Dugnad og Haiti og Jahn Teigen

Dear friends.

Languages can be tricky!

The Haiti earthquake on 12 January was terrible and I have tried to talk to my students about the earthquake (and the aftershocks) in various ways, for instance by showing pictures, videos, discussing what we can do here in Spain etc., and also by linking it to the schools's PSHE program.

I told my form group (kontaktlærergruppe) about the "Dugnad for Haiti" which I watched on Norwegian Web TV last night -- a great initiative! (Thank you NRK!) However, it isn't easy to explain the word "dugnad" to non-Norwegian people. One of my friends on facebook told me about a Canadian man who wrote this about languages and the word "dugnad":

"One can have a lot of fun discovering the quirky similarities to English, but one runs across some words that defy translation. Norwegians have a word (Dugnad) that officially is translated as “community work” or “collective work on a project,” but this is but a shadow of the full connotation of this word. Like a Chinese ideogram, the full meaning of this word embodies an entire set of cultural and philosophical presumptions that are specific to this society. The word Dugnad conjures up the notion of a social contract that runs deep in Norwegian culture. It evokes an emotional response in Norwegians, and although the literal meaning of this word is easy to understand, the cultural meaning is more difficult to grasp. It could not be replaced in the language by a literal synonym because the synonym would not carry the full cultural and emotional meaning of the word." 

So, a rather tricky business. Teaching in a school with 42 nationalities and (at least) 42 cultures doesn't necessarily make it easier, but hey, it's a great challenge as well!

This week the school is arranging a fundraising campaign. "Aloha College Charity Committee and school management have prepared a fundraising campaign so that children, parents and staff can contribute to the aid being sent to Haiti. Children will bring in donations during the week of 25 January, and there will be a non-uniform day on the Friday. Children are learning about the situation so they understand what their efforts are for. On 22 January there was a minute’s silence in honour of the victims."(www.aloha-college.com)

I'm trying to encourage my students to collect as much money as possible, for instance by offering to do the dishes the whole week, and have their parents sponsor them for doing this, or possibly other chores. But it isn't easy.

Anyway -- I'll end by saying like Jahn Teigen does here: "Optimist, jeg vet det går bra til sist" osv.

Hasta pronto!