Chinese teaching at Meilahden (reflections)

I can see some boards with Chinese mooncakes drawings (one of UK national flag), Great Wall photo and description, as well as colour filling of pictures of Sun Wu Kong (of the Journey to the West), and moon, stars and sun in pictures with Chinese words. This should give you a flavour of how Finnish schools reinforce the learning of languages through different activities and media. Learning a language need not be limited to reading books and practising word drills, particularly for younger children.

This is the first year that Meilahden ala-aste, in fact the first Finnish school, that offers a bilingual education in Chinese, and school teaching in Chinese. Basically Chinese is taught at two levels - as a first language for native speakers, and as a second language for interested Finnish students. I did not observe the first language classes, but only the second language one, which you can find here: Chinese class grade 1.

A very strong first impression I got was that students were very eager to use what they have learnt, without fear at all in speaking Chinese. Just as I was walking along the corridor, I had been greeted by a few Finnish students with ‘Ni hao’ (Hello in Chinese).

The focus is immersion, inspiring an interest and emphasis on speaking.

They start by initiating conversations, singing and playing games with students in Chinese, rather than starting with han yu pin yin or learning characters. They start learning by being immersed in the language as used in daily life. They learn by imitation and talking in the language. They also begin by recognising the words, without any form of drills like we did when we were young. They don’t learn the pronunciation system in grade one because the school fears the students will confuse that with the Finnish alphabet and sound system. Writing the characters can obviously be a frustrating experience as well when kids start learning the language.

This is an encouraging development because there is in fact a growing Chinese community in Helsinki. I heard that there are about 3000 Chinese living in the city. (I've been able to see a few hundreds in a Mid-Autumn celebration party.) These overseas Chinese do have a need to keep up their Chinese, and I am glad that their native tongue is increasingly respected by the Finnish education system.

Under Section 12(2) of the Basic Education Act 628/1998, 'as mother tongue, the pupil may also be taught some language which is the pupil's native language.'

'may' can suggest it is optional for the pupil to be taught their native language, which in turn suggests an obligation on the part of the school to provide this facility. However, there are practical constraints in a city like Helsinki with lots of immigrants from different native languages. As shown by this school, the law is not just empty slogan, but really put into practice where possible.

Chinese class (Grade 1)

It was a grade one class, Finnish students learning Chinese as a foreign language. Pia taught in Finnish most of the time, but the students, after having learnt for a month, could already say ‘Ni hao’(hello), ‘tai yang’(sun), ‘yue liang’(moon), ‘xing xing’(star), ‘zai jian’(goodbye), and sing songs in Chinese about numbers and greeting people. The kids kept saying ‘Ni hao’ to me, and when they left, some of them would come up to me and said ‘zai jian’ individually. One of the little girls was even wearing some pictorial language t-shirt.

They were singing songs and playing gestures with ‘tai yang yuan, yue liang wan, xiao xing xing’(the round sun, the moon crescent, little stars) - and my contribution was ‘xiao xing xing shan yi shan’ (little twinkling stars). The students loved it, and Pia reinforced these words in different ways, eg playing games, songs, and asking them to listen to it and do the gestures etc.

Pia also showed pictures of mooncakes to let the students draw a bit after a long day of school (the lesson was the last one). She used technology really well by showing pictures of mooncakes on the projector screen.

The experience was that they mainly learnt by doing and following the teacher. The policy of the school was that the grade one chinese students should not learn pin yin and too much of writing practice (for fear that this might cause confusion with their mother tongue phonetic system and be too frustrating for some students). They could pick up the language very quickly and were very keen to learn the words. Pia was rather worried that learning Chinese words would be too much at the beginning, so they only learnt the numbers and a few very simple words in Chinese. Mainly conversational Chinese, and none of them was afraid to use Chinese at all.

They sang me this Chinese song 'Our friends are here'. How amazing!

Music class at Meilahden ala-aste

Kasia, the music teacher, said the four most important things in music learning is: singing, playing an instrument, listening and dancing (using body expressions). And they focused on learning by doing.

I recorded these two songs:

There were two songs that I recorded:

Autumn

Finnish folk song: Kirppu ja härkä

She has shown me a song that she has composed for the school, and translated for me. A simple, yet remarkable one. Some of the lyrics read: there are many important things in life, one of which is that we are learning together. We will never forget the school.

They also sang other songs including: Souda, Souda sinisorsa (bird swimming in a lake) that is a song composed by Sibelius.; 'water drops' by Sibelius as well, and the teacher just asked the students to listen to it with their eyes closed.

