We spent a couple of weeks in Mexico for our holidays. I am currently uploading and tagging all the pictures and videos that we took during the trip, and as soon as I’m done I’ll share with you my observations there.
Tag Archives: life
Learn to give presentations
One situation I encounter time and again is people who have great insight but cannot communicate it forward as they haven’t learned to give a presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m an expert nor that it is easy to do. However, the ability to give presentations is an absolutely fundamental skill regardless of your profession, and is something that I feel is not stressed enough in Finnish education (I remember one of my teachers in Belgium used to complain about that after having seen many Finnish exchange students), to the detriment of business here (I am yet to count how many times I’ve heard that “We have great ideas but don’t know how to sell them“).
I haven’t tried them (most of what I know about speaking in public I learned in Models United Nations as a teenager), but I understand a good way to improve in this area is to try Toastmasters. They even have a Helsinki chapter.
Maybe people are getting used to “the different”?
Last week something interesting happened. I was walking to the store and in quick succession two unrelated strangers spoke to me in Finnish, like any other person, asking questions about the neighbourhood or directions.
Why is this significant? Because I don’t have the stereotypical Finnish complexion nor facial features and dress in a very particular way (jeans, black jacket and texano cowboy hat this time), so more often than not people will address me in English or refrain to do so.
As said in the title, maybe people around here are getting used to “the different”, as they have in other places like Brussels or Stockholm.
Shall I write a book?
Some friends have mentioned in completely unrelated settings that I should probably consider writing a book. I’ve been actually thinking about writing one either of my experiences as a foreigner/expat/immigrant/whatchamacallit on one hand or a sci-fi novella on the other. Of course I’d have to find some time to do it as currently I don’t have much, butmight be something worth considering.
Dear readers, what would you think? What would you like to read more about, in analog form?
Donate blood
This week I donated blood, and urge you to do so. In Finland over a thousand donors are needed every day. One good place to start is your local Red Cross or Red Crescent.
Lives might depend on it. One day it could be you.
Family
One of the main disadvantages of living abroad is the sparser contact with one’s own family. In this day and age, of course you can use e-mail, Skype or just plain old long distance phone calls, but there’s nothing like being physically present.
Your family, whether you like it or not, is part of who you are. Enjoy them when you have the chance.
Every once in a while you should have fun at work
Foreigner or local?
Every once in a while I meet someone new (who doesn’t?). As a foreigner in Finland that means first disbelief of why would anyone move to this country followed by either suspicion or only a request to know the whole set of decisions bringing you here, how do you like it here and how is your life here. As I’ve lived in the Helsinki area for most of my adult life, explaining why and how I came to this point has become a longer story than I might be comfortable sharing on a first meeting, so depending on the person the exchange might go something like this:
“Mut, mistä sä oot kotoisin? (But, where are you from?)”
“Täältä (Here).”
Problem solved 😉
Birthdays and social networks
This week was my birthday, and as every year I was planning to take it really, really easy since it was during a working day.
What was different this year was that I was more than a little surprised to have received over 80 congratulations messages over Twitter & Facebook besides a couple of text messages. Of course it is much easier because social networks remind you of your contacts’ birthdays, but I have to say it was quite moving to be on the receiving end, and that’s added value 😉
Globalisation & my high school class
This week I learned that two of my classmates from high school in northern Greater Mexico City are also in a relationship with Finnish girls and both are also living abroad. That got me thinking about how many of the guys and gals I used to go to school with back then are also overseas, and the sample is quite broad.
I’m not particularly surprised of this development given that we were educated as the so-called NAFTA generation learning English (and sometimes other languages) from childhood, and given a broader view of the world than people before us (I remember attending lessons on economics, global affairs, the stock market and compared history of North America at that time).
What sets us apart from those before us I think, is not that some of us would go abroad, but that we would not concentrate in the United States as before. In my sister’s high school class (she is only a few years older than me) most of those who are working abroad are doing so in the US (a couple here and there in Europe, but it’s a minority), whereas with us the geographic dispersion is much broader: I have classmates in Mexico, and all over the US, true, but also in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Australia, France, Brazil, UK and I believe even a couple in China. Moreover, many of them who are back in Mexico also have international experience, either as students or during their careers.
I’m sure that this is partly due to American immigration regulations after 9/11, but I believe it also has something to do with many of us wanting to see what else was out there. I wonder if the Institute for Mexicans Abroad will start tapping this kind of talent network too, as many of us are working for institutions like e.g. Shell, Nokia, Microsoft, ESA or Volvo or studying at recognised institutions all over the place. Maybe we should learn something from what the Indians and the Chinese are doing by taking advantage of their expatriates, instead of complaining about the brain drain?
Regardless, it’s good to see that most of them in Mexico or wherever they may be are doing well.