At Fredheim school immigrants can learn how to understand, speak and write Norwegian, a language spoken by only 4,5 million people of the world. Depending your country of origin, this learning process can be shorter or longer for you. People from Asia normally need more hours learning than people from Europe. And if you know a European language (using Latin letters), the task is possible to overcome.
We also teach our immigrants about our culture, our rules and regulations. For some people they meet a totally different culture up north. This can create many practical problems in daily life routines. Making food is not easy since you do not know where to buy the ingredients you need anymore, and if you do - what does the wrapping look like? Is flour and sugar sold per ounce, or in wrapping? And to buy soap for your body must not be mixed with soaps for floors or even toilets... Many questions rises, and it is natural that we use allot of time on different themes.We do not only use the school as an arena for learning. When a participant has learned basic Norwegian and is interested, he/she also gets the possibility to learn more at a workplace. My job is to talk to our participants about their future in Norway. What work do they wish to have, and how possible is it to reach this aim? For some immigrants the way is quite clear, since they have documentation on education and/or practice. For others, people who have fled their homes due to war or other critical situations, the way to success might be longer. But it all comes down to the main question: How much effort do you want to spend to reach your goal?
People who have clear ideas about their strenghts, and who manage to communicate these, are much easier to help than people who do not have anything to go for. Together with a male colegue (Jan) I try to encourage participants to enter the labour market. Interviews are made, and Jan or myself are always togehter with the participants on this. They will not get paid by working two days a week, but they will get:
- a relevant network
- work experience
- a reference from the work place
- practical Norwegian training
- a visit once a week from one of us teachers
We experience that each semester we succeed in turning several of these contracts into real jobs with pay, like Nay Tun on this photo! Everytime this happens we feel that we have managed to speed up this participant's dream: the dream to start a new life in a new country - and to tear down the barriers!Bente Grosvold
2 comentarios:
Dear Bente
Your last reflexion is really beautiful. Perhaps, one day we can think that, with this project, and with our daily work, we are putting some hopeless for a better life of the inmigrants, the ones who work directly with us, and others who can see that some people is interested in their problems.
I hope it.
Thank you, Pedro. My reflexion is of course based upon many years in "the game" of our school. Every day I seem to learn something new about daily life in a new country, and that is what makes my work interesting!
Some times we (the teachers or even other persons working close to immigrants - that is Cherif (culture and spare time activities), Ingrid (minor immigrants), Henri (asylum seekers) and Knut (educational aspect) can really help others with things we normally take for granted. And that is what makes life here difficult; the inhabitants do not understand your (the immigrants) cultural background.
Publicar un comentario