The Lewis Model - Cultural experiences

"Up to the middle of the 20th century, the scrutiny, analysis and comparative studies of the world’s cultures were largely matters for academicians. Some knowledge of the subject was helpful in our travels abroad or when welcoming foreign guests to our shores." 

"The Lewis Model is the latest to gain worldwide recognition, being developed in the 1990s and articulated in Richard Lewis’s blockbuster, When Cultures Collide (1996), which won the US Book of the Month Award in 1997. Lewis, after visiting 135 countries and working in more than 20 of them, came to the conclusion that humans can be divided into 3 clear categories, based not on nationality or religion but on BEHAVIOUR. He named his typologies Linear-active, Multi-active and Reactive." 

a national level according to one’s country ( or countries for people who migrated during their lifetime) - this can apply to me moving to a totally different country for the first time ever. 

a social class level, associated with educational opportunities and with a person’s occupation or profession - this can apply to the whole Erasmus itself, I moved to Finland to experience university there, to learn about their education system and to understand how different it is to my own experiences. 

Trompenaars – the basis of cultural differences in relationship with people - whilst in Finland I was able to build relationships with different people, people from different countries, different religions and so on, this helps to build our cultural experiences and to learn new things from what we already know. - this is very important. 

Richard Lewis "After summarizing the previous theories, Lewis concludes with creating a new one, that classifies countries and their culture in three different dimensions." This to me is also very important. in our lives, we must learn new things such as new cultural experiences and any type of experience for that matter. to be able to leave the comfort zones we need to learn new things and gain new experiences to be able to move on from our own. 

Culture shock! - I wasn't so much shocked at the Finnish culture, but it is very different from my own. For example - the first thing I learned about the Finnish culture was that Finns keep to themselves, they don't so much like small talk or anything like that. Now, this is important - this is their culture, they do not intend to be rude or disrespectful! This is just how they are - just like how us Mancunians love small talk and to talk about anything! In order to fit in you must follow their rules, this is their home and their culture and you must respect it. 

References: 

https://beyondculturaldifferences.wordpress.com/research-theories/ 

Conclusion - what have I learned?

I have learned so much whilst being on this Erasmus! 

I have learned how to live independently, buying my own groceries and paying my own bills - this is a big lesson in life. 

I learned how to speak some Finnish - I hope it will come in handy one day! 

I learned so much about their culture and I believe this is very important as learning about other cultures really gets you thinking and changing.  I LOVE the Finnish culture! 

I learned about the Finnish education system which will surely help me in my future career! 

I honestly learnt so much whilst being in Finland and I appreciate every lesson learnt and I appreciate the experience! 

MMU Vs TUAS

My home university is very different from the one I attended in Finland. 

At my home university, us students get a lot of support from our teacher's whether that be through email, phone calls or meetings etc. In TUAS I hardly heard anything from the teachers (but this is just how it is, every country is different!) 

There is A LOT of online learning at TUAS where at my home university it is mostly lecture and classroom-based - this I much more preferable as it keeps me engaged whereas online is an area that I cannot concentrate much on. 

There are a lot of events on at my university and throughout the different campuses, I did not see much going on at TUAS (I guess its because I was there in winter?) 

I noticed at TUAS you have clothing rails throughout the campus to put your coat - we do not have this, I believe this would be a good addition to my university. 

In TUAS they have restaurants with hot food and other facilities around campus - at MMU we do get the same but there is much less choice. 

As I mentioned earlier, both universities are very different from each other! They both have their pros and cons - both great universities. 

English schools Vs Finnish schools

A few things I have learned! 

The Finnish education system is amazing, the classes are much smaller meaning more one to one with teachers, more classroom discussions and easier learning! 

English classrooms are very full sometimes and this can be very overwhelming for the teacher - this also has a downside of not much one to one able to happen. 

Finland do not mainly base their education on exams, in fact, they have no exams apart from one! 

England base their education on exams, you have primary exams (age 11) called SATS, high school exams called GCSEs and upper-level exams called ALEVELS - this puts a lot of pressure on us here as we need to be able to pass these exams to continue our education - again this puts pressure on teachers and students. 

"Finland might be a country of just of just under 5.5 million, and a per-pupil budget that falls below the UK and the US. But it also happens to produce the smartest, most well-rounded students. Part of the reason for this, and perhaps the key reason, is that it chooses to ignore these statistics, and focus on the promotion of teaching autonomy, creative learning, and equal ability classes.

