German students at TAI

Julia is doing a training to become a waitress and therefore she is working in different school restaurants in Aninkainen and Lemminkäinen. Vanessa and I are going to be beauticians and in addition to the school life, we worked in the beauty salon “Wilhelmina” on some days.

Finland is not so different from Germany

Before we came here, we thought that Finland would be very different from Germany, but except for the temperatures, there are not that many differences when it comes to, for example, buildings and shops.
However, the school is very different. It is overall much bigger than our school, but there are less students in every classroom. Furthermore, we don’t have a school canteen in Germany, where students can get lunch for free.

 

Show make-up, client contact and relaxed Finns

But we were most impressed by the cosmetic classrooms and lessons. In Germany, we’re only learning the basics, so it was very interesting for us to see some things like fantasy and show make-up and lash-lifting.
Another difference is that the students here have a continuous contact with customers while they’re in school. We in Germany, on the other hand, are going to school from Monday to Wednesday and on Thursday and Friday we’re working in different beauty salons.

We got to know the Finnish people as very friendly, helpful and above all relaxed. A lot of them can speak English very well, so the understanding wasn’t a big deal. All in all, we have a really good time in Finland and we’re very grateful to be here.

 

Text and photos: Lea, Vanessa and Julia