My Erasmus Experience in Estonia
About studying and living in Estonia during my semester abroad.
Dear Readers,
this post will be a bit more personal and less political. In September I started my semester abroad in Tartu (Estonia) at the biggest University of Estonia (University of Tartu). Now my time is coming to an end and soon I’ll be heading back home to Düsseldorf - hence I’ll be doing a little recap and talk about my experiences.
Studying
While I don’t necessarily dislike studying in Germany, there were many things I liked more in Tartu than in Düsseldorf. The University of Tartu offered many courses in English as the University as a whole is very international. In Düsseldorf it is pretty common to sit in lectures with 100+ other students which naturally makes it very difficult for the professor to interact with the students apart from answering a few questions here and there. We also have seminars, especially in politics, which allow for more discussions and better interactions but in Tartu it is the standard to have seminar sizes for (almost) every course.
In my experience, almost all my professors were very keen on discussing with us and getting immediate feedback. What I loved most about the courses: In five out of my six courses it was a main element to actually use the stuff we were learning in practical examples whether it be groupworks, presentations, writing papers, analysing data or to come up with own ideas. That’s one thing I will definitely miss when back in Germany. In economics classes the homeworks are often just the solving of equations and while knowing the basics and theory is obviously important, I think it is way more important to use these basics and theory on actual examples as it is 1) more fun and 2) will stick in your head longer. My favourite courses in Tartu were Innovation Policy where we analysed what is important for setting a good environment to support innovating firms and the Evaluation of Economic Policies where we used econometrics to analyse the Estonian labour market and what influence different policies had on unemployed people, how fast you can get them back into employment and how high their wage will be.
A big part of the final grades was also the work (groupwork, homework, …) during the semester which didn’t put so much pressure on the final exams. Back in Düsseldorf most of my final grades are assessed only by the final exam which kind of makes it easy/comfortable to chill during the semester and then go all in during the exam period. Here I had to do a lot of the work during the semester which 1) made studying for the final exam a lot easier and 2) will lead to me remembering the gained knowledge for a longer time. Also, one detail about the university itself: It is very organised, I always got quick responses and the buildings are very modern.
Living
The city of Tartu only has about 100,000 inhabitants (which makes it the second largest in Estonia) but the city and its people try their best to not make it boring. The nightlife is very active as, obviously, there are loads of students. But also during the day there are many things to do. During Summer we played a lot of volleyball and during Winter the city built an ice rink at the townhall square where you can go ice skating for free. Tartu is extremely clean and I feel like the respect for public spaces and public goods is a lot higher than in Germany. Also, since public drinking is forbidden and you also can’t buy alcohol in supermarkets after 10pm you obviously have less drunk people in the city which can misbehave. In total I feel like Estonia is just a functioning country: Everything is on time, the infrastructure as a whole is very good and the education is on top. I think there is a lot to learn from Estonia.
I found Estonians to be very reserved and quiet which made it pretty hard to get in touch with them. Especially elderly people have trouble speaking English and on multiple occasions people would just keep speaking Estonian to me even though I didn’t speak it. Often they would even seem annoyed that I didn’t speak Estonian which I find a bit surprising as there are many internationals in Tartu because of the University and also Estonian is far from easy to learn. The younger generation on the other side doesn’t have trouble speaking English but that didn’t make them less introvert.
Generally speaking, the Estonians are very proud of their nation and don’t want to be connected with their Soviet past. They are turning to the West and while many in Germany (especially the east) still have a favourable view of Russia, Estonia considers itself fully European and also the solidarity for Ukraine is very high. They also don’t like to complain about stuff. I haven’t seen a single political protest in my time here even though I think there is plenty to complain about as Estonians have suffered a lot from very high inflation in the last years. The average wage is about half of the German’s average wage but the cost of living is roughly the same.
Appreciating Germany
Most importantly: The people. I really miss the people of the Rhineland which are way more open, tolerant and don’t take life too serious. Second: The food and especially the variation of food as obviously Germany is much more diverse. I didn’t think before that I would miss Bretzel and Döner so much. Generally, I feel like life in Düsseldorf is more active, open and also happier. While I really love Tartu, life is way more calm here and it often feels like people want to stay alone. I am excited to come back to Düsseldorf but I will definitely miss the University of Tartu!