Databases

The Saami Language Centre

The language center was founded to amass expertise in the Saami language and to coordinate language resources, to increase public awareness and create more arenas for use of the Saami language and to legitimize use of the Saami language in more areas. One general feature of the development and implementation of the majority of the courses was the importance attached to intensive periods of training using a wide range of culture-based and practical tasks in a natural environment for language learning. The Saami Language Centre employs the resources of regular instructors with formal skills and people with non-formalised knowledge of the Saami language, Saami traditions and local history. In this way, valuable and informal knowledge of the Saami language and culture is also channelled to others. Many of the courses are also product-oriented and are based on the notion that the Saami language shall be a natural language for communication during, for example, training in traditional Saami handicrafts. These courses involve natural training and allow different generations to work together. The Saami Language Centre uses the available resources in a holistic process of language and culture learning, contributing to the preservation of expertise and knowledge of Saami culture and language, as well as stimulating new generations - of both Saami and Norwegian heritage - to become bilingual and to increase cross-cultural understanding. Themes of the project: Cultural awareness of regional/minority languages Intercultural awareness (any language) Informal language learning