Rocking your interviews!

First and foremost, I would like to send my congratulations to all prospective students who have received an invitation for interviews with the programs you applied for.

I received a message from one prospective student saying that she had been invited for an interview with Development and International Cooperation Program (D&IC); so I thought it might be a good time for some insights about these interviews. Hopefully, after reading this entry, you will have some ideas on how to prepare for an interview with our program. I apologize that I can only give my insights for those having interview with D&IC program. For those who have been invited to interviews with other programs, send me message to my Facebook inbox, I will forward it to ambassadors from the particular program and you can talk to them directly. 

Disclaimer: This is by no mean exactly what is going to happen to your interviews or neither does it ensure success. I have no attention in teaching you how to be your best during the interview because I know nothing of you. This is purely based on my personal experience with my one and only interview with D&IC program. There are things mentioned here that I wished someone had told me before my interview 3 years ago. This blog post should only be regarded as a guide so that you will have an idea of what might occur during the interview. Based on this, you can adjust other elements to suit yourself best as an individual. 

In 2012, when I was invited to the interview with D&IC program, I was also given an article for a written test. However, this year, it seems like they are not doing that anymore though I am not 100% sure. But the student who told me the news about her interview said that there was no article attached in the email; so I guess there’s no more written test. However, anything can happen. Just be prepared to do whatever assigned to you. 

Update 10th March 2015, I received an updated email from a prospective student who had been informed that she would also go through a written test like I did in 2012. So, be prepared to answer 1-2 questions based on an article which will be sent to you before the interview. 

The possibility is that you will be interviewed by a lecturer from the program and a lecturer or professor from the major that you chose in your application. So, if you have a background on the major, go back to read some materials of that major to revive your memories on some certain important subjects. 

For example, if you chose political science major, you might want to look at some classic debates or authors in political science such as Michel Foucault, Karl Marx, then Marxism of course, capitalism, nationalism, neo-liberalism, colonialism, power theories, international relations theory, dependency theory (is this a political science theory or development theory? I’m not so sure), etc. Sorry, I come from a communist country so my choices are quite obvious. Haha : )). Anyway, the point is: get a hold of some basic knowledge that you can improvise during the interviews because God knows what they are going to ask you. Other than that, you can connect these debates to the context of your own countries so you can provide a lively example for the theory you are talking about. Believe me, if you can talk about any theory with memorable demonstrations for 5 minutes, you’ll be accepted right then and there. Ha, kidding! But seriously, knowing some sort of academic theories will do you some favor. Place your trust in me! Haha : )) joking, again, PLACE YOUR TRUST IN YOURSELF! while listening responsibly to me, of course ;)

Also, it helps to pick out favorite debate or topic and make a stand for it. I’m sorry I can’t give you an example in political science because my brain now is full of development theories as I am writing my thesis. So, I’ll give you an example on making a stand for your favorite debate in development theories. 

My favorite debate in development theories is about post-development; some people also call it anti-development and criticize it as inhumane, backward and impractical. However, that is absolutely incorrect. Anti-development basically means going back to the primitive age, while the core argument of post-development is so much more sophisticated than that. Post-development school of thoughts is basically against the concept of Post-World War II development, which is taken advantages of by the West to impose another type of colonization on countries they categorized as “Third World” in the post-colonial period. They claimed themselves that Third World countries were underdeveloped and needed to be developed to catch up with other developed countries in the world. Consequently, they have done more damages than helping poor countries. Richard Peet (2009), Joseph Stiglitz (2005) and David Harvey (2005) point out what seems to be a conspiracy backed up by the most powerful global institutions to jeopardize the development of poor countries; so that they become more and more dependent on the rich countries. This is why post-development thinkers call for abandonment of development and a search for alternatives to development (Escobar 1985, 87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 2000, 06).

See, basic stuff, you make your argument and back it up with literature from recognized authors. It is a bit shallow, isn’t it? I know, but it’s just for the academic sake. Remember to keep the language as academic and formal as you can manage. Finnish people in general do not do shallow and pointless small talks. Therefore, if you have been reading somewhere about doing some small talks during interviews so that you can appear to be a friendly person or something like that, drop it! Don’t beat around the push but go straight to the point! This is one of my most favorite things about Fins, to be honest; I hope they will never change!

