I’ve enjoyed lurking on some of the other “Ask the…” threads, so I’ll be happy to answer questions anyone has about my situation.
So I assume this is Norway focused, eh? No other ex-pat representatives are allowed? FINE! I’ll just sit over here in Prague sulking about the things I miss from back in Colorado, grumbling about the lack of customer service, and generally complain about the alienation that other ex-pats seem to force upon me…
Oh, Ok, I’ll bite: What kind of taxes are you paying? What is the cost of rent there for a normal apartment? 38% taxes here, and rent for a 2 bedroom place in a nice neighborhood runs me $600/month with utilities. Bad neighborhood for less than half of that.
-Tcat
That was actually my thought upon seeing the thread title, Tomcat.
Without getting into a Jules and Vince rap, just what do you miss the most about home, or tangentially, what’s so different at first glance that it completely floored you?
(And specifically for flodnak, where was home in the US for ya?)
And since I’m new enough to the boards to have missed/not yet run across the answers to this one, just why are y’all expatriots in the first place?
[sub]I’m WAGing it’s work/family related, but clue the clueless in, huh?[/sub]
OK, I’ll bite. Spent last summer (hah!) in Scandanavia, including about 3 weeks in Norway. Just loved it. Questions:
What does whale taste like? We saw it in the market in Bergen but were to grossed out to buy it.
What is the literal translation of Dagens Meny?
Why are Norwegians fixated with flatulence: “Pass Farten”, “Farten Damper”, etc.
What is the cost of gasoline in american gallons/american dollar.
Is is true that Norwegian cooking is uninspired?
Is is true that Norwegians enjoy the hell out of “strongman” type contests?
Is is true that Norwegians are unusually honest?
Is Norway’s reputation for being the relative country bumpkin of Scandanavia deserved?
Is is true that 10,000 Swedes ran through the weeds chased by one Norwegian?
Aren’t Norwegian chicks hot?
So, how about Quisling?
And what’s with the Norwegian language and its two different spellings, or whatever?
I’ve been looking for some time for the words to a Norse nursery rhyme my Uncle knows (but I can’t understand clear enough to learn and he doesn’t know how to write it down).
It’s for bouncing a kid on a knee. Something about riding a wild pony, lot’s of clomp-clomps, etc.
If you can find a link to this, I’d really appreciate it.
As an American expat in England, I have to ask: how has your perception of America and Americans (both on the official “foreign policy” level, and on the informal “general outlook and attitudes” level) changed since you’ve lived abroad?
Heres one then, how much does a beer cost in Norway nowadays ? When i was there some years ago for a while it was just crazy price so don’t imagine it’s got any better
Some random Norway-type questions:
Norway is not part of the EU, right? Do you find that it is significantly different or more isolationist than the rest of Scandinavia?
I have an impression that Norway is off the main travel routes (in other words, people don’t usually pass through it on their way to somewhere else). Is this true?
Do many people speak English there?
Is Nynorsk dying out?
Is there much immigration or emigration?
For people born in Norway: is citizenship granted only by descent from existing Norwegians or simply by being born there?
Are there many blond(e) people?
And what does “flodnak” mean?
Thanks.
As an American who lived in Australia for ten years and now back home:
Americans have no idea how well they have it at home. “It” shall remain undefined. Americans have very little idea how self-centered they are with respect to how other peoples in other countries perceive them. Americans are pretty much sheep these days. Standing up for what is right and just is no longer the norm, if it ever was.
How does penguin taste like?
:rolleyes:
FYI - Penguins occur in the wild only in the Southern Hemisphere.
That’s a more cynical way of describing how Americans appear to Europeans. The British certainly delight in portraying all Americans as fat, stupid, and unaware of anything happening outside the US (and then talk about how much they love Friends and ER, eat fried fish and chips, claim they singlehandedly won WWII, and rush off to buy the latest single by the latest manufactured pop band-du-jour).
I was just curious if the Scandivanian viewpoint is the same.
To the first, I’d say it’s a matter of opinion.
To the second–hey, what is Quisling?
The third I can answer. Norwegian is split into two major ‘dialects’–Bokmaal and Nynorsk. Bokmaal is the literary and official language of Norway, sort of like the ‘newscaster’ accent is in America or the RP is in Britain. Nynorsk is not so widely spoken. I pray someone comes along and elaborates, because that’s all I know about Norwegian.
Quisling was the name of a person. Probably a touchy subject now. GIYF…
Wow. Sorry it’s taken me a while to get back to this, I was at a family party last night…
Tomcat, the tax rate for most folks here runs about the same as you’re paying, a little over 1/3. Housing costs in and around Oslo are insane, particularly if you’re renting - most people own their apartments or houses. US$600 a month might get you a one-bedroom apartment, but not in a fashionable neighborhood. A quick check of the newspaper shows plenty of places advertised for over US$1000.
Skeezix, I’m married to a Norwegian, so that’s how I ended up here. I’ve been here for twelve years - I’m from Pennsylvania originally - and I really tend to think of Oslo as home now. What I noticed when I moved here is that, other than language, most of the big things were the same or similar enough that I didn’t react too strongly - but the little things will trip you up if you’re not careful!
