I began studying at the University of Helsinki in the late 1970s when I transferred from the then University of Joensuu to Helsinki, to the big wide world. In Helsinki you could attend philosophy lectures, delve into the Finnish history archives and study news photography. In my major, Finnish, I learnt about the history of place names while behind the window snowflakes gently fell in Senate Square.

“So often I’ve left it all behind me and almost as often I’ve come back again” sang the Finnish singer Juice Leskinen. When I started at my current job in 2010, it was the third time I’d come to the University of Helsinki, and each period has had its own best moments. However, the common thread in all of them has been the opportunity to better understand language and the human condition in interaction with others: the opportunity to think, brainstorm, and seek something new, in various situations and often together with others. In the 1980s such occasions were the pioneering Resources of Finnish Conversation project led by Auli Hakulinen, various study groups (the reading group of the Department of Finnish, the female linguists group, the young linguists linguistics group) and evenings arranged by the Helsinki Association of Women Researchers.

When I came back ten years later, in the mid-1990s, study groups at the University were fewer, but the discussions continued and the numbers of projects and young doctoral students had risen. In 2010 I returned to the University after another absence of more than a decade. The Helsinki project and the Centre of Excellence with its research teams have been the chief delights of this period. The Centre of Excellence is a vibrant multidisciplinary and international community, where scholars of Finnish and Italian can be officemates and where collaboration between different languages and disciplines adds breadth to understanding. For a scholar of Finnish, this is a feast.

My best moments have also included my dealings with students: discussions with undergraduates in classes and seminars and discussions with doctoral students. Shared moments of insight are invigorating.