Asia rules in the Minds of the People

From Finland you can reach Asia in almost no time. Thanks to direct flight connections of Finnair and there are many of them to Asia nowadays. To India and Delhi the Finnair-routes in Asia being the shortest one. No more than 6,5 hours to India…

Finland is very eastern and even arctic country

So Finland is a very eastern country, European eastern or almost “Further eastern” as we Finns come originally from Ural. You may know that and so they say…Anyway the distance from Finland to India in Asia is almost as short as from Finland to Portugal in Europe. Well to Portugal two hours less, but in my opinion it is not a big deal to say even so.

So very northern, eastern and even arctic we are and that is something what I like very much. Why arctic? Well, the people of Finland make up about 1/3 of all human beings living north of the 60th parallels. That altitude roughly demarcates the south cost of Finland. So they say in the publication “Arctic Variety” of Marjo Laukkanen & Markku Heikkil?.

To China we go and from China they come

I have cooperated with China for 10 years. So if we speak about sending Finnish students to traineeship periods. China has been the most popular destination among the Finnish students during the last more or less 6 years, if no more. Finnish trainees have had their placements in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and in some other destinations in China. And may be Hong Kong very soon too. Part of the trainees even speak Chinese, well. Good advertisement for Finland, the Finns with their foreign language abilities!

And this is how the statistics in previous years has showed when we speak about incoming student mobility in Nordic countries. The Asia-pillar is higher in Finland compared to other pillars (that is incoming students from Europe, Africa, other Nordic countries). In other Nordic countries the Europe-pillar has been the highest.

From Exchange to Job, first in Russia and then in China

China and in China Shanghai is among the key players in the World of Global Business. Well, Shanghai…The biggest job market…Talent pool…Meeting point East-West…Great Market - Huge opportunity…Shanghai is now as it was 100 ago…So as attractive as in the pastime even if the Heydays of the years 2001-2011 are over…Such words we have heard from the experts in our Finnish-Chinese Career Night ”From Exchange to Job” which was organized in October 2020 for the 3rd or 4th time.

Invest in Finland also kindly has sponsored couple of times the occasion. This Finnish-Chinese event was very important for the students, thinking of them as prospective employees doing business in Asia…

The model for this occasion was created by Finnish entrepreneurs doing business in Russia, the Finnish-Russian Club. In St.Petersburg we have had the Career Night already 10+times and with great success. You can read about the occasion here. A little bit of important history when speaking about the employment of youn Finns in Russia. My thanks to the responsible employers!

In China the lecture room has always been fully packed as well as in St.Petersburg many times too.

From Pastime to Job – From Job to Pastime

For me… China is China full of possibilities for quick ones, India is enigmatic and of many different tastes and colors and Japan tastes delicious indeed too.

I myself had a privilege of getting to know those countries already in the 80’s through Movies and Music of the World. Afterwards I had the opportunity to enter into the World of Business with Asia. And into the World of Business with some other faraway destinations too. And personally visit these faraway destinations too. Nice indeed, I mean the combination in a whole… The total learning experience coming from nowadays business and pastime activities.

Anyway you are welcome to listen to my Asian records them being of minor number compared to those of Latinamerican ones. That is only 200 or so...As well you are welcome to watch our Asian movies which we have lot too.

So all this is my freelancing activities and above all the music.

But life without passion is no life. And freelancing up to your main duties makes the life even more interesting. And you learn a lot from both fields. All this - very useful!

Text and Photos: Jaana Mutanen 2016/2019 - except Photo from Japan Jarkko Mutanen ("Hai" - we in Japan!)