International students starting a new journey… from India to Finland
Student-Authors:
Vipul Sharma – Inderjit Kaur – Mamta Kumari – Sukhdeep Kaur – Kiranjeet Kaur – Mandeep Kaur – Kuljeet Kaur – Virajkumar Ramani – Manpreet Kaur – Harpreet Singh – Shilpi Raina and Manpreet Kaur
Indian students at Emotional Management of International Business Complexity course 2 – Spring 2022
Emotional management is the core subject we studied and where various emotions like Happiness, Joy, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and Surprise have been explored from the perspective of the international business complexity. From time to time, the situations get changed in everyone’s life and this changes the behavior of people. In this paper, we discuss the journey of Indian students traveling from their home country to Finland. From birth, people live with their families. But they decide to go abroad for education as well as for work. There is a need for emotional management throughout the whole journey to understand various situations and changes according to their emotions. As we were coming to Finland to study and leave our hometowns. So, we are sharing our emotional experiences in this Spring 2022.
The starting of the new journey
Happiness
The happiest part of this journey was when we got the result of the entrance exam of JAMK University of Applied Sciences. After some days, we got the University offer letter through email. Furthermore, we got our Visa cards to enter Finland and get a chance to continue the process of study. It was an excellent opportunity for us to study abroad, which was like a dream that comes true. Our families were also happy because their children were going to start their new journey in a new country.
Sadness
No doubt, we were happy to get our Visa. But on the other hand, it was a moment of sadness as well. Because we had to leave our family members, relatives, and friends. It was hard to say goodbye to our loved ones. Because from our childhood, we are used to living with our family members and someway we are dependent on them. We share all our experiences and emotions with our parents and, they give suggestions to overcome the difficulties of our life. It was such a critical time for us to go far away from our loved ones for some time and leave our homes because we have good memories in the home from childhood till now.
Fear
Fear is fighting with our emotions. It was a new experience to start our studies in Finland. The language spoken in Finland is Finnish, which was unknown to us. We were thinking about the weather conditions in Finland. We all came here in February when the weather in Finland was too cold and there would be snow everywhere. We needed strength and encouragement to face these kinds of situations and started them with positive vibes.
Anxiety
Whenever we start anything new, all emotions are combined, and we can feel so many things parallel. Same as that, it was a too anxious time because we had to pack all the stuff like cloth, medicines, required documents, passport, visa card, etc. because these were important things at that time. Even we were to think about the transportation for travel from our home to Delhi. All of us left our jobs in India and choose to study in Finland, which was confusing to survive in the new country without any job.
The journey from India to Finland
Happiness
One of the happiest things was when we entered the Delhi airport. It seemed beautiful because it was just like our imagination. There we received the boarding pass, and their services were very cooperative. They guided us through the entire process at the airport. When we sat on the plane for the first time, we felt happy. The view we had seen during the air travel was quite attractive, beautiful clouds were there and made it a very scenic beauty. One more excitement was that we got a chance to see Dubai which is also a beautiful country. Dubai’s airport was always attractive and saw Burj Khalifa, the tallest building, where we had traveled in a bus to enter from one terminal to another one. There we spent five hours and learned a few things about distinct cultures like dressing sense and food habits. There we met with our new classmates. After that, the time came when we took a flight from Dubai to Finland. On this journey from Dubai to Finland, we were excited to reach Finland to see the happiest country in the world.
Sadness
It was hard for everyone to leave home, and family members and move to another country. It was not an easy decision for us. We cried a lot, it was an emotional journey, when our families came with us to Delhi airport to bid us goodbye. Our emotions shattered when we left our spouses, parents, brothers, sisters, and children. Later, we entered the airport and completed the formalities to board the flight. We could not get a direct flight from India to Finland there was a connecting flight. We boarded the flight for Dubai and after waiting for five hours we entered the airport to board for Helsinki, Finland. We were in a sad mood and thought that we do not know when we will be able to see them again. It is not going to be easy for us as we have never stayed alone in our whole life, we were always surrounded by family members and this thought made us emotional.
