Caps Blog #6- Dani Wingard

During my senior year of high school, we had a foreign exchanged student from Norway. On the first day of school my friend and I volunteered to show her around. It turns out that she would quickly become one of my closest friends. She knew how to speak english so we had no problem communicating. She just had no idea how our society worked and what things were ok to do and not to do. Even though we are clearly from a different region and have different ethic backgrounds we had so much in common. My favorite memories of her are of when she couldn't think of the right english word to describe something so she would just make up a new word.

Benefits of having a friend in Norway was that I learned things about her culture and country that I had absolutely no idea about. The biggest thing that shocked me was that they have 13 years of schooling before college. So in America she was considered to be a senior, but in Norway she still had to go back and experience another senior year. The second thing I learned about their schooling is that they have two different kinds of high schools. They have a high school that you would attend if you were planning on going straight into the working world after you graduate. That high school would prepare you for the real world. The other type of high school is one that prepares you for college. If you planned on going to college then you would attend that high school.

The only challenges that I can remember were slight language barriers where my friend wouldn't know how to pronounce english words or didn't know the meaning. She told us that in Norway, an english class is required starting in Kindergarten up through the time that you graduate.

One dialectic that The Baxter model discusses that relates to my relationship with my friend from Norway is the Differences-Similarities Dialectic. This model states that we tend to be "attracted" to people who we perceive to be similar to ourselves. My friend turned out to have more in common with me than some of my American friends. We bonded over our romantic relationships and our morals. The second dialectic that I can relate to is the Privilege-Disadvantage Dialectic. This states that some people may be privileged in some situations, but disadvantaged in others. When my friend came to Norway, she probably feels more privileged when she's home in Norway because she's comfortable there. She is more fluent in Norwegian and she is aware of all the social norms. Whereas I would feel disadvantaged about living in Norway because I don't know the language, the norms, or the culture.