Problem solving unites research and teaching. Teaching at the University means that you have the privilege of working with gifted young people. In addition to Helsinki, I have lectured in countries such as Spain and Great Britain, and I have also taught English students at the renowned University of Cambridge. There too the students fill the backrow first!

Through teaching one can learn at least as much as the students. And one’s worldview is also regularly updated. To familiarise myself with the subject matter of a master’s thesis by one of my students, I spent a Christmas watching nothing but The Bold and the Beautiful (the family would not have been able to take more). On another occasion, a master’s thesis on translating Tove Jansson’s Trollkarlens hatt (published in English as Finn Family Moomintroll) inspired me to read the rest of the Moomin books. Today, both researchers and students are interested in the many channels of communication the Internet has to offer, as well as its many resources.

Inspiring moments were to be had last spring with a project-based course on English philology, where we team members solved problems relating to the use of a wiki-style database in a research project. The knowledge, skills and temperaments of the members of the group complemented one another perfectly. In general, although digitalisation is a good servant, I would still prefer that it not become the master which replaces personal interaction in teaching.