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Polyglots of Oslo 1#

Digital video

Duration: 17.47min

2017

During a few days I interviewed 17 people with a multilingual background. We discussed how the languages shape their body language, personality and identity. Several of the participants explained how they sometimes feel like children when speaking a language they do not master. Others spoke of the degree of intimacy they experience with a language, and how certain things need to be said in a specific language. Some dream in Norwegian, but are afraid of speaking it while awake. One participant describes how various languages function like layers on her body, the mother language being closest to the body and newly learnt languages further away from the body. 

The video was part of my master project and shown during the graduation show Agreement Between the Seasons at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Read Kjetil Røed's text about Polyglots of Oslo here

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