Next, shortly before the interview, read again what you have written in your motivation letter. The most asked question during this kind of interview is: “Why do you want to study in this program?” or “Why did you apply for this program?” And the answer is what you wrote in your motivation letter when you filled in the application online. Be consistent with the ideas in your answer, elaborate from that motivation letter if you think it’s necessary. 

Be absolutely on time. Check the time conversion as many times as you need to make sure the time you have agreed with the interviewer is correct in your country. Remember that March is a tricky month because in Finland they change from winter time to day light saving time or something like that. Finnish are very punctual and you will not make a good impression if you do not show up on time. Do not use technical difficulties as an excuse! Prepare your computer, Skype and whatever needed well before the time for the interview. 

Alright, it is all I can think of now. I hope it helps you somehow. Buckle up and best of lucks to all of you!

References:
Escobar, Arturo, 1985, ‘Discourse and Power in Development: Michel Foucault and the Relevance of his Work to the Third World’, Alternatives, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 377-400.
Escobar, Arturo, 1987, Power and Visibility: The Invention and Management of Development in the Third World, Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services.
Escobar, Arturo, 1988, ‘Power and Visibility: The Invention and Management of Development in the Third World’, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 428-443. 
Escobar, Arturo, 1991, ‘Anthropology and the development encounter: the making and marketing of development anthropology’, American Ethnologist, 18 (4), pp 659–682.
Escobar, Arturo, 1992, ‘Imagining a Post-development era? Critical thought, development, and social movements’, Social Test, 31/32, pp. 20-56.
Escobar, Arturo, 1995, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Escobar, Arturo, 2000, ‘Beyond the Search for a Paradigm? Post-Development and Beyond’, Development, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 11-14.
Escobar, Arturo, 2006, ‘Post-development’, in The Elgar Companion to Development Studies, 2006, pp. 447-451, edited by David Clark, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, USA: Edward Elgar.
Harvey, David, 2005, A brief history of Neoliberalism, New York: Oxford University Press.
Peet, Richard, 2009, Unholy Trinity: the IMF, World Bank and WTO, London: Zed Book.
Stiglitz, Joseph, 2005, Making Globalization Work, New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company.

Internationality series - Employment in Finland during/after your study

So, going to Jyväskylä to study, many international students have asked me about the possibilities of looking for jobs or settling down in Finland. Here is one of many answers to your concern.  

This course is one of the example of many ways you can explore your opportunities of employment here in Jyväskylä or Finland. You can start a business here if you want to.

PLACE: Jyväskylän Yritystehdas, Vapaudenkatu 25 (Vanha Juomatehdas), 40100 Jyväskylä 

COURSE SCHEDULE
The ABC of starting a business I Thursday, February 26, 15:00 pm – 18:00 pm
The ABC of starting a business II Thursday, March 5, 15:00 pm – 18:00 pm
Course conclusion Thursday, March 12, 15:00 pm – 18:00 pm 

COURSE PROGRAMME
We will meet three times to talk about entrepreneurship in general and go through the basics of founding a company, including business planning, funding, different forms of enterprise, taxation, and marketing.
This course is free of charge. It is organised by Tuhansien Järvien Uusyrityskeskus ry (TJUYK). The course will be held in Finnish or in English, depending which language the group desides, but if in Finnish, the necessary topics will be discussed and all the course material will be available in English. 

REGISTRATION
The maximum group size is 12 participants. We give priority to unemployed immigrants. If you'd like to come to the course, please register by February 20, 2015. Send an email to the following address: iina.puikkonen@jykes.fi Include the following details in your email: your name, email address, phone number, mother tongue, and your business idea, if you already have one. Please register only if you are sure that you will attend the course. You will get a diploma from the course if you participate to all the three sessions.

Aside from courses like this, there is a Career Service available inside the University of Jyväskylä where you can come for advice concerning employment, click here for more information. This is also free of charge for you. 

