Å lære norsk!

After almost 5 months in Norway and just knowing how to say: “en øl, takk” (one beer, please) I have started this week with my Norwegian language course. Finally!

I must admit that I have been both lazy and relaxed when it comes to catching up with Norwegian. In Norway about 95% of the people I have met under 40 speak very, very good English (sometimes better than I) and the need to speak Norsk is almost non-existing. That, however, comes with a price. I feel that it is not respectful towards the culture, the people and the warm welcome I have had in this cold land (what a couple of crazy cold weeks we have had).

Æ-Ø-Å Sounds any familiar?

 

Looking back in time this is my fourth attempt (some serious, some not) to learn a foreign language in a group. I have experienced it with: English, French, German and now Norwegian. All the language groups seem to share certain common characteristics and some “traditional characters”:

-          The know it all. Yes, that girl (usually a female, yes!) that can speak 23 languages and is learning at the time 3 more. She knows all the grammar mysteries and will explain the rules better than the teacher. As time passes by, the teacher starts a love/hate relationship with the know it all and the rest of the group feels envy and wants to kill her for being “so good at this stupid language!”

-          The I have done the course before. All groups have someone that, for some obscure reason, did the course in the past but she/he is still here. This person knows a great deal of the language but not in a proper way. They tend to have what you believe is valuable information until you realize they learnt it in the wrong way. Beware of the I have done the course before!

-          The cellphone guy. There is usually a guy (or a girl, but to a lesser extent) that is always looking at his cellphone/table/laptop, you name it. He will be always updated with the most relevant financial/technical news and works more at the Norwegian class than at the office.

-          The teenager that never pays attention. This is usually the teenager or the guy that is in his/her early 20s and that attends because either: mom/dad paid for it; or it is a mandatory course part of his/her Erasmus studies. They do not care much about learning the language (apart from the pick of words) but rather more on networking with others from his league to plan the next party.

-          The guy that tries really hard… and cannot learn. It is usually a male. He tries, really tries. And he cannot. He is simply not good enough to learn the language and is usually delaying everyone but people do not mind as he is the “nice guy that tries hard”. He will be a wreck in the language but will pass the course.

-          The guy you have seen only 3 times during the last 4 months. There is always one dude that will come only to a couple of classes. He is busy, you don’t know his name and no one does. Somehow, he can speak the language and you are clueless on what is his secret.

Of course, there are more characters in a language course but they are also shared with a traditional classroom (such as the clown or the cute girl with 296 different pencils of different colors). For such a reason I do not mention them here.

Back to reality

Kind of a cold weather, eh?

Catching up, learning Norwegian will be a challenge as I will have to force myself to speak it in a place where EVERYONE speaks English. Norwegian is a must in my priorities as I need to speak it for my PhD research project (which finally has a topic!!! More on this on a next entry) and also because, well, I want to be able to communicate with Norwegians in their language.

Luckily I have min norske dronning to help me with the homework.

Ha det bra!

Travelling to China

It is not 100% confirmed, but rather 95%. The 1^st year Research Fellows of the Faculty of Law of the UiB are going to Shanghai!

The Nordic Centre at Fudan University (http://www.fudan.edu.cn/englishnew/) in Shanghai has organized for us a seminar in "Chinese Legal Culture" (http://www.nordiccentre.org/). The Nordic Centre is a Chinese entity that has contacts with 26 Universites from the different Scandinavian countries and aims towards the exchange of knowledge among the different universities in a multicultural environment.

During our seminar we will be introduced to a radically different legal culture and will be able to use such a comparative experience to better understand our own system of rules as well as get a glimpse of how Chinese Law works.

I am sure this will be an enriching opportunity for all of us and, for me, it will be the chance to visit once again China, a fantastic, enigmatic and surreal country.

In the quest for truth

  

Science and legal science

As part of my PhD training at the University of Bergen my colleagues and I are attending a “Research School” in which we are taught how to be better researchers and to discuss our ideas concerning the different PhD projects.

As part of this excellent seminar, organized by Linda Gröning and Jørn Jacobsen, we had yesterday a lecture by Prof. Dr. Marie Sandström, vice dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Stockholm.  The main topic of the lecture was to address the matter of Law as a scientific discipline.

In a very engaging and active discussion the topic was approached in a very original manner tracing the different similarities between law and natural sciences. Also, a historical-comprehensive basis was used to explain the points of view elaborated and to provide with scientific ground for the assertions.

"Furu"

©Yngvild Beathe Olsen

Prof. Dr. Sandström emphasized that the expression legal science, in English, is a bad translation of different expressions used to denominate what is known as Rechtswissenschaften, Science de la Droite and Jurisprudence. Hence, this has to be kept in mind when comparing legal science to natural sciences as they are different but interconnected concepts.

Prof. Dr. Sandström commented that in her view a PhD student in law must base his/her research on a methodology. Also, it is important to creatively combine different methods to produce an original work. There is a risk, however, when combining different methods as it might not be self-evident that they will answer in the same direction the posed question(s).

Additionally, it was mentioned that legal research has two main characteristics:

1.- It is based on coherence. Law is a systematic structure of norms that solves problems from general principles to particular cases (at least in the Continental Law system!).

2.- The PhD dissertation must be based on a general hypothesis. In her view, the work must retain some generality and even though it is tempting to choose a very narrow and limited topic to “control it”, there should be a drive towards also obtaining generalized knowledge.

Another aspect that was discussed was that the work of the PhD researcher/legal scholar should aim towards the improvement of the current legal system providing with better founded, more convincing and closer to the truth answers.

Lastly, in what became the most discussed and debated part of the conversation, Prof. Dr. Sandström encouraged us, the PhD researches, to look for the truth in legal research. In her view, there should be less fear of using the words truth, right decision, and right answer when writing our dissertations.

"Passing by the trees"

©Yngvild Beathe Olsen