Name: Olli Nieminen
Nationality: Finnish
Major: Information and knowledge management
School: University of Technology, Tampere



1. Could you tell me why you came to Korea and how you chose Keimyung University?

After high school I visited Asia, and from then on I’ve been interested in Asian countries and cultures. I wanted to come to Asia for exchange. I thought for a long time between Korea, Taiwan and India. Korea is little exotic in Finland. Some people know Japan and China, but Korea is stranger.
I am the first student in Keimyung from my university, so I didn’t hear anything about KMU. I wanted to go outside Seoul, so the only alternatives were Daejeon (KAIST) and Daegu. I looked at both universities’ and cities’ Websites and KMU exchange students’ Facebook group; Daegu and KMU assured me better. Now I’m very satisfied with my choice.

2. Would you introduce your hometown in Finland and tell us the differences between universities in Finland and Korea?

My hometown is Tampere, the third biggest city in Finland There are more than 220,000 (Finland has about 5.3 million) inhabitants, and in my home university, there are about 12,000 students. Tampere is surrounded by lakes and mountain ridges. In Tampere, there are more than 200 lakes.
In Finland, all classes and lectures are voluntary. We have many mandatory assignments or weekly exercises in class. It’s your choice whether you learn better by reading books or finding other materials or sitting in a classroom. Assignments, weekly exercises, and final exams measure what you’ve learned. Also we can call professors by their first names. I think that’s why we present more questions during lectures.

3. What was your biggest difficulty in Korea?

I haven’t had any culture shock in Korea because Korea is a very easy country to live and travel in. I went to China and Japan about 4 years ago, so I knew roughly what to expect. There are many cultural differences, but no shocks, for example, dormitory rules, age hierarchy, and very long school and work days. The biggest difficulty is the language barrier. Outside campus, it is very difficult to find people who can speak English, and I can’t speak Korean yet. Fortunately, Keimyung’s student buddy system was very helpful.

4. What are your future plans and could you please tell something to Keimyung students?

After my exchange semester, I have a plan to travel for half a year. When I go back to Finland, I have maybe one to one and a half years left for my master’s degree. After graduating, I want to come back to Asia to work.
I want to say to Keimyung students trust yourself and especially your English skills. All of you will be able to speak English if you try. All exchange students really want to get to know you. Finally, I can recommend taking an exchange year or semester. KMU has many good cooperative universities all over the world. I also welcome you to exotic Finland!