Embarrassing lunch

What do foreign students think is the weirdest thing about Norwegians? The lunch pack.

I asked her «Why do you eat so much?» She was very offended.
(Foregin student Maritza Pinto)

- You are so incredibly lazy! Maritza Pinto says eagerly. She is from Colombia and has lived in Norway for five years. Together with Rukhsana Abdul Sultan Mohammed, who moved here from Pakistan six years ago, and the two sisters Ljiljana and Marina Prodan, who left Bosnia for Oslo in February, Maritza is at Fredrikke to try out waffles with brown cheese. None of them have ever tasted brown cheese before, and they look a bit sceptical. Still, they are doing their best to eat it the right way. Only, how many times are you supposed to fold it before eating it?

Rukhsana doesn’t agree with Maritza’s simplification at all. Not all Norwegians are lazy, she says.

- All right, says Maritza.

- Let’s just say eighty per cent of them, then.

Defying the cold

Norway is a cold country. A lot of Norwegian students choose to take parts of their education abroad in order to live somewhere with a nicer climate. At the same time, others are defying the cold and leaving their countries to go to Norway. What is it really like to study here?

- It’s a lot easier, Maritza says.

- You aren’t very productive.

- Everyone seems to be doing what they feel like, Ljiljana adds.

Maritza thinks that it’s got to do with the educational system in Norway. In Colombia, only the richest get to study, thus studying is regarded as a privilege rather than a duty.

Language barrier

One of the conceptions of Norwegians is that we are very private people who are hard to get to know well. Now the foreign students are sitting at one table, only a few inches away from the Norwegian students. Is the gap greater than it seems?

No, the girls answer. They don’t think that Norwegians are shy at all.

- They tend to open up as you talk to them, Mariana says.

Maritza thinks that the language is a great barrier, but there are other differences as well. Like the fact that her neighbours don’t greet each other when they meet in the hallway where she lives.

- In Colombia, everyone talks a lot, sometimes too much. Here, I have learned to be more quiet and to listen to other people, she says and takes a bite of her waffle.

Matpakke ?

When it comes to interact with people from a different culture, it helps to adapt oneself to the existing norms. Maritza shares one of her less successful meetings with Norwegians with us:

- In Colombia we are very open with each other. If a friend of mine has a bad hair day, I give her my hair brush. That’s normal behaviour. Here it’s different. Some of my Norwegian friends invited me to watch a movie with them. There was a girl there who was very sweet, but a bit fat. I asked her: «Why do you eat so much?» She was very offended.

What do you think is the weirdest thing about Norwegians?” - The lunch pack! Ljiljana exclaims.

- Where I come from it would be embarrassing to bring your own lunch to university.

- Oh yes, Marina nods.

- You could never bring a lunch pack to the university in Bosnia, are you crazy? Nobody would ever speak to you again!

Frank Lande • Robin Røkke Johansen (photo) • Translated by Jana Kristensen