Below is one of the examples of activities that the Career Service is trying to organize: 

Day at Work for International Degree Students Friday 20.03.2015

The purpose of the Day at Work is to introduce international degree students from the University of Jyväskylä and JAMK University of Applied Sciences and companies in Central Finland to each other. In practice, this means that you , as a student, will make a one day visit (10.00-15.00) to the company. 

By participating, you can showcase your own skills and share the day's experiences on social media. The day may include different activities according to the wishes of the company, for example:
• Small talk in a foreign language
• Sharing information about your culture
• Commenting on brochure materials and web page 

We hope to get enough companies to be able to offer this opportunity to all the registered students, but unfortunately we cannot guarantee that. Please note that all the companies may not be situated in the city of Jyväskylä. You will get details about the company you were chosen to visit in the beginning of March. Day at Work -company participants will donate money through Taksvärkki Ry for international charity work. 

Registration: http://www.lyyti.in/Day_at_Work_6174
Dead-line for registration 6.3.2015.
More information:
Muru Linjala
Career Specialist
Career Services, University of Jyväskylä
muru.linjala@jyu.fi

Even though I have not been very lucky myself in looking for well-paid part-time jobs, I delivered newspapers and advertisements for Jyväkylän Jakelut for a year. This job is quite hard work for girls especially during winter but I know a Mexican girl who is as small as an average Asian girl and she has been doing this job for several years already. I stopped working because I had to go to Nepal for my internship as some of you might know. You can register for the job here. When a position opened, they will contact you on the phone or via email. So, remember to provide correct phone number and email address. Basically, there are two kinds of distributors: the single/double-area one and the multi-area one. If you distribute ads by bicycle or walking, you can only distribute maximum 2 areas. But if you have a car, you can ask for 5 or more areas and go distributing with your car. The petrol fee is covered by the company.

Several students I know succeeded in looking for quite good part-time jobs at agencies like SOL or OPTeam. You register on their sites and they'll contact you if there's anything available. But the chances are slim for those without experiences, even cleaning or dish washing.

For those who have IT background, your chance is higher since Finland has high demand for IT experts. You can subscribe to international students mailing list here, IT companies send their recruit announcements to this mailing list from time to time.

Documents:
- In order to sign any contract, you need a tax card which you can get for free in the tax office. Click here for more information. 

- In order to work in a kitchen where you have contact with food, you need a hygiene pass which you have to take an exam to obtain it. Click here for more information. 

Good news for international students who want to stay in Finland to look for jobs after graduation is that instead of only having 6 months like before, now, you can apply for 1 year residence permit to look for jobs. More information here. 

It might be hard at first for international students to find a job here in Jyväskylä because after all, it's a university city, lots of students want to find part-time jobs and most of the jobs require speaking Finnish. However, like anywhere else in the world, you have to be active in looking jobs and know where to go to get help. 

So, be prepared financially before coming to study here, you won't be pressured to find a job. It will take some time. It'd be best if you can find a job in your home country (translation for example) that you can work online or something like that before coming here. 

Alright, good luck!

Internationality series - Restaurant day in Finland (Ravintolapäivä)

This is the first entry attempting to promote the diversity and internationality we have here in University of Jyväskylä and the city of Jyväskylä. In this series, I hope to point out for all of you international students who are looking for a good place to receive both free high-quality education and experiences of international diversity in your living and studying environments, Jyväskylä has the best of both world. 

Restaurant day is an initiative originated in Finland and has become a popular celebrated carnival around Europe. There are several restaurant days every year. You can check it out here. On these days, anyone can open a restaurant of their own and serve any food they want at any place of their desire, with any price they would like to charge for the food. You can open your own restaurant at your house, office, campus, along the street or around a lake. You can serve exotic food from your own countries or of any cuisines that suit your interests. Know what the best part is? You are charged nothing from the authority, which means you get to keep all the profit you earn. If you are looking into settling down in Finland with a permanent restaurant of your own after your graduation, this event is your chance for practicing your business management. This is a big plus for those with business mind. 

