International and Multicultural competence.

This blog post/reflection is about the experience of having a background of different cultures and international exposure as a teacher. Benefits and challenges of living abroad as a teacher and student as well. So we all worked in different groups for the preparation of this international workshop. In our Group we were five members, me, Malek, Bente, CJ, Hills and Terrence. All of the participants played a very good role in devising  the webinar material. 

Everyone of us was quite thrilled for this webinar but on the day of workshop I unfortunately had an emergency and had to quit . I was really unhappy but sometimes situations turn upside down. I am really grateful for such understanding group mates who comforted me at that moment and agreed to represent my part. One of other group members Malek also couldn't join because of some other important business. 

Next day I went through the recorded session of our international webinar and I must say they did an awesome job. All of them have been quite cooperative with each other and the participants  from other side. (Students from Applied Sciences University of Belgium) CJ introduced me and Malek very nicely in our absence. After the introduction Terrence told the students about Finland, Oulu, OAMK and the key points about pedagogical studies. (Part that I was supposed to discuss) After that there was an activity run by CJ in which students wrote about the benefits, challenges and solutions of living abroad as a teacher and student. they had different opinions such as while discussing about the challenges of living abroad some of the students wrote that it could me language barrier, other wrote it could be money and in other's view it could be missing home, different teaching styles etc. Similarly they discussed about benefits like learning of different language, meeting new people and learning about their cultures, making new friends and so on. While describing about the solutions they suggested that challenges could be overcome through making new friends and going out with them, joining the local students club, taking free local language classes etc.

Furthermore there was another activity where one teacher had a international exposure while other didn't have this exposure. Students were divided into rooms and then they discussed and suggested the possible solutions. I really liked their matured approach of handling the challenging situation as a teacher working with multicultural students with different students and their norms. 

At the end of workshop Bente created a pole on menti meter to see if the students are motivated to go abroad or not. Their response was amazingly awesome and and almost a large number of students were ready to move abroad and have an experience of studying in multicultural atmosphere along with other amazing experiences of living in a different country. 

I would like to conclude this blog post by sharing my personal experience when I moved to Finland. Everything was new and different for me specially when I joined Finnish language center and started studying with a bunch of people from all over the world. Initially I have been a bit shy and hesitant due to cultural difference but within no time I was happy and started making new friends. I had great experiences and learned a lot from my friends. 

Picture from my language center, Kuopio

Now being the part of pedagogical studies and working with the people from different backgrounds is another exciting experience of my life. I have learned and still learning valuable things from them. I am motivated to end this journey and to begin the new and the real journey of my life as an International teacher. 

Initial contact days at OAMK