Nursery school teacher Marina Santiago
Marina Santiago, who is from Spain, was a teacher in her homeland. She wanted to know different cultures and find out about the Finnish education system. Voluntary work took her to Helsinki and a job as a nursery school teacher in a Spanish-speaking day-care centre. She teaches her language through games.
“I don’t know yet if I’m going to stay permanently in Finland. My decision will depend on study opportunities here. In Spain I would still have to take my finals and afterwards commit to the same job for three years. I’m not exactly enthralled by the prospect.”
Marina Santiago, 25, studied at secretarial college in Barcelona but when she realised that this was not the sort of work for her she trained to be a secondary school teacher in the lower grade. She believes that Spanish teachers often just stay in their first permanent post and work there virtually all their life.
Santiago wanted to gain some experience and applied to go to Austria on a university student exchange programme. In Vienna she met young people from all corners of the world, including some Finnish students. Though an organisation called Maailmanvaihto (‘World Exchange’) she got an opportunity to live and do voluntary work in Finland.
“The Finns have a more liberal view of education than the Spanish. Am I perhaps a bit too strict when I teach?”
Santiago lived with a Finnish host family in Helsinki and did voluntary work in a Spanish-speaking day-care centre called Mi Casita. Six months later she continued there as a paid employee. Most of the children are Finnish; some have one parent from another country. The staff speak their native tongue, Spanish.
“It is great to see a child playing and learning a language and at the same time a foreign culture too. My job at the day-care centre does not match entirely with my training, but my professional skills are hardly going to fall into decay because I take pre-school lessons.”
When she was studying in Spain Santiago lived with her parents, just like the other students. In Finland students often leave home and get a job while they are studying.
“Young Finnish people are independent earlier than their Spanish peers. But it is surprising how few Finnish students keep in touch with their relatives.”
In Santiago’s view foreigners have the wrong idea about Finland. The Finns are not at all reserved: they are helpful, friendly and positive. They like studying foreign languages, travel a lot and are open to other cultures.
“Finland is a country which you have to experience yourself.”
In Spain a teacher in the lower grade specialises either in music, PE or languages. Santiago has always been interested in languages and dreams of having a job where she could use them.
“In Spain people’s English is surprisingly bad. Language teaching should begin right in the lower grade. One of my dreams is to establish an English-speaking children’s day-centre in Spain.”
Text and photograph: Anu Likonen, Jukka Vuolle and Nanni Akkola
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy