"That's culture clash, right there" - Sebastian
Our first encounter with one of the major differences hit us within the first week. The four of us stood and were about to cross a road, just as a car was approaching.We reacted like we would have done in Denmark, which was to wait for the car to pass. The car on the other hand started slowing down and eventually we ended up in an opposite game of chicken. The driver looked at us, we looked at the driver, we waved him on, he waved us on and eventually (after a few more "are you sure?" looks) we ended up crossing the road in front of him. this made Sebastian burst out with the sentence; "That's culture clash, right there". Since then we have gotten used to the fact that the cars stop to let you cross the road, but this also meant that when we went home to Denmark one weekend, we were close to getting run over, because somebody had forgotten to let the cars in DK know that they should now all stop for us.
Staying within the frame of traffic we'll quickly mention push bikes as well. Not many are seen here in Iceland, perhaps because of the great distances that people have to travel to get to work (many work in Reykjavik, but live quite far outside the city) as well as the, at times, severe weather conditions. But the few bikes which we have come across, we've almost bumped into on the sidewalk, since they do not drive on the road like people on bikes do in DK.
Is the lesson cancelled today?
A thing which differs quite a bit from DK is punctuality. If you want to meet with an Icelander you should ask them to meet you about 15 minutes (in some cases 30 minutes) before you actually want to meet. This is unfortunately also the case for some of the teachers here (even though their being late is not that severe). But on a couple of occasions it has made us (and a few fellow students) wonder if perhaps our lesson had been cancelled. In Iceland this is probably normal, but from a Danish point of view, it emanates a lack of interest and preparation from the teacher (which makes you want to work less hard in those lessons).
Language learning in the lower secondary differs a great deal from how we know it in Denmark, but since a more thorough description can be found in the two "Teaching practise" pages, we won't get further into it here.
Helpful people
If one has read the "people and language" page, it is clear that the Icelandic people are very helpful and open They try to communicate the best way possible and so far Camilla and I have been invited to a birthday at one of our classmates house and Esben and I have been invited home for dinner by our teaching practise teacher. Both occasions which we find quite intimate in Denmark. The openness which is shown by the Icelandic people is infectious and we find ourselves inviting people into our home, people who, had we been in DK, probably wouldn't had been given an invitation unless they had asked themselves. It will be interesting to see if we take home this tradion or we leave it here when we leave the country.
Birthdays are pretty similar to the ones we have in Denmark. If you're interested, the Icelandic lyrics for the "Happy birthday" song goes as follow:
"Hann á afmæli í dag, hann á afmæli í dag, hann á afmæli hann [name], hann á afmæli í dag".
If it's a girl then replace "hann" with "hún" everywhere.
An example of (alot of) people singing the song can be seen here: Birthday song in Icelandic
- Louise
