10-21-08

Finnish Fall Mountain Student Finds Us Friendly!

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            Since she arrived from Finland one day in August and started the next day at Fall Mountain Regional High School, Noora Niemi has been immersed a new culture, new academics, a nearly new language and, it turns out, an old love: soccer.

            Niemi, 17, attends high school at home in Tampere, a city of 200,000 outside of Helsinki, but she sees it as not that different from rural America because “in Finland our cities do not have tall buildings like in American cities.”  Also, “my grandparents live in the country in Finland, and we visit them every summer, so I am used to being in small villages.”

            “I came here,” she says, “because I wanted to become fluent in English and I wanted to meet new friends.  It was “a little bit scary”, she admits, because she didn’t know where I would go till the end. 

Last Minute Arrival

            At it happened, Walpole resident Glenn Barcome had been contacted in late summer by ASSE, a large program that places foreign students in US high schools, because he had hosted “about 12” such students in the past.  He chose Noora from a pool of students that were still hoping to find a placement for the academic year in a US high school.  And it didn’t hurt, as far as Fall Mountain was concerned, that Noora was a soccer player.

            Was such a last minute, hurried transition to a new school in a new culture difficult?  “No, no,” Niemi said last week.  “I was very excited!”  She does concede that language has been a bit of a problem even though she had had English since she was 10 years old in school at home in Finland, both British and American versions.  Barcome noted that Noora’s English has improved markedly week by week since she’s been here, and on her first progress report her grades were all As and Bs.  Often in her interview last week, she referred to her well-used English—Finnish dictionary to get just the right English word to complete her thought.

            High school academics here are much different from Finland, says Niemi.  Classes change from day to day, unlike the usual routine at Fall Mountain where one’s class schedule is the same each day.  High school in Finland is three years long.  The Fins take academics very seriously, and while there are fewer subjects taught, achievement levels rank very high internationally.  Everyone is required to study Finnish language, Swedish and English, and they are also offered a large number of other language choices as electives.  Home economics is not taught on the high school level, and art classes are very limited.  “The Finnish School system is one of the best in the world,” says Niemi, “and every year we win international prizes for our academic achievement!”

            “Language” laughed Niemi last week, “has been my hardest problem so far.  In school some of the teachers spoke so fast for me.  But I am learning.” 

American Surprises

            As to surprises Niemi has encountered living here, she mentioned, first, “Everyone is so friendly, so nice. And everyone talks to me.  Everybody is friends to each other.  In Finland we don’t speak to people who we don’t know.  Some people might talk to you, but normally Finnish people are shy”. 

            Niemi also has been surprised at how cheap everything is here.  “In Finland it seems like everything is double as expensive as it is here.  I bought an IPOD here and it was less than half as much as at home!”

            Niemi says she communicates with her parents and three younger brothers by email and over the Internet with Skype!  “They think I am brave to come here and they are happy that I am getting this experience because when they were young they couldn’t be an exchange student.  They think this is important because I can use English anywhere in the world.”

            “In Finland we have no school teams. But I have played on a soccer team there for 10 years, and we practice all year.  In school we have only gymnastics.  But after school everybody has their own hobbies.  I have soccer.  In my soccer team we have girls from many schools,” says Niemi.  She adds that her girls team in Finland won a top league championship for her age group last year.  “I am lucky here because all of my teammates are so nice and they are good players.”

            Host parent Barcome said that he had to persuade local authorities to take a foreign student this year and they were happy to have an experienced soccer player to boot.  “She lives, eats and breathes soccer,” says Barcome.  “When she’s not practicing, she’s running outside or inside on the treadmill to strengthen herself.”

            “The playoff games are starting soon,” adds Niemi, “so we will have really exciting games. I hope you will come and see them!”

            How will a year in Walpole and at Fall Mountain change her? Niemi thought a bit and said, “I think I am much more independent, [after consulting the dictionary] more worldly.  I can manage myself much better.  And my English will be much better.”

            And Walpole will be a better place for having had Noora Niemi in our community.

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