A pancake pop-up restaurant on RD 15th Feb, 2015. Photo by Sandi Hipke

For the foodies, you will also have your share of benefits too, in a city with such diversity of nationality like Jyväskylä, when it is Restaurant day; you bet there are restaurants of food from around the world. Among the popular ones around my living area, I would say, is Indian food. It’s hard to resist Indian curry once you can smell it from afar. Also, there are plenty of Chinese food pop-up restaurants, due to the large population of Chinese students here. Just the other day, I saw an ad of a “Cook it yourself - traditional Chinese Hot pot” restaurant. That was interesting. Japanese sushi restaurants seem to be quite popular on demand too. Vegetarians or vegans? There will be restaurant for you too. Apparently, being a vegetarian has become a popular trend in Finland. 

Side note: there are always options for vegetarians in the university’s cafeterias. 

Last year, I went to a Filipino pop-up restaurant in the Multicultural Center. I used to live in the Philippines for a year so I also love Filipino food. Italian ones are also common, I think. Who doesn’t love a homemade pizza? Especially for desserts freaks, pastry restaurants are everywhere with all kinds of baking goods imaginable. 

Filipino food, Multicultural Center, Autumn 2013

This is me devouring the food, hehe

And of course, Vietnamese students have set up their restaurants several times as well with really exotic food that is not for the fainted hearts. Haha, kidding! But seriously, if you come across a Vietnamese pop-up restaurant, go for it no matter what! You know why? I’ll reveal a secret for you. Many of these restaurants are set up by students who often come home to visit at least twice a year. And when they come back to Finland, they bring with them a lot of food that can only be found in Vietnam. If it’s your lucky day, it might be the only time in your life you get to taste something that unique. And this could also be true for other Asian restaurants set up by students as well. 

And think about it for one second, how often would you be hosted and cooked for by locals from where you are traveling too? Not very common unless you have a friend there, right? But on Restaurant Day in Jyväskylä, you’ll get to taste authentic homemade food from around the world without traveling anywhere. 

Friendship family, Restaurant day winter 2013

For those with friendship families (which will be discussed very soon in another entry), it is possible that your Finnish friendship families will take you to an awesome pop-up Finnish-styled restaurants where you’ll get to taste authentic, hearty Finnish food that often accompanied with warm and cozy ambiance somewhere deep in the woods. I've been once with my flat mate’s friendship family. All the money they earned for the day was to be donated to charity, I believe. And the food was delicious! It will definitely break your skeptic about real Finnish food. 

If you become members of some popular Facebook groups such as Foreigners in Jyväskylä or Second-hand items in Jyväskylä, you’ll probably see lots of announcements for restaurants when the day comes. 

FAQs about studying and living in Jyväskylä (Part 4) - Grants/Scholarships

Click here for part 1 - How to start and living expenses

Click here for part 2 - Admission

Click here for part 3 - Admission - English language proficiency

Alright, in this entry, I will cover the matter of GRANTS and SCHOLARSHIP (and also why studying here in the University of Jyväskylä is rather awesome regarding financial issues!).

As you all might know, (I’m sure not everyone knows), as of now, when you are accepted into the Master’s Degree Programs here, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY TUITION FEE. Isn’t it awesome??!! Well, it is the same all over Finland, but … still pretty cool, right?

However, when you enroll though, you need to pay an amount of nearly 100 euros Student Union fee for the whole academic year; or you can choose to pay for one semester only, and that would be 50 euros. This is compulsory though, you need a receipt from the Student Union to complete your application for enrolling into the program. But don’t you worry, this money will go back to you in various forms such as printing, photocopying, activities organized by Student Union, free use of the gyms and many more.

Technically, there is no scholarship offered by the university because the tuition is already free. However, for international students, after one year studying here, you can apply for a scholarship of 1500 euros which, if you are staying in student housing, should cover roughly 7 months of your rent. Pretty good deal, isn’t it? However, in order to be granted the scholarship, you need to get good academic results. And also, just to be sure, try to earn as many credits as you possibly can during the first year. This is according to the information I have gathered from friends who got the scholarship last year, not really official from the university. But it’s quite obvious that you need you prove to be a worthy student for any scholarship, right?

