thisisFINLAND Foreign Correspondents' Programme
Experiencing Finland through the young journalist's eyes
Welcome to a Finnish summer cottage in Hyvinkää. Take off your shoes (as the Finns always do) and be ready to enjoy the summer sun, the smell of old wood, sauna, wonderful people, interesting conversations, starry nights and delicious food.
Being with a Finnish family for the weekend has been one of the best things of the Foreign Correspondents’ Programme so far. Jaakko Jokio, and Annukka and ...
I have never stayed with a foreign family alone. When I was a student, I visited my friends in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, but it was different from my last weekend.
Before the start of thisisFINLAND Foreign Correspondents’ Programme I read several articles about Finnish people, because I wanted to be prepared for my family weekend. I’m from Kazakhstan. You know, according to these articles, blog ...
Every year FCP has one weekend in the programme when the young journalists have an opportunity to travel to different families located all over Finland. The purpose of this weekend is to show what Finnish family life is about.
-So how was the family weekend this year?
I spoke with the families and the FCP participants about this weekend and asked their opinions and thoughts about the weekend. It ...
There are things in your life that you think you won’t ever be able to do, like going into a cold lake straight from sauna or being selected to an international program where you get to spend a whole month knowing a country and a great group of people with similar interests as you. But both these things happened to the majority of the FCP participants since we arrived in Finland (and those ...
There is a loud bang which echoes all around the sports hall when the hockey stick hits the puck towards the cage. Within seconds the players find themselves in front of the heavily dressed goalkeeper. Sticks dive into the tangle of legs and hands trying to reach the puck. Suddenly a roar of joy bursts in the audience. Otto scores! My host family cheers – Otto is their nephew and plays for ...
After the precious visit to the Prime Minister Mr. Jyrki Katainen, we all headed to the place where we spent a weekend with Finnish families. On the way to Hankasalmi, about 400km north of Helsinki, I was enjoying the view from a long-distance train. It was 30 minutes after saying goodbye to Helsinki city that I realized Finland was literally “a country of forests and lakes.” How many lakes ...
It’s soon the hectic time of the year when 19 young journalists around the world arrive in Helsinki to spend the month of August in Finland as participants of the Foreign Correspondents’ Programme.
So, what really is the Foreign Correspondents’ Programme? Where do these young journalists come from? And who organizes all this?
To explain briefly, the Foreign Correspondents’ ...