Week 8 - Personal

This week has been a good week for me. I have been in my placement a lot and I feel like I am learning a lot of Finnish and the children are a lot more aware of me. The children are a lot more responsive to me when I speak, and they are very encouraging when I attempt to speak Finnish! They are helping me to learn Finnish, and I feel that this is very interesting as I feel like the roles have been reversed, where I am the student, and the children are my teachers. The children also make more of an effort to include me in their play, and they are making an effort to speak and learn English with me. For example if I was sitting at a table, the children would bring their games to me, so as to include me. The first time that the children did this, I was pleasantly surprised but immediately interacted with them. I feel like I have progressed a lot personally since arriving in Finland. I feel that before I arrived in Finland I was quite narrow minded about the Finnish language. I felt that I didn’t need to learn a lot of Finnish because everyone would speak English. I now understand the importance of making an effort to speak someone’s native language with them, and the effort is appreciated. I also find it interesting to see how I can interact with the children with the language barrier, however now I am finding it a lot easier as the children know me better. I can now understand that I am not the only one with the language barrier, and that the children also have a language barrier with me. However, the children and I are making an equal effort to interact with each other, and teach each other about our language. I feel that this experience will influence me in my future placements. I feel that perhaps there is too much emphasises on what is said in a setting, rather than a person’s body language or their actions. I feel like I know these children and their personalities because of our interaction through play. Therefore, I feel that I am also learning through play, and not just the children.