So, do try your best during the first year. How? You might ask. Well, for example, when you are invited to a party, you will have to spend some money on buying your own drinks or contributing some sort of snacks/food … consider if it is worth it if after the party, you’ll get a hang-over and less time and energy to finish that assignment which dues in a few days. Then you’ll rush it, and you’ll get a 2 instead of a 4, and there goes your chance for the scholarship. Any tiny things count, you know. Just saying. Sort out your priorities.

Nonetheless, as scholarships go for international students, that’s the only one I know of. Besides, if your program requires you to conduct your practical training or internship abroad, you can apply for quite a few grants.

First one is the TRAVEL GRANT, click here for more information. I got this grant for my internship in Nepal. It covered my return tickets from Helsinki to Kathmandu and 3 months of rent in Kathmandu. I had to take care of the expenses on food by myself, which was obvious but it was inexpensive in Nepal, so that was not a problem.

For those who want to do their internships in Europe, you can apply for Erasmus funding. Click here for more information. Do read the requirements carefully before you apply. The requirements are tricky sometimes.

I do believe that each department in the university has their own grants as well, for example: Department of Social Science and Philosophy, Department of Education, Department of History and Ethnology, … and occasionally, grants are interchangeable at a certain level for students from different programs and cases vary, so when you are already here in the university, ask the contact person of your program, they should know about the availability of the grants.

If you are worried about expense on accommodation, transportation or food, check out my other entry about these matters. FAQs on living expenses

View from the cafeteria in Agora building during a sunny winter afternoon

Is it possible to complete Master's Degree in D&IC in 1 year?

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you who intend to apply to Master’s Degree Programs with University of  Jyväskylä have had your applications ready by now!

I recently received a very interesting question that had never been asked before; so I thought I would write an entry to explain it to those interested in this matter. This question is particularly relevant to Master’s Degree in Development and International Cooperation Program. However, this shall give you some ideas on what kind of information you can look into if you have the similar concern about other Master’s Degree Programs. 

The question is: “Is it possible to finish Master’s Degree in Development and International Cooperation Program (D&IC) in one year?”

The answer is NO, but other possibilities could also be put under consideration.

If you are a student who has extremely good ability to concentrate your brain and energy in studying, you might be able to finish this program in 1,5 years. I’ve seen people who have attempted to do it and almost succeeded. They just sort of fell out at the end because of exhaustion and not everything went according to their plans.

The reason for this is very simple. It’s all about math, but simple math, not complicated math. It’s just multiplying and summing.

For the first 2 semesters, students are expected to complete about 10 compulsory courses for D&IC program and 2 compulsory courses for their majors. However, completing all of these courses might not guarantee the students enough credits to graduate (required credits for Master’s Degree are 120). The students might fall short 5 or 10 credits; so they should take 1 or 2 more elective courses to fill in the credits. But don’t worry, if you cannot complete all of them within the first year, you can do it within the second year (if your goal is not to complete this program in 1,5 year or less!).

So, every compulsory course that rewards 5 credits should be equal to 135 hours of work including attending lectures, of course. (1 credit ~ 27 hours of work). This is the requirement from the university. Go to this link if you want to check it out: https://www.jyu.fi/en/study/studying/credits. “Work” here means it could be assignments, group projects, book exams, lesson journal or essays; it depends on the course. Then, in order to gain at least 70 credits (plus 10 for internship and 40 for thesis, it’ll be 120!), the students should put in 1890 hours of work including attending lectures during the course of  approximately 9-10 months (first 2 semesters) before going on their internship (presumably that they have already been able to find an internship placement that allows them to work during summer). 8 hours to sleep per day, it’s about 2400 hours in 10 months. 2 hours to eat per day (if they eat out and do not have to cook), it’s about 600 hours in 10 months. I’ll give them 600 more hours to go to the bathrooms in 10 months. Say ... 600 more hours to commute from home to school and vice versa. In total, all of those adds up to 6090 hours. So, there are approximately 7200 hours in 10 months. They still have 1110 hours left to relax or to work on their THESIS. That’s about 3 hours/day. Not bad, right? Do not forget about the THESIS! Master’s theses are expected to be roughly 100 pages long, though this is not mandatory. I’ve read thesis which only lasts 70 pages.

