Courses and culture
Mouhcine is taking courses at the faculty of Computer Science, Engineering and Economics. The first semester he had Professional communication, International Marketing and Media Studies. Now he’s studying Intercultural Communication and Sustainable Leadership. But he underlines the importance for him to learn Norwegian.
- It was one of my goals coming here. If I only wanted to take classes in English, I could have done that in France. Learning Norwegian is important to me.
He enjoys all the courses he’s taking, but when asked if he has a favourite, he says that Intercultural Communication is particularly interesting.
- Sometimes when we meet people from other countries, we find differences and gaps between the cultures. Taking this course makes people more open to understanding other cultures without judging. When we experience something in a different culture, we can get offended, even if it's not the intention. So in this course we analyse differences in cultures. And we look at how we are different, but at the same time how we share a lot of things.
“Sometimes when we meet people from other countries, we find differences and gaps between the cultures. Taking this course makes people more open to understanding other cultures without judging.”
What is the biggest difference that you have seen?
- When I arrived in Norway, I had to choose a subject for my Bachelor theses, and I started asking around. About Norway. About the education. The economy. The society. The big difference? Between Norway and the three countries where I lived: France, Spain and Marocco. It's the quality of life, and how the system is working. How it makes people live well, and be happy. For example, in France there are a lot of strikes and protests against Macron right now. Here people aren’t angry with the government. So, I wanted to research deeper into these aspects.
Rewarding research
You have been researching into Halden prison?
- Yes, this is the sociological part of my theses. When we look at prisons in other countries, they are built for punishment. But in Halden they are thinking about the future of the inmates, and actual rehabilitation. And it's really smart. Because when we look at the difference between what has happened since the prison opened, and crime today, there is a big difference.
It wasn’t easy to get the right contact at Halden prison, but Mouhcine was persistent and in the end Are Høidal, the first prison director and one of the creators of the prison in 2010, agreed to talk to him about the controversies surrounding the prison.
- He told me about the problems they had creating the prison, with the parliament and with the media. Because no one believed in the idea to create a campus instead of a prison for people. Today we can see the effect and it's working, the numbers are good.
Halden prison isn’t the only place in the Norwegian society where Mouhcine found interesting research material. He started off working on an economic analysis – which took him to the Norwegian Parliament.
- I wanted to understand how the budget, how the economy is working in Norway. So I got to talk to a political adviser of the The Labour Party, the party that runs the country today. It took a lot of time and effort to get hold of him, but he agreed to talk to me. So that was my first interview. My first step. The second thing I wanted to look at in Norwegian society is education. I wanted to look at the values Norwegians have. I wanted to see if they are learned this in school, or from generation to generation. I talked to a professor at the Fredrikstad campus, who used to be a member of the Parliament at the Social Welfare Department. He gave me a good background of the social values.
“I am very happy because my thesis is not only about theory. It has really implemented practices and interviews with people who are really working on this.”
- And then I also wanted to look at the how the Oil Fund has affected the economy and society. We know that Norwegians today have a good quality of life, and that this is due to oil. The Oil Fund makes Norway one of the wealthiest countries in the world. But they have done something different to other countries that have found oil. They put the money from the oil into a fund for the population and future generations. Countries like Britain started finding oil at the same time, but they used all the money in the economy. Today they have a different situation than Norway. So my next step is to find someone from Norges Bank, to talk to about the Norwegian Oil Fund. I am very happy because my thesis is not only about theory. It has really implemented practices and interviews with people who are really working on this.
Life experiences
Even if the process of getting the right interviews was long, sometimes it took months, it was well worth the effort. In the end he got his interviews.
- In France if I would try to reach someone from the Parliament, I wouldn’t get an answer at all. That's the reality. I wouldn’t be able to reach a director of a prison in France. Even with the teachers, you have to make an appointment and wait. But in Norway the power distance works differently. This is also something that we talked about in the course intercultural communication. We learned that the power distance is really different. In comparison to countries like France, people treat each other as more equal. So this way of thinking allowed me to get really good research information.
What life experiences have you gained here that you will bring back with you?
- A lot of things. Mainly values. Like honesty. Because here people are very honest, compared to other countries. People are straight forward. And I think that sometimes, being straight forward is better. And values, like equality. That we are all equal, even if we have different backgrounds. And of course, the experience of discovering a new culture, the Norwegian culture, how it's working. Things like behaviour, and food. It's an experience that I carry with me now.