ESN Bergen's active members and volunteers organize visits to local Norwegian schools where you as an international student can give a cultural presentation, a language session or do other types of activities. We have organized classes in Spanish, English, Japanese, Italian, French, German and Arabic! Every semester we hold about 5-12 language classes at the schools Amalie Skram High School, University of Bergen and Rothaugen School. Both students and their teachers have given great feedback on these classes, and we hope many of you will volunteer for more of these classes in the future.

If you also want to inspire local, Norwegian high school studens with your language and culture, you are welcome to volunteer in the Social Erasmus school project. Send an email to socialerasmus@bergen.esn.no

We asked an international student participating in the project, Carlota from Spain, a few questions. Here you can see what she thinks about our project.

What did you do?

I got in contact with one of the Spanish teachers at Amalie Skram, who asked me to prepare a presentation about the current situation of the youth in Spain.

I gave four presentations in total, for students with different levels of Spanish. I talked about issues that I thought would be interesting for them, while using a basic vocabulary and a slow pace. Additionally, I suggested links between the Spanish and the Norwegian youth, and the teachers helped in getting questions from the students.

Why did you do it? What was your motivation to volunteer?

I have always been interested in academic volunteering, especially because I think the person that volunteers gets to learn a lot from it. When I heard about the InSchool project, I thought it was a good chance to break some of the stereotypes that hover over the Spanish culture, while being able to help Norwegian students appreciate how fortunate they are to have a welfare state that cares for them in such diverse ways.

What was your overall impression of the InSchool project?

The whole experience was very enriching. It gave me insights into my own culture and society and into those of the country where I live now. It was very interesting to have the opportunity to get in contact with Norwegian teenagers and to see how school works in Norway. Also, I am grateful to have met so many Spanish citizens that had managed to stay in Norway, being able to learn the language and to adapt so well to a new, different society.

Here is Maggie talking about German music in a High School German Class. She has been visiting the same school several times during her stay in Bergen.

Just before this picture was taken, three Mexican exchange students, standing behind the ESN banner, gave a Spanish language session to a local Norwegian high school class. They also held a presentation about Mexican culture and proudly served some homemade guacamole. Maybe this motivated some of the high school students to study abroad, but it definitely raised cultural awareness.