Anna and Arkadi, police officers from the Narva police station of the Police and Border Guard Board, decided to improve their Estonian and take part in the language secondment project of the Integration Foundation. Arkadi spent four weeks with colleagues in Võru and Anna two weeks in Kuressaare. Both had an overwhelmingly positive experience, and both look back at their secondment with bright eyes and smiles.
Arkadi Taits, a patrol officer from the Narva police station, spent his secondment in the Võru police station, where he was supervised by field manager Taisto Paju and patrol officer Valeri Dobrovolski.
Arkadi says that the primary reason he joined the project was, of course, to learn Estonian, but he is also very interested in continuous self-improvement. ‘My Estonian is not the strongest at the moment and I want to improve it, but I was also interested to see how other police stations work.’
He recalls with a smile that for some reason, he thought that people in small towns would be very serious, but the team in Võru immediately proved him wrong: ‘The whole group was very friendly and my secondment went very well.’ In terms of work, he notes that there were fewer emergency calls and that while there were slight differences compared to working in Narva, the values are the same everywhere.
He also commends the organisation of the whole project – he was provided with excellent living conditions and his month in another city went by very quickly. ‘My apartment overlooked Lake Tamula. What more could you want?’ he laughs.
Arkadi’s tutor Taisto describes Arkadi as a very nice person who is determined, hard-working, brave, and smart. ‘He took language learning very seriously and always spoke to us in Estonian. We had a great time with Arkadi and got a very good colleague for a month. If he wants to come to Võru again, he is very welcome here.’ Taisto also added that if all participants in the programme are as nice as Arkadi, the mentoring can be recommended to everyone.
Beautiful nature of Kuressaare, meeting an elk, and maritime patrol
Anna Šutova, a regional police officer from the Narva police station, spent two weeks in the Kuressaare police station as part of the language secondment project. Anna admits with bright eyes that she has wanted to try working at the Kuressaare station for a long time, so it was like a small dream come true. ‘I decided to take part in the project because I live in Narva, where we communicate with people almost exclusively in Russian, and I really wanted to practice my Estonian in an Estonian-speaking community and city. Kuressaare seemed like a very suitable place and now, after the secondment is over, I could not be happier with my choice,’ says Anna.
Anna says she was very well received by her colleagues in Saaremaa. Her mentor was Matis Sikk, whose work Anna has nothing but praise for, but she feels that the whole team was warm and welcoming. ‘They explained everything very well. They showed me around the station and the city of Kuressaare. If something was unclear to me, everyone was there to help. I was a bit scared at first because I did not know the team at all, but on the first day, I realised that everything was great,’ Anna says. ‘Matis took mentoring very seriously. He warned me that there are some words that are pronounced differently by islanders, and if there is anything I do not understand, I am welcome to ask.’ During her deployment in Saaremaa, Anna was able to do the work she does as a regional police officer in Narva, but the maritime patrol with a cutter, for example, was something completely new.
Anna also had time to explore Saaremaa further, and her excited voice tells us that Saaremaa left an indelible impression on her. ‘I brought my bicycle with me to discover the city of Kuressaare. On weekends, I visited all the sights of Saaremaa,’ Anna says. She praises the beautiful nature of Saaremaa, which also offered her a thrilling experience – she encountered an elk near the Kiipsaare lighthouse.
As part of the project, the secondee is also compensated for some leisure time activities, and to Anna’s great delight, she was able to go to the theatre twice in Saaremaa, once with colleagues and once by herself. Museum and cinema visits were also included in the programme.
Anna praises the organisational side of the project and the team who welcomed her warmly.
The secondees’ impressions were written up by: MARIA MEUS, Police and Border Guard Board
The activities are financed from the national budget and with the support of the cohesion and internal security policy funds (ESF) of the European Union for 2021–2027.
