Stereotypes of Finnish students
You know I love making the occasional sweeping generalization. Here at the University of Turku, we try to group our students according to major so we can tailor our academic English courses to their specific studies: psychology students will get to study the particular terminology and texts of their field (in English), etc.
Well, when you teach groups of one major, you tend to form stereotypical opinions of them: "psychology [or whatever] students are so ___________." It's an unconscious habit; it's probably wildly inaccurate much of the time; it's totally fun. So far, I've taught political science, logopedics (speech/language pathology), philosophy, humanities (everything from media studies to history to language/literature students), and education students. Here are my friendly, well-meaning generalizations of each.
Political science students are super sharp. They want to change the world and, to be honest, I will not be surprised when they do. They are informed and passionate and take joy in having OPINIONS. They love Brexit and NATO and Crimea but they also have wonderfully niche interests like the intricacies of Polish politics or various obscure things to do with Russia. I love learning from them.
Philosophy students are SUCH thinkers. They're in a different league.from me, I sometimes feel, and their critical analysis skills are off the map. It's tough to get them to write an essay within a semester - they say they need more time to read their sources, think, and then read some more. I respect that...and then I make them write an essay within the semester anyway. :(
Logopedics students are some of the most brilliant women you will ever meet. Yes, women. The group I had last year was all women, and I understand this is fairly typical for this field. You have to apply to be accepted to certain majors and Logopedics is competitive, combining, as it does, biology, psychology, and linguistics. So they are brilliant, but they are also quiet. It's almost a hive mind thing - you can practically hear the hum of them thinking and sometimes an unspoken but commonly designated representative will finally speak aloud the question they all had but were too afraid to ask.
With Humanities students, it's hard to pin down a stereotype since their studies are actually so varied. This means that class is sometimes an exercise in mental whiplash for me as I move from sexism in car commercials to symbolism in the Kalevala to conscientous objectors in WW1. Never a dull moment with Humanities!
Education students are lovely, lovely people - warm and calm and ready to laugh. My favorite thing about them is that they come to class, and they do their stuff. That is so underrated these days, and it means so much to me as a teacher. I had 80 education students last spring and 78 of them turned in their final project on time. Be still my heart. I have to believe that part of this good attitude is because they know what it's like to be in front of that classroom, asking students to do things - they're the future classroom teachers of Finland and they start their student teaching in their first year of the program.
Sometimes I think back to my undergrad days and wonder if I was half as bright as the students I'm teaching now in Finland. I think probably not. But I'm grateful to have the chance to work with their brilliant minds!
