Having been living in Finland for several years and finished my bachelor degree here, the student life at Hanken has still taught me so many things!
- Enjoying singing in Swedish when you can’t even speak it
When I was chatting joyfully with students sitting next to me at my first master sitz at Hanken, suddenly people were arm-locking and swinging from side to side singing in Swedish. What did I do? I went along like everybody else. Don’t be afraid if you can’t speak any Swedish, however this will happen in almost all the sitzs and you will get used to it before you know it. Besides, at an instant of vigorous joy, no one is listening to you, so just enjoy yourself and the moment.
- Dissolving stress with coffee
Master studies can sometimes be stressful with all the deadlines seem to be attracted to each other and decide to meet up at a single date. One thing you should know is that Finland has the heaviest consumption of coffee in the world. Learning to drink coffee and to enjoy a proper coffee break with friends at school is a great letting out of stress.
When you are stressed and march toward the Hanken café, here you go, in the queuing line you encounter a familiar smiley face showing mutual understanding of stress and the solution. Chatting away while sipping the strong dose of Finnish coffee, here you just survived another crisis.
- Embracing diversity with flexibility
Not only diversity from the nationality, but also diversity from the life status and from the work style, you learn to respect diversity and to embrace flexibility when studying master at Hanken. I have worked with international students, students that work almost full time, and students that are also mothers. I loved the fact that everyone is welcomed, encouraged, respected, and given the same opportunities and challenges. Working with them over different projects has been fun, stressful, productive, disappointing, creative, and learning. The amount of group works at Hanken is teaching you so much more.
After knowing the diversity level of students here at Hanken, you are probably not surprised that many of us are actually good cooks! So go explore your friends circle here and you might start some “cultural evenings” with authentic tastes. And the myth that students can’t cook is thus proven false!
- Keeping an annotated bibliography
The best way to keep track of your references and literature review is to keep an annotated bibliography as taught in our academic writing class. An annotated bibliography basically summarizes the main ideas of the paper and how it can be used in your academic work. It sounds like an extra work to do and to be honest I didn’t like it in the beginning. After doing it for starting to write my thesis, it actually saves so much time that you won’t find yourself re-reading the same paper. Keeping a good habit of writing annotated bibliography can come in handy when you have a big academic project to write.
- Enjoying more fun times!
When the deadlines are safely passed and all the assignments in place, we usually have a good sense of what to do – anything Fun! It’s not surprising that you will find your best friends here in Hanken as I did and we set all our senses together to find out what’s the next fun thing to do as motivation and as reward. We went to sitz, fairs (and really don’t miss the fairs in Helsinki Messukeskus – Gamexpo, Wine&Food, Pets, I Love Me, Travel – just to name a few); slush volunteering, food & coffee dates, sports, concerts, and all kinds of parties. Having my favourite Hankeits with me is just too lovely!
wall climbing with my favourite hankeits!