University of Oulu

I took survival Finnish courses, but the courses were very unstructured and didn't motivate you to learn the language. Even though the language of instruction for my courses on the university was Finnish, there was a special English-speaking group for international students, so I couldn't attend to the lectures (they were in Finnish), but that was not a problem because I had my own English-speaking group

Sometimes, it was difficult in shops to have the right thing I was looking for because not everybody can speak english. However, at university, english was the common language for me and the Finnish students or the teachers.

I was mostly speaking english because finnish is clearly difficult to learn. Local people are speaking english, so no problems to communicate. But if you could say something in finnish they will be happy.

The language of instruction was English so all the exchange students spoke English. Most of Finnish people speak English fluently, so I never had a problem understanding another person.

Finnish is an hard language but its knowledge is absolutely necessary if you really want the courses to be useful, because they're almost all in finnish (that's quite normal). But for foreign students teachers are comprehensive and can prepare exams in others languages if you ask. Almost all the population can communicate in a foreign language.

It is really difficult to be in a place where you do not have any idea about the language. It confuse you a lot and makes you feel lost and lonely as well.