For D&IC program, completing internships is compulsory and rewarded with credits. The internships are required to last for minimum 3 months; and students are encouraged to do it during the summer after the first two semesters.   

Okay, say ... this super smart student can immediately determine her thesis topic right from the start of the program and work on it (literature review, methodology, theoretical framework, research questions, arguments and findings) during the 3 hours left every day the entire 10 months. She does her 3 months of internship all summer and completes sometime around the first period of the 3^rd semester. She can choose to complete the last thesis seminar (because there’re three of them!) over Skype with her supervisor if she would like to go back to her home country or to find job in another city other than Jyväskylä. She’ll complete the program at the end of the third semester. And that’s 1,5 years – minimum. Also presumably that in case it’s an international student who is not at all affected by somewhat severe weather here in Finland, that is. So, the students can do it for 1 year on campus and half a year off campus.

Technically, it’s completely possible. If you have a mind of steel and do not at all care about having a social life, you can do it! I am not being sarcastic whatsoever, I’ve seen people do it. It’s just that I haven’t seen anyone succeed.

So, my advice? Do prepare yourself (financially and mentally) to finish this program in 2 years. Especially those who do not study their Bachelor’s Degree completely in English but your mother tongue.

Take into consideration that it’ll take some time to get used to reading highly academic materials and being able to understand them as well. My IELTS score was 7.5 (not excellent but not too bad either), I had had 2-year working experiences, ¾ of which was completely in English speaking environment and I still struggled badly to adjust with the reading materials during the first semester.

Deadline for application is coming close, right? My best wishes to all of you who have sent or will send the applications this year. It’s a great program in a great university, I promise you. It’s worth all the effort. 

Field visit to Okhaldhunga: Words have failed me! (Part 1)

Finally, I got to go on a field visit!

The day started at 2.45 am. I had been told that at 3.45 am, my colleague would come to pick me up in a taxi and we would go to the jeep station together. Anyway, he only arrived at sometime past 4 am and we left for the station leaving the vigorously barking dogs behind. A short ride on the taxi took us to a dusty place just next to the high way. There was light coming from a tiny office which was already packed with people trying to secure the tickets. My colleague went ahead to that office without saying anything, but I understood I should just wait for him outside. As I was waiting, of course, I was also observing. That's my curse. It was still dark at the time and a bit chilly too. I saw all kinds of bags lying on the ground. There were more men than women; the ticket office was full with men and the women were waiting outside to guard their belongings. I thought they might have been transporting products back home for their business or something. That was utterly lots of stuff, I told myself. Everyone was in warm clothes but I knew soon it would become a pain for them when the sun came up. I had a T-shirt and a hoody on, which was quite okay for me with this kind of weather in Kathmandu. I somehow had the feeling that people here are really afraid of the cold. When it was only 20 degree, I already saw bulky, buffy jackets on the street. In the office, everyone was wearing sweaters and windbreakers. I was reminded of Hanoi. However, having spent 6 months of winter in Finland, this was absolutely summer for me. I was still rocking short-sleeve T-shirt.

