Laughing through the unknown: Implementing humor into guiding work by international students in Alta, Norway

• Main Author: Zakharov, Maksim
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UiT The Arctic University of Norway 2022
• Subjects: VDP::Social science: 200::Sociology: 220; VDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Sosiologi: 220; VDP::Social science: 200::Psychology: 260; VDP::Samfunnsvitenskap: 200::Psykologi: 260; guiding; tourism; students; humor; humor in guiding; laughing; cruise boat; guide; performance; tourist experience; international students; role of guide; Alta; Hurtigruten; Northern Norway; Arctic; humour; laughing through the unknown; REI-3910; Norway; Newcomer; midnight sun
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/27876

There can be different views and opinions about what it takes to be a newcomer when travelling for educational or work purposes. Some people can find it fairly uncomfortable when faced with new social norms, languages, rules, and regulations; while others are eager to embrace all challenges and immerse themselves into the new environment. Norway overall, and Alta city particularly, provide international and exchange students with once-in-a lifetime opportunity to experience multiculturalism, Nordic educational system, pristine nature, and last but not least the aspect of work life, even though part-time; and this aspect, still and all being part-time and ultimately non-essential for study purposes, can be of great interest for above mentioned students, as it provides them with such valuable things as a new network in local businesses, real-life work experience (often related to the studies), and additional income, to name some of those. When I came to Norway to study Arctic Adventure Tourism in the distant glorious 2017, I also got a part time job as a guide in one of the local businesses, but my first tours were not staggeringly successful, to put it lightly. Even though the company I have been working for has invested a lot of time and effort in training all new guides and has been very helpful in providing the information about the area, for me, as a newcomer it was quite hard to memorize all the facts about the region, partly due to the fact that it was my first months here, and since I have never lived in the Arctic before, everything was new and exciting, from dazzling radiance of the midnight sun at 3 AM, to mysterious romance of polar nights; and party because even if I memorized all the material, it was quite unnatural, and honestly seemed boring for me to just cite the facts by memory. Thus, I had a feeling that there was something essential that I was lacking in my performance makeup as a guide. As months went by, I came to meet more and more guides who were, same as I, international students and were ...