Assistant Professor Moritz Scherleitner appointed member of the Young Academy Finland
The Board of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters has invited Moritz Scherleitner, Assistant Professor of Business Law at the School of Business, to join the Young Academy Finland (YAF). The term is for four years, 1.9.2024–31.8.2028.
The Young Academy Finland aims to promote science and the role of science in society, especially for young researchers. The YAF works to make the work of young scientists more visible and to stimulate the Finnish science debate. The Academy also wants to encourage young people into science by building links between researchers and schools.
Multidisciplinarity, equality, scientific openness, international cooperation, science education, social dialogue and impact are at the heart of the Academy's work.
‘I am passionate about science, and I want to share this passion with others. It's great to see how research can make a difference to society. That's why it's such an honour to be selected for the Young Academy Finland,’ says Moritz Scherleitner.
Learning the Finnish language and a cat in the online teaching
Moritz, an Austrian, says he really likes Finland.
‘As I want to stay here with my family, it's good for me to learn Finnish. My Finnish wife has been a great help. She is a really great and positive person and has helped me learn by motivating me and always adding a few new words to our Finnish conversations,’ says Moritz.
‘I also made a habit of learning about 10 new words when I brush my teeth in the morning and repeating them when I brush my teeth in the evening. If you can do that every day, that's 70 new words a week. I also decided, after living in Finland for about a year, that I would speak only Finnish outside of work, and I hoped - and insisted, if necessary - that people wouldn't immediately switch to English. Little by little it progressed.’
The biggest step for Moritz in learning Finnish was giving his first lecture in Finnish. He had been living in Finland for less than 5 years. ‘I was really nervous, and my wife and I practiced for a long time. It (the lecture) helped me to get a tenure track position at Aalto, because I have to teach in Finnish here as well.’
‘The last and perhaps most important thing is the Finns themselves, who understand and accept that the Finnish language is so complex that as a foreigner you may never be able to master it perfectly. I don't take the pressure to speak perfectly, I try to speak as well as possible.’
In addition to learning Finnish, when talking about Moritz, it's worth noting his cat, which roams around in Moritz's course materials and occasionally on the screen in the online lecture.
Moritz explains that there are two reasons for the cat's involvement. ‘Firstly, tax law has a bit of a reputation for being terribly dry and boring - but I don't think that's true. On the contrary. Tax law is a combination of law, business, and society as a whole, and I think it's a really multi-dimensional subject. I use the cat to simplify and illustrate things. This gives students the clearest and most memorable understanding of the issues, which I think is the most crucial step in understanding the real rules. Another reason is that I like to make those pictures (presentation slides), sometimes even with my children.’
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