Anyway, we boarded a 9-seat jeep to one of PEEDA's project sites in a district called Okhaldhunga, an extremely mountainous area 125 km South East to Kathmandu. Even though a jeep was only allowed to carry 9 people including the driver, of course 10 of us were packed inside. The explanation was that it would help with the bumpy and hilly roads, which turned out to be true but also resulted in my unprecedentedly terrible carsickness. And the blasting music played all the time inside the jeep did not help at all. The ride was in total 9 hours and I vomited my gut out every couple hours or so. Therefore, I decided not to eat or drink anything on the way until we reached the destination. My colleague was worried, I knew that. But he was a guy, and there're social protocol of interaction between men and women who are not related here in Nepal. And even I know development workers should be progressive, there're certain restraints that have been engraved into their mind. Or so I had presumed. So, bottom line, I understood I should take care of myself. But I could tell he felt bad for me. He kept asking me: "Okay, Phuong?" and if I had any strength left after the vomiting section, I'd say "yes, I'm okay"; otherwise, I would just give him a confirming nod. There was another guy as well who worked for a partner NGO with PEEDA called SAHAS Nepal. He was designated as project coordinator in Okhaldhunga and he went with us this time. Since I decided not to eat until we reached the destination, every time they had something to eat and I said no, my colleague from PEEDA would say: "Sorry, we're eating." That was sweet of him, I thought. Other passengers in the jeep also gave me sympathetic looks any time they were face-to-face with me, which was kind of heart-warming though. Even though there was nothing they could do for me, it did show that they were at least concerned. (and probably asked themselves what the hell this foreigner was doing here!)

After the seemingly endless jeep ride, we finally arrived at our destination, Maneybhanjyang VDC, at around 3 pm and I was completely drained. I needed to rest my head where it would not move constantly and vigorously. After having some warm milk tea in an eatery, my colleague showed me where I would stay for the night. It was a room on the ground floor of a 2-story house where PEEDA staff always stayed when they were there. I would be sharing the room with 2 other sisters who were locals. When I told them I was from Vietnam, they looked puzzled and they didn't speak much English, so I took out my notebook and tried my best with recalling and drawing the map of South Asia and showed them where Vietnam was. At the time, there were three of them: Pramila, Rinuka and Sarmila. But later on, only 2 of them stayed the night with me in the room. 

Maneybhanjyang VDC

After that short greeting, I lied down to take a nap. As soon as I started feeling cold when it was getting to late afternoon, I was woken up by Pramila because she was covering me with a thick blanket. Still half-awake, I managed to whisper a weak "thank you" and slipped back to sleep, somehow for a split second, it crossed my mind that when I was much younger, I used to cover my dad with the blanket as well when he took his lunch nap and left the fan running a bit too strong. I think I was sleeping for about 1.5 hours until I woke up again with Pramila trying to confirm if I had been carsick and vomiting on the way there. I confirmed the information and realized that now my head was clear and the dizziness had somewhat faded. Pramila asked if I wanted tea, I gladly said yes. My body was really longing for some hot fluid. I got up. 

While waiting for Pramila to boil water for tea, I went out to wash up and paid a visit to the toilet. Before coming here, the girls at the office were warning me about the bad condition of the toilet here. But as I saw it, they might have been exaggerating a bit. It was not all that bad. I've seen worse in the country side of Vietnam when I was cycling across the country for a month. The only thing is that I had to go down a narrow path and climb a few steps on the stairs to reach the toilet, which was kind of inconvenient at night but if I didn't drink much water in the evening, I should be fine. This was the part where the girls at the office were complaining about. However, come to think about it, toilets should be located far from living area for sanitary reason, which makes the location of the toilet here more or less reasonable.

Women are super strong here!

At 7, we went out back to the small family eatery in the village to have dinner. We had some very typical Nepali food: Dal-Bhat which includes rice, dal, achar (which was too hot for me!), vegetable curry and local chicken. It took me quite a long time to eat because I was also watching the TV at the same time with the children of the family. I had not watched TV for quite some time now so every time I saw a TV, I was like enchanted or something. It didn't matter that I did not understand at all what the programs were about, my eyes did not leave the screen. I wish I could have stayed a bit longer but they were closing the door so I thought it was time to go. This family had quite many children and there was only one boy. All the girls were beautiful and seemed pretty smart. The boy was, as my colleague said, "a good guy". However, it looked like he received special treatment from the mother and he was very well aware of that. Well, this was what I did not enjoy seeing. He would boss his sisters and even his mother around whenever he could. But the mother and sisters would not say anything against him and do what he wanted them to.

Then, we came back to the guesthouse, agreed on the time to meet the next day and said good night. I went inside the room to find both the sisters already settle in bed. I changed my clothes and also crawled to bed.