The little children have sung at least 6 songs in the span of 35 minutes, a song welcoming me, a song warming up, the school anthem, the songs in the music book etc.

In the music lesson I could see how they started with the forest, and then the trees (quoting Yolanda). This is a typical feature of Finnish teaching. Kasia let the students sing along, and play the flute after her, without caring too much about precision initially. Kasia only corrected the students when the tune goes seriously wrong. This helps them to build up the confidence to keep it up!

Art (handcraft) class at Meilahden ala-aste (Grade 1)

These are the art works of first graders who had only had one month of classes. The theme at the moment was autumn, and the boards showed the works that were completed in just a month, with owls, drawings of body parts, landscape pictures etc.

Susanna, the art teacher, said the general learning objective in these handcraft classes was to train them to observe more, and think and judge themselves what looks nice. She gave them a lot of freedom to do artwork in their own way.

She said the emphasis was to ‘find their own way of doing it’.

The most impressive thing was she had trained them in just a month’s time to be very orderly, and know exactly what they were doing. They had to go here and there for different materials. Say if they needed scissors, they would know where to go (There were labels on cupboards), or glue, they would pour glue for themselves. A little clumsy at times, and if glue fell on the floor, teacher had to clean it up, but in general the little boys and girls were very independent.
They had their own learning pace as well. Some finished their owls more quickly than others, and moved on to knots. They kept asking questions by shouting.
They were going to be introduced to various materials since very early, eg water colour very soon.

This tells a lot about the foundation work done at the first grade.

Woodwork class at Meilahden ala-aste

Best example of how independent kids can be in Finnish schools. The third graders have just started their woodwork classes and making pencil holders. They ran through some safety lessons and training before. What I saw was that each student was competent to handle potentially dangerous machines like drillers on their own with little supervision, though the teacher does keep an eye on them.

Tero, Vice principal of the school and one of the woodwork teachers, said the approach was to explain the objective, give a demonstration once, show the students a model of finished product, and asked how they were going to do it. He left them with a lot of freedom about how they wanted to make a pencil holder, or a clothes hanger.

Another observation was the kids had their own learning pace. Some kids who finished the pencil holder earlier went on to the clothes hangers, and seemed totally in control of what they were doing.

These are the works of the students:

They cleaned up themselves after the lesson, in a very swift and organised manner. A Chinese boy even asked me to help him by holding the rubbish tray for him to sweep the rubbish onto it.

Woodwork is one of the compulsory subjects for primary students from Grades 3 to 6, as well as secondary student in Grade 7. This forms a key part of training for Finns who are very good at DIY, girls included.

Meilahden ala-aste - Primary school (overview)

Meilahden ala-aste was established five years ago. This is a Finnish comprehensive school, with bilingual education offered in various languages such as Swedish (full immersion), Estonian, Russian, Chinese. Terro said it was only ‘one stream’ because everyone studied Finnish, and chose one foreign language. There are 360 students in the school. 100 students with non-Finnish ethnic backgrounds such as Palestinian, Somalian, Chinese, Indian and South African.

It started Chinese bilingual education this year. The main target students who receive Chinese teaching are those who already speak a reasonable command of Chinese. They are generally overseas Chinese or ethnically mixed children with a Chinese parent- in short those who need or prefer Chinese education.

Curriculum: Maths, Science (including geography, biology and physics, Finnish, Art, Music, Woodwork, Textile, religion, Physical Education, languages, History (from 5^th Grade onwards)

This is the school ethos: questions, fun, sunshine ...

Classes that I have observed in the school: Chinese, Mathematics, English, Art, Music, Woodwork and Science.

To jump off the cliff with a parachute: Julius's case

I found Julius at Make up for ever, which is a top-notch make up salon in Helinki. I see him as an example of how a Finn manages to find his own interest and do what he likes. He stands very proudly as he poses for me!

He has shared with me how he has ended up in this profession. He started off working in IT communications industry, but he got fed up with his job, and had to leave it. He told me that he had started in IT industry because of his father’s influence, and economic concerns that this would be a more stable and lucrative job.

This seems to me to reflect the normal pressure that society can have on their people. Although IT wasn’t what he most wanted to do, he nonetheless followed that path initially.

However, the turning point came when he decided to change jobs and go for make up artistry. I asked him how he came to this decision. He had a very compelling way of expressing this decision: ‘jumping off the cliff, but with a parachute’.

