution, not about what kind of students get herded there. If a course is free or subsidized it doesn't mean it's going to be low quality or full of indifferent third-world riff-raff, so to speak. I've taken a private expensive summer course at the local university, and then later I had that same teacher at an integration plan course and both courses were roughly equivalent. How it usually works is that the immigration branch of the employment office arranges languages courses by paying different schools/learning centers/universities for its 'clientele' to go to.

My favorite courses so far have been:

1) The initial integration plan course I was put into upon receiving my RP and enlisting with the employment office. It was taught by two teachers who were both university lecturers from the linguistics department. No cost and our textbooks were provided for us too.

2) A summer language course at a private religious institution. Cost was 20 euros. The teaching was super-efficient and dynamic, classes were fun. Btw, this course had a bunch of refugees and they were fine..? I even befriended a few and had fun talking in Finnish with them everyday.

3) An evening course at the työväenopisto. Cost was 30-35 euros (can't quite remember). Teacher was quite helpful and very good at explaining Finnish.

My *least* favorite courses were those at the aikuiskoulutuskeskus (AKK) because the teaching was very slow and minimal which made the class very dull and frustrating. From what I've heard it's because the teaching jobs there are city shelter jobs where the teachers can't be fired so they're not exactly motivated to keep up the quality. I don't know how true that is though, just what I've heard from Finns. But yeah, that's my experience. Maybe someone else will have a very different opinion.

The course you linked to seems fine to me. If I were you (here and wanting to learn Finnish but not yet having an RP) I would go to a course like what you linked or one at the local työväenopisto (https://www.opistopalvelut.fi/tampere/c ... 1-63-12011). When you get your RP you can go enlist with the employment office and they will (hopefully) assess your educational background and motivations and put you into a suitable language course or at least give you a list of courses you can apply to.

[Pursuivant]

Nnky is jebus-ladies who want to save the souls of wicked heathens. Its a good place if you are dark and like fat blondes, your rod and your staff will comfort them

[HerraMopsi]

I don't know from where you've acquired your prejudice regarding integration plan courses. .

Thank you for your detailed post and suggestions.

Just to address the point above...I've acquired that perception from threads on this and other forums, where people have complained about the behaviour of some of the students in those courses. Add to that the fact that I come from a certain non-Muslim-majority Middle Eastern country and am probably not going to be very popular with the Somali, Iraqi, Syrian, etc. crowd, and it should be clear why I'm a bit...apprehensive.

[misu]

Nnky is jebus-ladies who want to save the souls of wicked heathens. Its a good place if you are dark and like fat blondes, your rod and your staff will comfort them

For what it's worth, I took a language course at a jebus school and the only jebusy thing about it was the name of the school. I went in expecting religious images and crosses on the walls, but there was none..it was a rather secular experience and no one tried to proselytize me. The language teachers themselves were most likely atheists or agnostics

Just to address the point above...I've acquired that perception from threads on this and other forums, where people have complained about the behaviour of some of the students in those courses. Add to that the fact that I come from a certain non-Muslim-majority Middle Eastern country and am probably not going to be very popular with the Somali, Iraqi, Syrian, etc. crowd, and it should be clear why I'm a bit...apprehensive.

Hmm, I see. I can't speak for what the students in the courses in Tampere are like, but the ones in the courses I've gone to in Turku have typically been a pretty diverse bunch. There's always been just as many Russians and other eastern Europeans as there have been Muslims, if not more.

[HerraMopsi]

Dear Anna,

I'm a rather outspoken person and don't aim to mask my meaning, so please don't put words in my mouth.

I said I would like to avoid having to study alongside people who are not interested in learning.
I also said I would like to avoid studying alongside people who are very likely to dislike me (to put it mildly) on account of the circumstances of my birth. I never said these two sets of people were mutually inclusive.


So much for your jumping to conclusions.

P.S. If I wanted to "avoid all Muslims" I wouldn't visit that Turkish-owned Pizza/Kebab place down the street as often as I do.

[masao]

My favorite courses so far have been:


3) An evening course at the työväenopisto. Cost was 30-35 euros (can't quite remember). Teacher was quite helpful and very good at explaining Finnish.

Hi.
When did you go to Työvaenopisto to learn Finnish? The spring term starts at the beginning of January and it costs only 30-40 € by the term.
It's cheap but I would not recommend it.
I was there this year and my experience (Helsinki, Central, Helsinginkatu) with the opisto is quite negative.
Firstly, there are Russian and Estonian teachers. Secondly there are many Russian students of all ages. Th others remain minority.
What happens next. When a thing is unclear, a student starts to speak Russian to the teacher and the teacher tries to explain in Russian.
The minority, non-Russian speaking students, sits uncomfortably in thier chairs, trying not to hear the language.
Even though I am a clean, tidy, non-troblemaking Japanese, I would not recommend Työvaenopisto.
t, masao

[misu]

Hi.
When did you go to Työvaenopisto to learn Finnish? The spring term starts at the beginning of January and it costs only 30-40 € by the term.
It's cheap but I would not recommend it.
I was there this year and my experience (Helsinki, Central, Helsinginkatu) with the opisto is quite negative.
Firstly, there are Russian and Estonian teachers. Secondly there are many Russian students of all ages. Th others remain minority.
What happens next. When a thing is unclear, a student starts to speak Russian to the teacher and the teacher tries to explain in Russian.
The minority, non-Russian speaking students, sits uncomfortably in thier chairs, trying not to hear the language.
Even though I am a clean, tidy, non-troblemaking Japanese, I would not recommend Työvaenopisto.
t, masao

Masao,

I went in the fall term but this was over 3 years ago. Also this was Turku's työväenopisto. The 3 different teachers I've had there were all native Finnish speakers. I've started seeing Finnish courses that are designated specifically for Russian and Estonian speakers (respectively), which seems like a good way to avoid the situation you went through.