Going home!
I’m off to Norway tomorrow. Even though I haven’t really been any home-sick since I came here, I do get a bit impatient now that it’s drawing close. It will be good to get back home to see my family and some of my friends as well. And it will be excellent being at a place for 10 days where I have access to internet 24 hours a day, I might even be able to post stuff on my blog a bit more often than I have been able to do so far.
The last couple of days I’ve been spending working on the things that other members of my group have written for this evening’s workshop. And I’m in a bit of trouble. I really want to do my part and participate, but as most of them have written poems, this is very hard. I don’t read that much poetry, and I certainly don’t know much about poetry, not enough to say what’s good and what’s bad – I only know what I like and don’t like when it comes to the whole poem and not the different elements in it. The last days I’ve been trying to dissect the poems, but I don’t feel I’m any good at it – and that does make me feel as if I’m not participating as much as I should be. I have a theory as well that poems are harder for those who are non-native speakers of a language, because in poetry you’re allowed larger freedoms with the language, a poem isn’t necessarily about what is said in the poem but in what is to be read between the lines – and that can be a bit hard on a foreigner. I am becoming very good at speaking the English language, but mastering it like a native, oh, well, that’ll take years and years and then some….. So when I do work on the poems I often feel as if there are things I don’t understand that I should be understanding – or there are things that I think I understand but then have this gnawing suspicion that I’ve got it completely wrong. It’s hard! But, I never did expect this to be easy, and it certainly does teach me something new – and that is always I good thing I think – to have your horizons broadened!
The last couple of days I’ve been spending working on the things that other members of my group have written for this evening’s workshop. And I’m in a bit of trouble. I really want to do my part and participate, but as most of them have written poems, this is very hard. I don’t read that much poetry, and I certainly don’t know much about poetry, not enough to say what’s good and what’s bad – I only know what I like and don’t like when it comes to the whole poem and not the different elements in it. The last days I’ve been trying to dissect the poems, but I don’t feel I’m any good at it – and that does make me feel as if I’m not participating as much as I should be. I have a theory as well that poems are harder for those who are non-native speakers of a language, because in poetry you’re allowed larger freedoms with the language, a poem isn’t necessarily about what is said in the poem but in what is to be read between the lines – and that can be a bit hard on a foreigner. I am becoming very good at speaking the English language, but mastering it like a native, oh, well, that’ll take years and years and then some….. So when I do work on the poems I often feel as if there are things I don’t understand that I should be understanding – or there are things that I think I understand but then have this gnawing suspicion that I’ve got it completely wrong. It’s hard! But, I never did expect this to be easy, and it certainly does teach me something new – and that is always I good thing I think – to have your horizons broadened!
posted by Lena M Bakke @ 3:46 PM
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