Memories

We have many memories from the exchange and communications the past year. Here are some thoughts from our students:

Question: How did you feel about using English?

-  It was very okay. It was nice to refresh my English. After some time, I became very comfortable speaking English.

- I recognized that my English was not as good as I thought, but after some time I felt I improved my English.

- It was no problem to speak English, but I had to look up a fem words in my dictionary.

Q: What is your opinion of your Catalan friend's English?

- In the beginning, my Catalan friend was working hard speaking English, but she became much better after short time. She told me that she became better because she had to speak English with me all the time.

- We had several Catalan students living together in the same hause in Harstad, and they helped each other in English. When we talked about things, we always used English, but when we had language difficulties, the guest students helped each other. My guest became much better in English during the stay in Harstad and during our time in Barcelona. In Barcelona we lived just the two of us together, then we had to use google translate if we had language problems. I improved my English, but I believe my Catalan friend improved her English more.

Q: Did you learn some Catalan language?

- I do not remember so much now, but I remember we often said "Bon dia".

-  I remember how to say I was satisfied with breakfast, lunch and dinner, because they always "told me" to eat. "Estoy iena", I used to say.

- I picked up a few Catalan words, but I have forgotten them now. At home, my friend was speaking Spanish (Castellano) but with friends, she was talking mostly Catalan, but also Spanish. For me there was no difference, but my friend told me about this.
- We loved the way we learned about Catalan language, music, and culture at Escola Massana.

Q: Did you recognize anything especial with the Catalan culture, something that is different from Norwegian culture?

- They have very close familiar relations. They live very close to each other, and it was usual to meet often and have dinner together. That is not very normal in Norway; we live further apart from each other here. 

- All the streets were full of cars, and people lived in flats.

- Everything was more narrow in Barcelona; people are outdoor most of the time, seldom indoor. We are more used to meet each other at home, but in Barcelona, we met at a café or a public place.

- We met some friends of my host. We were eating pizzas, and we watched a film. It was quite special; we found a cinema, which showed an American film with English subtitles but with Spanish voice. This was an English film produced in Hollywood. In Norway, it would have been English speech with Norwegian subtitles. We do not dub films.

- Of course, we went for shopping one of the days. That was nice; we do not have such big shopping centres in our hometown.

Q: Was the Catalan meals different from the Norwegian?

- In a way, I have to say that we did eat "breakfast" at lunchtime, lunch at dinnertime, and dinner as an evening meal. For me lunch and dinner seemed much the same. It was always two different dishes for lunch, pasta and salad. The first time I thought I had to eat a lot because I just got salad, but afterwards I got a large portion with pasta and meal…. They used shrimps and crawfishes; I am not used to that.

- The meals were at different times in Barcelona, and I have never eaten paella before I came to Catalonia. I believe our Catalan friends became surprised about our Norwegian "brunost".