DanBlather, I’ve never tasted whale. My husband ate it a lot as a kid - it was cheap then - and claims the taste reminds him of cod liver oil. But people pay good money for it and eat it voluntarily, even eagerly, so someone must disagree with him… “Dagens Meny” translates literally to “the day’s menu”, and it is, as you’ve probably figured out, the daily special. “Fart” means “speed”, so “pass farten” means “watch your speed” and “fartsdempere” are speed bumps. And gas at the moment (dragging out the calculator) is about $4.50 a gallon. The krone is very strong against the dollar now, which distorts the price (makes it seem higher than it really feels to the average Norwegian).
astro, traditional Norwegian cooking tends to be on the bland side - few spices grow here and herbs were thought of as medicinal, not as flavorings. But there’s some really tasty stuff if you know to look for it. I’m quite fond of good, homemade kjøttkaker (Norwegian meatballs), for instance. I haven’t noticed any Norwegian fondness for strongman contests. Norwegians tend to like watching endurance sports, which is quite different - long races, particularly if skis are involved. As for honesty, Norwegians certainly see themselves as unusually honest; like most national stereotypes, there’s some truth in it, but it’s not all true. I’d say it’s more like Norwegian culture tends to create people who are terrible liars, not to mention that in a small country you can easily feel like you have a couple million nosy neighbors. People are honest because that usually works out better.
Norway is really at the outskirts of Europe, and until recently, getting around the country was a real struggle. About 2/3 of the country is mountainous wasteland, and people live in the few fertile valleys here and there. In this respect it’s no wonder progress moved in slowly. Now, I’d say the “country bumpkin” thing is mostly something the Danes and particularly Swedes like to think - there’s a lot of rivalry, mostly good-natured, between the three Scandinavian countries and particularly between Norway and Sweden - rather than being really true. But, Norway still has quite a few outlying rural areas, where attitudes can seem (even to urban Norwegians) to be frozen in another century…
And as for the ten thousand Swedes, of course, of course. That was during the Battle of Copenhagen…
Part two…
Daoloth, I’m a chick, and straight, so my opinion of the relative hotness of chicks is probably not very valuable. As for Quisling, what do you want to know about him? He was a traitor and a very unpleasant person in general. Even Hitler thought he was a twit (though a useful twit), which has got to be the ultimate definition of “loser”. All that intelligence, gone to such an incredible waste…
The two spelling systems used in Norwegian come from the two written versions of the language. A little background: because of the geographical isolation most people lived in until the 20th century, Norway has hundreds of distinct dialects. Now, as it happens, Norway was under the rule of Denmark for four centuries and in a “personal union” with Sweden for close to a century more, becoming fully independent in 1905. Towards the end of that period, a growing movement for an independent Norwegian state began looking for a way to strengthen the Norwegian language, the original written form of which was long gone. Most literate people wrote Danish but spoke Norwegian. A “Norwegianized” form of Danish used in the cities fairly closely matched the high-status dialects of Oslo; this formed the basis for the written form known today as bokmål. But this was not very close to the dialects spoken in the countryside. A man named Ivar Aasen almost single-handedly created a written form based on western rural dialects, the basis for what is now known as nynorsk.
The two forms today have equal legal standing, though users of bokmål outnumber users of nynork by at least four to one. Schoolchildren are taught in one form, but must learn to read and write the other; textbooks for children must be published in both languages; if you write a letter to a national government agency you have the right to specify in which form you wish to receive a reply. Both are also used for national public television and radio broadcasts and on stamps and currency. Each municipality can choose which form it wishes to use; all the large cities have chosen bokmål.
My gut feeling is that the two forms are slowly moving towards one another, but they will remain separate for the rest of my lifetime at least.
ftg, that’s probably Ride, ride ranke. There are lots of versions of the rhyme, both in Norwegian and in Danish, but if you search for that phrase I bet you’ll find the one you remember!
jr8, I find I’ve become a lot more cynical about American foreign policy, and distanced from American attitudes, if that makes any sense. Each time I visit the States it feels a little more like I’m travelling to a foreign country…
Skaill, I’m not a beer drinker, but I do know it’s expensive. A beer in a pub or bar will easily set you back the equivalent six bucks American.
Sunspace, Norway isn’t part of the EU, but not because of isolationism - more because of uncertainty. The two referendums on the issue have both ended very close to a tie - more an “I don’t know so I’ll stick with what I know” result than a “Hell NO!” In fact Norwegians like to see themselves as active in the world, hence the recent involvement in peace conferences with, erm, varying degrees of success.
Norway is definitely not a hub for international traffic. Too small and not really in the middle of anything. Every child learns English from second grade onwards and a surprising number of people are quite good at speaking English; many also speak a little German and/or French. Nynorsk, I would say, isn’t so much dying out as slowly assimilating; people are often quite proud of their dialects and writing in nynorsk is part of that pride for many people.
Few Norwegians permanently emigrate these days; many go abroad to study or work, but most return home. Technically, there’s an immigration stop in place, but the truth is there are many loopholes built into the law and immigration continues, though slowly. The interesting problem facing Norwegian society now is that the first generation of non-ethnic-Europeans born in Norway are now young adults, who see themselves as part of Norwegian society and want to participate in it in a way their immigrant parents didn’t.
Citizenship is complicated - you don’t get it just for being born in Norway, like happens in the US, but you don’t have to be a descendant of a Norwegian citizen either. Naturalization is fairly straightforward if you’ve lived in the country legally for eight years. I believe that permanent resident immigrants can apply for citizenship for their children born in the country under some circumstances, but I’m not sure. (For the record, our kids are dual citizens.)
The blondness of Norwegians is greatly exagerrated. Most kids are blond, but their hair darkens as they grow up. However, there are a lot more blue eyes than you’d expect around here. (And some other curiosities, like a predominance of type A blood instead of O.) Your last question, I’m afraid, is classified information.
phew Did I miss anybody?
Which is exactly the same as Sweden. Which means, to continue the similarities, I would expect there is an above average amount of “bottle blondes” out there, especially, female, who feel some need to keep up the stereotypical image.
From my very unscientific observations, many women do dye their hair, but usually some shade of red, not blonde. (And not just Bente Skari red, either :p) The result is sometimes kinda obvious…