It was no doubt a long day but it opened my eyes. During the jeep ride, I felt like I was going to the end of the world. In a sense, it kinda was, I guess. The place was isolated by a big river. We had to cross an enormous bridge on foot and change the vehicles once. That reality caused my respect and admiration I had for development workers here to shoot up to the sky since they go on field visit every 1.5 months or so for monitoring.

A local shop in Maneybhanjyang VDC

The beautiful Maneybhanjyang VDC

During the time I worked for a livelihood program in Quang Tri, Vietnam, I had my share of suffering hilly and bumpy roads. However, what I had witnessed up to this point of the trip was at a whole new level. The majority of the roads to Okhaldhunga was dirt road filled with countless pot holes and rocks. Once the jeep had passed one dense and rough series of turns and we ended up in yet another mountain even before I knew it; and I could see the part of the roads that we had just passed, I could never believe that snake-like image engraved on the mountain were actual roads where buses and jeeps could pass. If you have never been to a developing country, just imagine the worst condition of roads that you have witnessed in your life, the pot holes you occasionally come across and multiply it to ... say ... 10 thousand times and also remember that you ride on that kind of road for 9 hours when always covered in dust because there is absolutely no air-condition inside the jeep so the window opens most of the time.

Jump to 2:18 to see the road conditions, I specifically remember this part of the ride since it was terrifying!

And I was told this was already among the good roads. Now, that did leave me speechless.  

No money is enough to pay for what development workers do here at daily basis; especially those based in the community, living far from their families and traveling frequently with very bad roads conditions. It takes much more of just wanting to earn a living to remain in this job in Nepal, I would think.

FAQs about studying and living in Jyväskylä (Part 3) - Admission - Language proficiency

Click here for Part 1 - How to start and living expenses

Click here for Part 2 - Admission

Click here for Part 4 - Grants/Scholarships

I have received lots of questions about the language proficiency concerning application documents to Master’s Degree programs to University of Jyväskylä. So, I thought I would write down the answer here for your reference.

For the correct information to particular programs, you have to go to the program’s page to check it out. All the links to Master’s Degree programs’ pages are here www.jyu.fi/studywithus

However, the following is the general spirit of the language requirements at Master’s degree level.

- If you did not do your Bachelor’s Degree in English at all, it is 100% certain that you will have to take the English language exam to provide proof on your language proficiency.

- If you did your Bachelor’s Degree in the following countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United States, in other words, native-English-speaking countries, you do not have to provide language certificate.

- If you did your Bachelor’s Degree in English but not in the countries mentioned above; even if your countries  have English as one of the official languages (former colonies, for example, I did have this question sent to me before!) there is a very high chance that you are still required to provide language certificate.

However, there might be a possibility. I am not 100% sure about this, but then again, I have to remind you that every program is different in their consideration.

There are programs (international Business, for ex.) which provide very detailed description about this:

"There are five ways of proving English language proficiency: 

Accepted language test: TOEFL, IELTS (Academic), CAE, CPE, PTE. We do not accept other tests. 

- TOEFL score of 600 (paper-based) or 100 (Internet-based) 

- IELTS score of 7 

- CPE or CAE passed at levels A, B or C 

- Pearson Test of English (PTE) (minimum score 65) 

- Secondary education conducted in English language in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom or United States.- Bachelor’s degree completed entirely in English in one of the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland), in any EU country, or in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. 

- Master’s degree completed entirely in English in one of the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland), in any EU country, or in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. 

- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree certificate with English (language/literature/philology) as major subject."

And there are programs that do not provide this much detailed information. That’s why it is important that you get in touch with the program’s personnel to confirm whether or not you need to provide language certificate if you did your Bachelor’s Degree completely in English but do not fall in any category listed on the program's page. The contacts of the personnel are often listed on the programs’ pages, right corner.

- If you did not do your Bachelor’s Degree in English but somehow have had some works published in English somewhere, you still need to take your English proficiency exam, I’m afraid. 

Alright, deadline for the next academic year is very near, I hope you all have finished or even sent out your applications!

Good luck!