”Oulu is a place whe­re pas­sio­na­te people and beau­ti­ful natu­re are welco­ming you”

Man smiling at International House Oulu

Jun Naka­mu­ra is ori­gi­nal­ly from Japan. Cur­rent­ly, he stu­dies MSc. in Inter­na­tio­nal Busi­ness Mana­ge­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Who?

“Moi! I am Jun. Stu­dying MSc. in Inter­na­tio­nal Busi­ness Mana­ge­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

I came from Morio­ka, a his­to­rical and beau­ti­ful natu­re city in the north part of Japan. It is real­ly simi­lar to Oulu, from the pers­pec­ti­ve of popu­la­tion and natu­re. I came to Oulu as an exc­han­ge stu­dent in 2019–2020, and I fell in love with Oulu. In August 2022, I came here again as a master’s degree stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

I can desc­ri­be myself as a lea­ding figu­re behind the sce­nes who are moti­va­ted to sup­port the main actors. My pre­vious expe­rience inclu­des star­tup sup­port and event mana­ge­ment, such as mana­ging acce­le­ra­tor pro­grams and plan­ning and orga­nizing network events to con­nect star­tups and people who need networks. As an admi­ni­stra­ti­ve assis­tant, I was a co-wor­king office mana­ge­ment assis­tant. Wor­king for tho­se who need sup­port, I belie­ve I can cont­ri­bu­te to the deman­ding sup­port of the busi­ness.

Jun Nakamura

What?

What am I doing in Oulu? I am stu­dying Inter­na­tio­nal Busi­ness Mana­ge­ment at the uni­ver­si­ty and have lear­ned inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness from a varie­ty of pers­pec­ti­ves, such as ent­repre­neurs­hip, inno­va­tions, and stra­te­gies. Stu­dying at Fin­nish Uni­ver­si­ty is a bit dif­fe­rent for me com­pa­red to at a pre­vious uni­ver­si­ty in Japan. We have many discus­sions during the clas­ses and have more oppor­tu­ni­ties to make our opi­nions com­pa­red to Japan, so I was a litt­le bit ner­vous for the first time. Howe­ver, now I am enjo­ying the discus­sion sur­roun­ded by a lot of pas­sio­na­te stu­dents.

At the uni­ver­si­ty, as a part-time job, I am crea­ting mate­rials and videos with teams for int­ro­ducing Oulu and the uni­ver­si­ty to inco­ming inter­na­tio­nal stu­dents. Using my expe­rience both as an exc­han­ge stu­dent and master’s degree stu­dent, I try making help­ful infor­ma­tion videos and other mate­rials to learn what kind of city Oulu is and how life in Oulu is.

Apart from my stu­dies, cur­rent­ly, I am a board mem­ber of the Fin­nish-Japa­ne­se Socie­ty of Oulu a.k.a OSJY, and orga­nizing events to int­ro­duce Japa­ne­se cul­tu­re to people in Oulu. In May 2023, I orga­nized a sus­hi night for Oulu Busi­ness School teac­hers and researc­hers to com­mu­nica­te with each other and expe­rience dif­fe­rent cul­tu­res. We made sus­hi toget­her with many Japa­ne­se stu­dents. I hope I can cont­ri­bu­te to int­ro­ducing Japa­ne­se cul­tu­re to Oulu more.

Jun Nakamura

Whe­re?

Whe­re is my favou­ri­te place? I often go to Kui­vas­jär­vi to calm down and chan­ge my mood. From the uni­ver­si­ty, you can walk to the north for about 10 mins and can reach the­re. In win­ter, you can see the nort­hern light at night if you are luc­ky.

In addi­tion, I love to visit cafes. In Oulu, the­re are a lot of cafes that are com­for­table to stay, such as Makia, Robert’s Cof­fee, and Choco­som­nia Cafe… You can visit tho­se and enjoy your time with love­ly cof­fee.

Jun Nakamura

How?

How do I adapt to my life in Oulu? One of the big things will be lear­ning Fin­nish. I am still at the inter­me­dia­te level, and I feel the lan­gua­ge is dif­ficult to learn, such as unders­tan­ding gram­mar and remem­be­ring words, dia­lects, and spo­ken lan­gua­ges

Howe­ver, I feel that when I can com­mu­nica­te with local people in Fin­nish, I am adap­ting to Fin­nish socie­ty. Of cour­se, almost all people in Oulu can speak English, so you do not have to wor­ry too much about the lan­gua­ge to live here. Howe­ver, to get fami­liar with your­self more in Oulu, lear­ning the Fin­nish lan­gua­ge is one of the ways to be part of socie­ty.

Cur­rent­ly, I am taking uni­ver­si­ty clas­ses and Vil­la Vic­tor cour­ses and trying to impro­ve my Fin­nish lan­gua­ge. In Oulu, you can have oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn Fin­nish, so why not try lear­ning the lan­gua­ge toget­her?

Jun Nakamura