Fear
When we reached Delhi, we had no knowledge about the immigration process. The fear was in our minds regarding the immigration process, and how we would reach timely at the airport. There was also a fear regarding how to find the flight from one terminal to another in both the airports. When we reached Finland then we also had a fear of how to reach the destination where everyone was unknown to us. There was also a fear of the language barrier.
Anxiety
When we traveled from India to Finland, traveling anxiety (nausea, washroom, food, and baby care) was also in our minds. There was the anxiety about studying abroad, how the teaching level would be, whether we would face it, or it would be difficult for us, language barrier issues, and part-time job issues. The main anxiety was about the study differences in India and Finland and how would we manage them.
Finland: the happiest country in the world – Spring 2022
Happiness
As some of the Nordic countries are considered the happiest countries in the world all the students were happy going to study in Finland the happiest country in the world (Yle news 2022). This could be explained as there being a major difference in the standards of lifestyle in Europe and India. Happiness is a too complicated phenomenon to understand. A recent analysis of U-Multirank’s 24 study subjects published in January 2020 shows that in general European students are very satisfied with the learning experience in comparison to other Indian universities. That could be the reason students have chosen JAMK for their further studies. Also, there is an opportunity to make connections with multicultural people that can also help us to improve our communication skills. And of course, that is very much needed in the corporate world. Another thing is the weather in Finland is pollution-free. And Finland also has more than 180000 lakes and 75% of forest area which personally excited me to come to Finland.
Sadness
All students are happy to come here and study. But there are also some things that students are upset about. Like there are lots of unexpected problems waiting for us. All students expected that they will get some part-time jobs to help their studies. But after getting here they realized that it is not that easy to get a part-time job. Because of that, the first step is that you must have your social security number and a Finnish bank account. And to open a Finnish bank account, the bank will almost take two long months. So, yes there are a lot more other issues that bring us to sadness.
Fear
Students were also in fear of how they would adjust their selves to different weather conditions and a different culture. As in India, we have an average temperature of 30-40 Celsius. So, every student was in fear that how will they manage themselves in a -20 Celsius. The weather conditions of Finland are different in comparison to India. It is too cold for Asian people. Every country and religion has its own culture. And in Finland, there are a lot of multicultural people. That is also another fear students have faced. Because Finns have reticence thoughtfulness and unemotional behavior. They are unwilling to say anything unless they have something important. And there is also a saying that if Finn is saying something they really mean it. And on the other hand, Indians cannot stay shut. So those are the fears Indian students are facing.
Surprise
Finland has so many surprising moments for the people who are coming to Finland. For example, their individualistic culture, their habit to obey all the laws, pollution-free weather, and many more. As in India, we have a collectivistic culture in which we thrive and survive through interpersonal bonds, but on the other hand, Finnish people prefer an individualistic lifestyle. So, they are supposed to look after themselves and their close family only. Finnish people have a good habit of obeying all the laws. Like they always obey traffic signals they are walking they will obey the rules. But we have seen the total opposite side of that like in some areas nobody cares about traffic and traffic signals. Also in India, there are some cities that are full of pollution. Some areas are always covered in fog because of pollution. But Finland is not like that, the weather is clear and pollution-free. So, these were some surprises students faced after coming to Finland.
Our final thoughts and feelings
In the end, we can say that our behavior is also impacted by our emotions. The emotions like Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anxiety and Surprise related to the journey from hometown to Delhi, Delhi to Finland, and from Finland till now are expressed in this article. Everyone has expressed their emotions in a different way. This shows that our life gives us an opportunity to us to experience our emotions and share them with others.
References
Indian International Students (2022). Personal experiences
Mueller, K., & Roman, J. (2020). U-Multirank – What Are The Happiest Students In Europe Studying? Accessed On 8 May 2022.
Retrieved From Https://Www.Umultirank.Org/Blog/What-Are-The-Happiest-Students-In-Europe-Studying/