🅕 / Ⓕ Exchange_Note 芬蘭交換期心得

2022.08.18 — 2023.01.10 Finland, Nordic, Europe

🅕 - Aalto-yliopisto｜Aalto University

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Aalto University在藝術與設計領域中是世界排名第6的大學，慚愧的是我居然到芬蘭才知道這件事情哈哈～那時候還真是身在福中不知福！在這段時間體會到世界頂尖大學是什麼樣子，校園又大又完整，這才能稱得上是大學城啊！而且各種設備、空間、資源都相當豐沛，不僅維護的很好又能夠以免費或低價的方式取得。

常常被問到說覺得Aalto的學習風氣怎麼樣，對我來說第一個想法總是：在這的教學方式是非常「平等的」（equal/fair）。具體來說，師生之間不會有任何高低之差，更別說對於知識的獲取上會有任何權利大或小。所以說在課堂上的交流都是相當平等的，與其說是在教授（teaching），我倒覺得更像是雙向分享🤝。也就是說同學們被鼓勵分享自己的想法，而任何的概念或意見都是被平等看待的。我想這進一步影響到和課堂夥伴之間的互動，無論是簡易的分組討論，或是完整的組別作業，我們都會以更友善、開放、尊重的心態融入對方的意見。一開始我被這樣的風氣驚訝到，師生間沒有任何不對等的壓力，與同學之間也不會有明顯的競爭。說白了，我總想著這樣的環境之下人會有競爭力嗎？後來我發覺是自己一昧地把舊有的觀點帶入。或許所謂的成就不一定要來自競爭或壓力，只是我們從沒嘗試過不同的方法。在一個全新的環境，我想我一開始就問錯問題了！重點在於：自己擅長是什麼、自己想獲得的是什麼、自己想要達成什麼。或許一切就不會那麼複雜了吧！離題了～總而言之，Aalto校園對我而言趨近於教育中的烏托邦，完全讓人會很想待在這邊讀書，當然我動過來這裡讀正式學位的想法哈哈😏 對於只能夠待短短的五個月感到非常不捨，不過嚮往徜徉在世界頂尖大學的種子也就此埋在心中了！

在這一學期我交換到的學程是Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA)，硬要翻成中文的話就是：視覺文化、策展和當代藝術。能講的實在太多了就挑重點說吧XD 比起本來想交換到的學程（新媒體藝術），我認為這學程更適合碩士來讀。因為它混合更多元的背景與知識，也更傾向以跨領域多元思維來進行整合性的創作。我在ViCCA遇到的同學來自不同國家、不同年齡層、不同領域（唯一沒有不同的是：幾乎都是女生XD）。在課堂上經常可以聽到來自Fine Art、Music、Photography、Sustainability……之類領域的意見。課堂上的內容也與在交大接觸到的有極大的差別，常常有種大開眼界的感覺😮。只是在學習上最可惜的一點是，因為交換時間真的太短。雖然勉強規劃學習與玩樂各半，不過實際上遇到抉擇時還是義無反顧地把時間給了玩樂～畢竟大老遠跑來了，不多玩一些國家多可惜啊！😏

簡單提一下在芬蘭的學生福利，芬蘭政府非常的支持學生，常見的學生福利都有。以三個最顯著的福利為例，飲食上就是讓學餐的價格幾乎砍半。交通上如果拿學生月票也是將近原價的一半。住宿上則能夠申請非營利住宿基金會HOAS的房源，以優惠的價格租到品質很棒的宿舍。其他類似獎學金還什麼的好像也很多，總之可以觀察到政府以大量的錢來支持所有學生。

最後想提的一點是，在這或是說整個歐洲來說，人們把工作和假期分得很開。這一個學期以來，從沒看過有任何人無理由的翹課。原因可能有很多，不過對我來說最重要的是這份學習資源被重視。而只要在課程或工作之外，不會有人佔用到自己的時間。也就是～不太可能會看到假日開會或是三更半夜在開會😂 所有的事情似乎都能在適當的時間內，有效率且保持品質的完成。這樣的好處就是，能安心的在課餘與假日時間安排假期😆

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Aalto University is ranked 6th in the world in the field of art and design, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know this until I arrived in Finland. In this time to experience the world’s top universities are like, the campus is large and complete, this can be called a university city AH! And all kinds of equipment, space, resources are very abundant, not only well maintained and can be obtained in a free or low-cost way.

I’ve often been asked what I think of Aalto’s learning culture, and my first thought is always that the teaching style here is very “ Equal/Fair”. Specifically, there is no difference between teachers and students, let alone any right to acquire knowledge. Therefore, the communication in the classroom is quite equal, rather than teaching, I think it is more like two-way sharing. That is to say, students are encouraged to share their ideas and any concept or opinion is treated equally. I think this further influenced the interaction with classroom partners, whether it was a simple group discussion or a full group assignment, we incorporated each other’s opinions with more kindness, openness, and respect. At first, I was surprised by the atmosphere where there was no pressure of inequality between teachers and students and no obvious competition with my classmates. To be frank, I always wondered if people would be competitive in such an environment. Later, I realized that I had brought in my old viewpoints. Maybe the so-called “achievement” does not have to come from competition or pressure, just that we have never tried a different approach. In a new environment, I think I started by asking the wrong questions! The point is: what are you good at, what do you want to gain, and what do you want to achieve. Maybe then everything would be less complicated! Anyway, the Aalto campus seems to me to be a utopia in education, which makes you want to stay here and study. Of course, I had the idea of coming here for a full degree haha 😏 I was very sad that I could only stay for five short months, but the seeds of my desire to wander around a top university in the world were buried in my heart!

In this semester, I exchanged to the program “Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art” (ViCCA). I think this program is more suitable for an MFA than the program I originally wanted to exchange to (New Media Art). I think it is more suitable for the MFA program than the program I was going to exchange to (New Media Art) because it mixes more diverse backgrounds and knowledge, and it tends to be more cross-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary in its approach to integrated creativity. The students I met at ViCCA came from different countries, different ages, and different fields (the only difference is that almost all of them are girls XD). In the classroom, I often hear opinions from Fine Art, Music, Photography, Sustainability …… , and so on. The contents of the classes are also very different from what I was exposed to at NYCU, which is often an eye-opening experience 😮. The most unfortunate thing about studying is that the exchange time is really too short. Although I barely planned to study and play half and half, but in reality, when faced with the choice is still righteous to give time to play ~ after all, came all the way here, how sad not to play some countries! 😏

Briefly, I would like to mention the student welfare in Finland. The Finnish government is very supportive of students, and all the common student benefits are available. Take the three most notable benefits for example, in terms of food is to let the price of student meals almost cut in half. In terms of transportation, if you get a student pass, it is nearly half of the original price. In terms of housing, you can apply for the non-profit housing foundation HOAS and get a great dormitory at a good price. There seems to be a lot of other scholarships and things like that, so you can observe that the government supports all students with a lot of money.

BTW The last point I would like to mention is that here, or in Europe in general, people separate work and holidays very well. This semester, I have never seen anyone miss a class for no reason. There are many reasons for this, but the most important one for me is that this learning resource is valued. As long as no one takes time for themselves outside of classes or work. That is, it’s unlikely that you’ll see holiday meetings or meetings in the middle of the night 😂 Everything seems to get done efficiently and with quality in the right amount of time. The advantage of this is that you can schedule vacations after school and on holidays without worrying 😆.