Don't make your choice narrow by stereotypes.

I still remember vividlly when I applied to study in Finland in this season last year, and now some people are about to apply to study abroad for next year. Through talking with my friends that why I chose Finland, and what is the point to choose certain country/university, I thought I need to organize my thoughts.

Some people choose the university based on their English scores and their preferences of countries. However, I think this way makes their choice narrow. In most cases, we don't have specific knowledge about countries we have never been. We just judge countries by stereotypes and small knowledge.

One of the reasons I chose Finland was that I was not interested in popular countries such as USA, Canada or UK. I used to think that it is boring to go to the countries that everybody wants to go.

But, sometimes I think that I could see different world if I didn't have such stereotypes to those countries.

For example, USA is the big country and they have multiple states in one country. We cannot categorize everything like 'USA is ...' because there are so many different types of people, places and cultures. I made my choice so narrow by judging the country by my stereotypes, even I have never been and never seen anything.

About Finland, some people may think that it seems very cold. I used to think the same thing before I came here. However I noticed that other countries/cities can be colder than Finland (Helsinki). For example, I heard that it has started snowing already in the place where my friend stays in USA. I did not think that some part of USA can be very cold, so I was quite surprised that they are colder than Finland.

In addition, Finland has very nice building system for winter, so we can wear T-shirts inside of the building, so it is very warm. I have to care that the winter will come soon, but even it is 3 degrees now, I don't feel cold much than I was expecting.

As a result, I am having a great time in Finland (at least so far), and I believe that my choice was correct. But I also think that it was very Mottainai that I made my choice so narrow when I chose Finland. So, I want people to consider whether they choose countries only by the English scores and the stereotypes.

Of course some people have special memories or things that they want to do in certain countries, but if not, it worths to reconsider about the choice.