piirin suomen kielen harjoittelija
My name is
Gloria Hatungimana, born in Rwanda but lived in Swaziland until I moved to
Finland with my husband. I have been living in Finland for 3years now and have
had the opportunity to get into the Finnish language program that the
unemployment office offers to immigrants and I must say it has been both
challenging and beneficial in all sorts of ways. I am a student at Turku´s Aikuiskoulutuskeskus
(AKK ). During the program, I also got an opportunity to apply to get into the
internship program at the Red Cross, which I luckily got into.
My internship
is language based, I applied to be part and experience the work environment in
Finland in the Finnish language, the idea is, you speak Finnish the whole time
you are at the internship. This is my second time at the Red Cross, first it
was 3 weeks and now its 4 weeks and I must say I have enjoyed every bit of it.
Being at the
Red Cross has been eye opening for me workwise and integrating. I have not
gotten an opportunity to work while being here in Finland (which can mess with
your head a little, especially if you are someone that has always worked) but
being with the Red Cross has made me feel capable again, It is nice to feel
like your opinion and contribution matters. The atmosphere makes you have a
sense of belonging and that somehow motivates you to really push hard in
learning the language to get work. I have had the opportunity to participate in
some of the activities offered here at the Red Cross like the AIDS day, the
international club help out in the office and others. There is so many
activities here for everyone I believe.
Being an
immigrant in general is not very easy from my experience. Coming to a new
country where things are done differently to your norm and the language barrier
gets in your way can be challenging and frustrating at times. Even though I
have managed to get by with English in some places, I still cannot work without
the Finnish language. As an immigrant, some of these activities at the Red Cross
do help with the integration process. We sometimes tend to stay inside and
associate ourselves only with the familiar things and people, but it came to my
realization that if one joins some of these programs there is chances one
slowly finds themselves mending in and finding their way around into the
Finnish work force and familiarizing themselves with the local way of doing
things.
I got an
opportunity to be at the Red Cross and experience the Finnish work environment
and atmosphere. The Finnish work environment according to my experience here is
both tense and relaxed. Let me elaborate on that, by tense I mean the employees
are so dedicated to their work, everyone is thriving to get their department
moving and productive, they respect time and deadlines which was inspiring. The
relaxed part is that you are free to express yourself and your ideas are heard
and valued. There is a hierarchy but you can hardly detect the difference in
employee depending on their positions in the work. The employees are so open to
their bosses and they are so free to approach them. Seating and having coffee
or lunch together is a normal thing, no awkwardness or being uncomfortable. I
must say that was very new to me, things are different where I come from.
In all I
would love to thank the Red Cross for the opportunity especially Pauliina
Pensikkala for being the one that took me in and being my mentor.