The reasons come to this:

1. He had always had hobbies in theatre, and that gave him quite a lot of exposure to make up artistry.
2. His mom was a fashion designer.
3. There was nothing to lose going for a course in make up artistry because it was very short, and he could easily turn back to IT industry if he wanted to. (this was really the parachute for him)

Reflections:

He is an interesting example because he gave his ‘hobbies’ as the first reason why he could sustain his interest in what he liked that led him to ‘jump off the cliff’. Yolanda Chen has also written about this aspect of the Finnish education system, which aims to cultivate ‘hobbies’ simply for their own sake, rather than some ‘talents’ to show off in CVs. It does not matter whether they excel; what matters is they enjoy it as their hobbies, which slowly incorporate into part of the lives of individuals, and naturally the lifeblood of society. This is a key factor in developing cultural industries not only because people might develop their hobbies into their own professions, but also that a population of audience interested in art and culture is cultivated, which drives the demand for a flourishing culture.

I see this as a key aspect of how the education system and society help young people to develop their interests – keeping up their hobbies.

Another interesting aspect of this is that these industries are in no way considered to be inferior to others in a fairly egalitarian society like Finland. He is happy to be a make up artist, which is a decent job respected by everyone. The prices are quite hefty as well. It could cost 80 euros for one session with an expert. This is probably the other reason for the 'parachute' that helps people to jump off the cliff.

A society that specialises in innovation really needs a safety net that protects the people who might not make any money in their creative endeavours. In Finland, people get unemployment benefits and there are also various funds and organisations such as Sitra, Tekes, Academy of Finland, which provide funds for projects in scientific research or artistic or cultural development.

Hong Kong government seems to assume that culture can flourish on its own in an unfriendly culture. If this remains the case, our artists who don't make a commercial debut will continue to remain submerged. In London, a lot of input comes from private donors, but that's London, where the society values culture already and is ready to chip in when the state is not doing enough.

Preface

I have been asked many times this question, 'why would I, as a lawyer, be interested in education and come all the way to Finnish schools?' Maybe I'm just a bit odd. My interests are not limited to law, and I am not contemplating a career exclusively in law either. This is really just a start for me to do something, and I hope that I can keep it up in some way in the future. I hope that this project can increase our understanding of the Finnish school system, as well as invite us all to rethink what education means, how it could be done better, and what our dreams and interests are.

Acknowledgement

Before I begin a more detailed account of my project, I would like to thank various parties and people here:

• the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Hong Kong for their grant which has been a big financial help, and made this visit to Finland possible;
• Finnish National Board of Education: Mr. Reijo Laukanen for kindly giving an interview and Juha Ojanen for organising it for me in the most efficient manner;
• the Finnish Consulate General of HK: Consul General Timo Rajakangas and Viivi Berghem for their helpful and quick response to my inquiries, as well as sending me a lot of useful information;
• Meilahden ala-aste (Meilahden Primary School), esp Ms. Pia Nasman-Hao, Ms. Paivi Paakkanen (Principal), and Tero , and all teachers therePia

• Meilahden ylaasteen koulu (Meilahden Secondary School), esp Ms. Riikka Maeda, and all teachers there
• Moision Koulu (Moision Secondary School), esp Ms. Anneli Suominen, Mr. Arto Jokinen (Principal) and all teachers there, as well as Maija Pykalainen for helping me connect to the school.

Anneli

• the Education Bureau of Hong Kong (Information and Public Relations Section) for sharing their experiences in Finland with me;
• Mr Julius Sepponen for his interview with me
• Fancy, my sister, for her supplies and my family for their understanding and support;

• Kristina (my teacher) and Sue (Kristina’s friend) for their help in giving me ideas and taking an interest in my project;
• my friends and advisers: Carman and Theodora for agreeing to interviews, and Ray, Kan , Weiken and Natalie for their insight and anyone else I might have missed out!
  

Authors I would like to thank:

• Yolanda Chen陳之華and her husband, Mr. Liu for their very kind reception in Helsinki as well as her extremely helpful and informative book <沒有資優班，珍視每個孩子的芬蘭教育>

• Brian Wu吳祥輝 <芬蘭驚艷：全球成長競爭力第一名的故事>

• Fuyuan Xiao 蕭富元 <芬蘭教育世界第一的祕密>

These books have been incredibly helpful in my research giving me both background information and critical analysis about the Finnish education system. I hope that this little amateurish project of mine will be of some contribution to the existing literature.