Good afternoon! My name is Irena
and I speak Northern Sami.
It's not my native language, I am Russian
but I learned Sami two years ago,
about two years ago, in Oslo.
So when I came to Norway, I thought-
Sami is such a beautiful language,
I'd really love to learn Sami!
But I didn't speak Norwegian,
so I had to learn Norwegian first
and then Sami.
So I learned Norwegian
and straight afterwards
I found a course in Oslo,
at the Sami House.
It was a cooperation between
the Sami House and
Sami University College in Kautokeino
and it was an intensive three months course.
It was not allowed to speak Norwegian
at that course, only Sami.
And it was so much fun,
really, it was difficult, but still cool,
a fantastic experience.
So in this video I'd like to speak a bit more
about that, I'd like to explain to you
what Sami language is, where it is spoken
and why one should learn Sami
why it's important to learn an indigenous language,
a minority language.
It doesn't have to be Sami,
it can actually be any language.
Sami is in the Finno-Ugric group
and is spoken in the North,
that is in Northern Norway, Northern Finland
and Northern Sweden
and when we say "Sami"
usually we mean Northern Sami,
but there are nine different Sami languages.
Southern Sami for example, Lule Sami, Inari Sami etc.
The name of the people who speak it
is the Sami people
and there are about 25 000 people who speak it.
25 000 and me.
And it's not a very difficult language,
it's not a European language though.
I mean, many people believe that
it's the same as Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish
and, well, it's not too far away from Finnish,
but it's not possible to understand Finnish
if you only speak Sami.
I speak only Sami and
I don't understand almost anything.
So, what I want to say is that
Sami is a very unique language.
So, why, why should people learn such a language?
When people say:
"Well, the Sami people speak Norwegian,
Swedish, Finnish or English anyways.
Why should I learn Sami if I'm gonna travel up North?
Because you get another experience,
you see a completely different attitude
when you are trying to use the local language.
You don't have to speak Sami very well or fluently,
but I think it's just about showing respect and interest.
And Sami is a small language
and it's important that we show that it exists,
it's alive, that, as we usually say
"We are still here".
And people should learn Sami,
and not only the Sami people,
I mean, take the language back,
oh yes, because before it was not allowed to speak Sami
or learn Sami in school in Norway, Sweden
and it was also a difficult situation in Finland,
but that's a different story.
But foreigners should also learn this language
and the problem is, the challenge is that
there are not that many materials in English,
so it has to be in Norwegian or Swedish
if one wants to learn Sami and it's a pity.
I think we should work more on that, but,
yes, that's it.
I hope that now you want to learn Sami or
find out more about the Sami people
and the Sami culture.
Welcome to Sápmi and good-bye!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community