But before delving into the specifics, it’s worth considering the statistics that have turned the heads of teaching professionals across the globe. In Finland, 66% of pupils attend university. The difference between the strongest and the weakest students is the smallest on earth. 93% of students graduate from secondary education. This is evidently an education system that works." 

Finnish language - is English common in Turku?

How common is the English language in Turku?

Honestly coming to Finland i assumed not much English would be spoken! I was pretty wrong, a lot of Finn's speak very good English and some sort of English, this made my stay a lot easier! 

During my placement here in Turku I was placed in a community centre (mostly migrants - none Finns), most of the customers here were learning to speak English and with that, I was excited to help! 

Apparently English is a very hard language to learn, so I helped as much as I possibly could to make it easier for the customers, we came up with English word games, discussions and much more!

Like any other country you are visiting, you MUST be patient and remember this is not an English speaking country. 

PRICES!!!

So the biggest must know here is that you need to bring a LOT of money as it is quite expensive!

Your weekly basic shop will cost you around 20-30EUR, there a few different places that you can buy your groceries, I will write a list here on the cheapest to the most expensive (that I found)
1: K Market
2: S Market
3: K-Citymarket
4: Prisma
5: Lidl
6: Sale

Its of course your own choice but my favourite place to shop was Lidl as I have this certain shop in my home country so I just stuck with that.

Turku Castle

"Turku Castle (Finnish: Turun linna, Swedish: Åbo slott) is a medieval building in the city of Turku in Finland. Together with Turku Cathedral, the castle is one of the oldest buildings still in use and the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It was founded in the late 13th century and stands on the banks of the Aura River. The castle served as a bastion and administrative centre in Eastland, as Finland was known during its time as a province of Sweden. Only once did the castle figure in the defence of the realm, when Russian invaders from Novgorod destroyed Turku in 1318. It more frequently played a role in internal struggles for power within Sweden and the Kalmar Union. The castle's heyday was in the mid-16th century during the reign of Duke John of Finland and Catherine Jagellon. That was when the Renaissance Floor and King's and Queen's hall were built, along with other features. It lost its status as an administrative centre in the 17th century after Per Brahe's period as governor-general of Finland came to an end. Turku castle is today Finland's most visited museum, with attendance reaching 200,000 in some years. In addition, many of the larger rooms are used for municipal functions."

This is a MUST when visiting Turku! one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Turku is the Turku castle, unfortunately it was never open when I was there but I was able to mooch around the outside and around the grounds, the building is stunning with the classic horror look as if there are 100 ghosts staring at you when you're walking around. 

From here you can see the marina, with ships docked, boats and people fishing. 

Turku castle is also very close to the boat museum. 

(picture from google as I cannot locate my own photos).

Downtown Turku

So this could be a useful one, downtown is where everything you need is! 

Grocery shopping, bars, shopping malls, restaurants, parks, banks, bus staton, train station - literally everything! 

You can also go on walks down here, its usually pretty quiet during the winter with very few locals. Downtown is pretty historical with old buildings and construction sites, you can also grab some cool stuff at the flee market when it is open.

Student Accommodation

Ok, so. I am going to be very real with you here.

The accommodation is in a very nice area, pretty quiet and the locals are lovely.

Anyway, your rooms are pretty Ikea basic. beds are very uncomfortable so I suggest heading to ikea for a mattress topper and some stuff to jazz up your space as it is very bland.

You get the simple stuff, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and balcony.

The decor is very strange through the kitchen and hallway, checkered floors which make your eyes go funny and a green wall, not my cup of tea but it done the job.

Here are some pics of the rooms.

Kuupittaa Park

"Kupittaanpuisto is also the oldest park in Finland, as it dates back to the 1820s when it was a park meant for spa guests. According to folklore, Henry, Bishop of Finland, baptized the first pagan Finns into Christianity in the Kupittaa spring during the First Crusade in 1155. In the beginning of the 1680s the spring started to be used as a healing spring. First leprosy and then cholera patients were treated in the vicinity of the spring. Kupittaa got its first spa restaurant in the 18th century.

