Norsk kultur og norsk språk

Hogskolen i Nesna knows how to surprise us! Spanish teaching you English? Why not! French man teaching you Norwegian? Of course! Polish teaching ICT in society? Seems legit! American teaching…  ok, that one is not the best example.. he actually teaches American and British Literature, but I think you get the point? ;)

In this post I would like to focus on Norwegian (Norsk for internasjonale studenter, actually!). I really like it and it really helps to understand the culture of this country. Our teacher, Claude, is from France, but he lives in Norway for 11 years (if I remember correctly) and – what I find absolutely  amazing - he teaches Norwegian people Norwegian language :)

When we started I was a little bit skeptical. Yeah, sure, it’s great that we will have the chance to find out more about the country and its language, but probably it will be boring, I won’t learn nothing useful and it is organized only to keep us busy. I was wrong, as very often. Classes are interesting, we take up different activities, we don’t sit in the classroom all the time, we try traditional food and so on, and so on… And after some time it is easier to understand customs and character of Norwegians. 

Once I almost held a conversation in Norwegian! Almost. I was at the second hand shop and saleswoman didn’t speak English, but still she wanted to talk with me. My answers were only ‘ja’ and ‘nei’, but at least I understood when she was asking me where are we from, how long are we going to stay in Nesna, how do I like the place… For me it’s an incredible achievement, especially because she said to me ‘Du snakker litt norsk’ :) Again, I almost speak Norwegian. But maybe at the end of May I will be able to really answer for those questions.

Apart from learning basic sentences, such as 'Jeg heter Agata og jeg kommer fra Polen', we mostly learn through the experience. Food is always a good idea! So we made traditional Norwegian waffles, three different kinds. 

They say 'too many cooks spoil the broth' but we took the risk...

... and it payed off! 

Nesna is a place simply made for hiking, so one time we just prepared matpakken (lunch, but packed Norwegian way) and we went on a trip to Bjørndalen ('Bear Valley' without any bears).

Frozen lake is a perfect place to have fun!

Here is our teacher, Claude, with the best stone I've ever seen! Sliced like a bread... How awesome is that?!

Me and Ada... Just being professional models...

In Nesna you can also visit a museum with exhibition about lives of local inhabitants. The exhibition contains dried fish (we even tasted this 'delicacy' today), farming and fishing tools, old photographs, clothing and many other exhibits. 

Traditional shoes from this region.

In this museum you can touch everything. And sit everywhere.

Some found an idea for future profession... 

... whereas others found a true love!

Obviously, we spend some time in classroom learning some facts about Norway. Last time we've got some information about history and today we were talking about Sami people. It's so strange that I didn't even know about their existence! Culture of Sami people is really similar to the culture of native Americans and it would be interesting to do a small research about this nomad nation. And today Nesna surprised me once again: one of well-known Sami artist, Mari Boine, was teaching musicology here! 

Traditional Sami hut located in Bjørndalen (as you can figure out those people didn't use locks).

Naturally, if you think that much for so long your brain needs energy, so today during the break we tried different Norwegian dishes!

We ate almost everything that Claude brought for us! Yummy!

I'm sure I will miss this kind of classes back in Szczecin. It's interesting to try another type of giving lessons, but now I will have to find out how to get use to the regular ones. Fortunately, I still have time to enjoy it! 

Regards, 

Agata