New in the United States

Hello Selma! I’m Maja, I am a foreign exchange student from a small town called Volda. Volda is a town on the west coast of Norway, placed between fjords and mountains and populated with around 10,000 people. I am on exchange for my 12th year of school, coming to Selma High as a senior. I live with my host mother, and will be staying in the United States until June 2024. Norway and the U.S. have a lot of similarities, especially in fundamental values. However, there appears to be quite a few cultural and societal differences between our respective countries. Focusing on the school aspect of our societies, there are distinctions everywhere from the national system of education to how students and staff interact with each other. The sum of primary school, and the definition of it, is similar yet not the same. The Norwegian primary school is divided into seven years “children school”, three years “teenager school” and three years “further school,” while the American system consists of elementary school, middle school and high school. Every teenager goes through major changes while in school, and the difference of the American two years of junior high and four years of high school compared to the Norwegian three years of junior high and three years of high school can have a big impact on who you surround yourself with and who you become.
Another system with a different build-up is the grading system. The contrast between being stressed for big tests every now and then to getting pestered with grades every week shines a light on positives and negatives of both. In Norway, fewer but more important tests will build up pressure for everyone, and can be especially harmful for students that don’t perform well under stressful circumstances. However it may take your mind off grades the rest of the time so you don’t spend as much time worrying about them. Getting graded more frequently, as students in America do, can be beneficial because a single bad assignment doesn’t have much impact on your grade, but in return creates a constant awareness about how good you are performing.
A more social aspect is the difference in interaction, starting with how to address teachers. Going from approaching teachers with their first name and very informally, to using courtesy titles and last names was something to get used to. Some argue that the title is an important factor in relation and authority, and I thought that too, before experiencing both firsthand. I now believe it does not bear much impact. The relation and authority depends on the individuals and interaction, and name cannot earn the same value as personal experience.
Most of the small differences I have noticed are things I have never thought about before I experienced another way of thinking and doing, and it has been an eye-opener to how much in our lives that goes unnoticed and unappreciated. I look forward to spending the next couple of months here in Selma and learning more about these pieces of American culture, as well as letting it teach me more about my own culture.