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| Tanja Tammimies |
Tanja tell us something about yourself. Where do you come from, which is your job…
I am Tanja
Tammimies and I am from Finland.
I am a teacher of Finnish language at Oulun Aikuiskoulutuskeskus, the
Adult Education Centre in Oulu,
Finland. I have
come to Florence
through Leonardo da Vinci program to visit Istituto Europeo, to see the
teaching method of language, culture and music and to know how the school
works.
What
kind of students do you have in your Centre in Finland?
I have many
kinds of students, from everywhere in the world. Lots of husbands and wives of
Finnish people, refugees, people who end up in Oulu for work and then decide to remain.
In your
opinion, what are the most common problems in your job?
At the
beginning it’s difficult, because Finnish is so different from most languages.
Like here, we teach only in Finnish so it’s very hard for beginners, but after
the start things normally go better. Of course, sometimes the motivation to
study a very rare language can be a problem. In Finland
you can survive with English, you could live 20 years in Finland without
learning Finnish. For this reason it’s very difficult to find the real
motivation to study the language of the country, even though I believe that in
all countries to learn the language it is really the key to the society. So if
you want to live in a country you should learn its language.
Could
you tell us more about the project you came through?
The name of
the project is Leonardo da Vinci Mobility Program. It is financed and
coordinated by CIMO, the Centre for International Mobility in Finland.
The coordinating school is in Tampere,
then there are other participating schools, like mine. We got six positions for
teachers, to go abroad to develop intercultural connections between our school
and other schools and the professional experience of the teacher. For example,
if I were teaching to cooks in Finland
I could go to a cooking school here to learn Italian cooking. In my case, the
aim is learning something new about my profession – language teaching - in
another country.
Let’s
talk about Florence.
Have you ever been here before? What do you like most of the city, and of Italy in
general?
Yes, I have
been to Florence
many times. I like Florence
best, but that’s because I lived here before, so it’s familiar to me. Of Italy in
general I like the culture of being open: Italians are more social than the
Finnish, you are more in contact with people, more flexible with times, etc… I
like the way of life, the way you enjoy food and spend time to prepare and eat
it; in Finland
we don’t have such food culture. Also, another quality Italians have is that
they are proud of their culture and they know how to show it to others: in Finland it’s
not the same, we are a bit shy about this. I also love art and Florence
is unique in its “art content”: if you study art and architecture you must come
to Florence,
you cannot miss this city!
How was this
experience at Istituto Europeo?
It has been
great. By attending the Italian lessons as an auditor, I could feel as one of
my students feel. In the classroom the teacher speaks only Italian and for the
first time I had the chance to meet foreign students, with whom I could speak
only in Italian because we didn’t have other languages in common. I like the
school, the lessons and the teachers are great: it has been a very interesting
experience.
Finally,
do you have any advice to give to a young person who wants to become a teacher?
Which qualities he/she should have?
To be open
with people, to be ready to learn, experiment and give from yourself. The most
important thing is to communicate with people, so a good teacher should have
good communication skills… and lots of patience, too!
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