During the first half of the 19th century, the park consisted of what is now the northeastern section of the park: the spa area with the small park surrounding it, the gardening school area, and the area known as Kupittaa Square. The Kupittaa gardening school started in 1841 and the students were responsible for the care of the surrounding park. The school was located in the current Adventure Park area and some of the old buildings are still in use. Kupittaa Square was located in the corner of Uudenmaankatu and Itäinen Pitkäkatu. One could get to the actual park through the square. The square was remodelled in the 1880s when the poplar trees that still grow in their places were planted."

Kupittaa park is located right in the centre by TUAS, its a big open space with play parks, football fields, pond, wild animals and fields. There is also an outdoor swimming pool and cafe on Kupittaa park - open during the summer season. 

You can be well equipped to get your daily walk in here, you can talk a lovely walk around this park and grasp the nature that comes with it.

This place is in my top 5. 

Forrest walks

Forrest walks are honestly the best - even if you get lost. If your living by Krööpilänkatu your right next to this particular forrest.


This is one of the most mesmerising things I done whilst in Turku. We lived right by a huge forrest, we decided that it would be good to go and take pictures of the snow on the trees so off we went.
we got mega lost! Its crazy how the forrest is set out the further you walk in, you end up in peoples back yards, so we figured we went way to far and could get out for ages (we ended up following someone who was jogging, she eventually got us out lol!).

But really, these are really beautiful and you can take yourself on a long culture walk here.

Here are some pictures I took.

TUAS Friendship Programme - A BIG must when moving to Turku

*this programme is ran by TUAS university*


When I first heard about the friendship programme, I was very intrigued about it, what it was is basically you sign up your interest via email and enter some details about yourself such as your interests, hobbies etc. one you send it all off you will get your confirmation to say that you have been matched with some buddies, your buddy could be anything from a family to an individual person. 
On the day you go to the event place (in this case it was the cafeteria at the university), you meet the tutor get your name badge then you have to start hunting for your buddy (they will also have your name tag). I got matched with four buddies. We all introduced ourselves and told each other where we are from and what we are currently studying, why we chose Finland as our Erasmus + destination etc. One of the buddies was from Finland so she was able to tell us some beauty spots to visit and what fun there is in Turku, cafes to visit and islands to visit. 
During our time we created a WhatsApp group to keep in touch with each other, and so that we could meet up during our time in Finland. 
From here we were able to communicate with each other to meet and do things together.
I think this programme is really important to consider as it helps you meet people from other countries, your able to learn new skills new languages and could make a friend for life from this.

Quiet streets

Coming from a big city, I found the quiet streets of Turku oddly satisfying.

Going on a long walk whilst not seeing one person was very alien to me as im use to seeing somebody every step of the way when at home.

You're really able to grasp the beautiful buildings surrounding the ghostly streets, the crazy coloured buildings, the birds and the roads ahead.

These walks really help you clear your mind so I honestly recommend taking an evening walk through the quiet streets of Turku.




this is one of my favourite pictures from one of my evening walks, it just shows how eeary the place can be - in a good way of course.

Movie night - in a BAR!

This event was very different, something that I have never done before.
This was a movie night, except it wasn’t in a theatre, it was in a bar in the city centre. This event was running throughout the day at different times which I think was a very accessible thing to do, this meant you did not have to miss classes / placement etc and was able to go at a time that suited you.
We all met up in town and headed to the bar, this bar was in fact hard to find which made the mission a lot more fun.
Once we found it, we were let in and they had a great set up for the event, a big screen and comfy chairs everywhere for everyone to sit at. They had a popcorn machine behind the bar that you could buy and drinks. 
We were able to sit and watch the movie in a very relaxed environment and just enjoy our time.
Again, this event was good for meeting people as we asked on a chat who was going to see what movie, then we could all commute together. As well we were all able to leave together and get home safe at the end of the night. 

Creative writing - virtual class

This event for me was very useful as i cannot concentrate enough to write for a long time, in a short space of time.
During this lecture we were given a lot of insight on coping mechanisms for writing and different writing styles.

One of the most useful for me was to write for twenty minutes straight and then stop and you would just repeat this until you have finished what you need to do.
Another one was to keep writing for a certain amount of time without taking your pen of the paper and see what text you can come up with - this is also very useful if you like to write blogs or story telling etc.

I think i will definitely take this whole lecture into account when i am studying as it has already proven a good style for me and i am able to continuously write for twenty minutes then break!