Ahmed Al Rufaye
IoT Engineer & Game Developer · From Iraq · In Finland since 2015
Ahmed was born in Iraq but grew up abroad, and was finishing high school in Jordan when his family went looking for a permanent home. He arrived in Finland at the end of August 2015, aged 19, seeking safety and a free education, and spent his first years in Kajaani and then the small town of Raahe. Frustrated by misunderstandings in English and by interpreters who didn't know his Iraqi dialect, he decided to learn Finnish so he could manage on his own. A full-time integration course got him through the YKI test within six months, and volunteering with the Finnish Red Cross, an internship as a classroom assistant, volleyball, and a circle of Finnish friends did the rest. He went on to study game development in Finnish and IT engineering in Kuopio, and now works as an IoT engineer in Helsinki, writing documentation in Finnish.
Episode featuring Ahmed
014: How Friendships and First Steps Built Ahmed's Finnish Fluency
In this episode of How I Learned Finnish with Ohe, Ahmed Al Rufaye, a 29-year-old Iraqi software developer/IoT engineer and game developer, shares how he moved to Finland around age 19 as a refugee for safety and free education and built a life over the past decade. He explains that early miscommunication in English and stress around interpreters pushed him to learn Finnish to function independently and belong in society. After finding early volunteer-led lessons unhelpful, he progressed through an intensive integration course (five days a week) and passed the YKI test quickly, later realizing his level was around C1–C2 during university courses. Ahmed credits immersion through volunteering, internships (including assisting in a Finnish school), hobbies, and Finnish friends, emphasizing practice, resisting switching to English, and mindset as key to success.Read More
