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More Weird Things Norwegians Do
Three years ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Weird Things Norwegians Do“, where I described 15 strange things I had noticed here. Now that I have been here a little longer, a few things have been added to the list. As before, “weird” does not necessarily mean “negative”. Some of these awkwardness should be adopted elsewhere in this world (but not the grilldress, hopefully).
1. The Norwegian definition of “intimacy” is different than from the rest of the world. In Norway it is not considered intimate to sleep with someone for one night while both persons are drunk. However, to drink a cup of coffee together 3 days later in broad daylight is considered like a much bigger step in a relationship and in intimacy between two persons. Another step at the level of intimacy just before marriage is to go to IKEA together. So in Norway, to exchange body fluids is not intimate, but to argue in front of a JOKKMOKK IKEA table is extremely intimate. Also see the rules of The Norwegian “Art” of Seduction.
2. Norwegians love to refurbish their kitchen every other year with the best designer gadgets and the colour of the month. But they mainly use that fancy kitchen to warm up ready-made Fjordland meals and Grandiosa pizza. But doesn’t it look good? More Annoying things (some) Norwegians do here.
3. Norwegians love everything (good and bad) that foreign media or celebrities said about their country and fellow Norwegians. Those who say nice things about Norway get honoured with a new name in the Norwegian press, Norges venn. It is because Norwegians love to read about Norwegians (why do you think I wrote a blog and a book about it?).
4. It is -5 degrees and you are afraid to catch a pneumonia, meanwhile Norwegians will leave their children to sleep outside, especially if they are babies. To build their character. After all, if they don’t die of it, it probably can only make them stronger. And resistant to pneumonia.
5. Everything which was not produced or checked or trained by a Norwegian company or authority is seen as of of lower quality than Norwegian. That applies to doctors, teachers and electricity installations. One wonders how this world has hung together until the Norwegians showed the way…
6. The one thing that makes a Norwegian scream of joy is opening an avocado and finding it beautifully green and intact inside. Others would say peace on Earth but you know, avocadoes are cool too. More Wonderful things (most) Norwegians do here.
7. When a mini ray of sunlight comes, Norwegians will sit on a rock, on a bench or even stay standing in that ray of sunlight with their eyes closed, just enjoying the moment as if it were their last. It is called solveggen. The wall of the sun.
8. Any name of a person in a newspaper absolutely needs to be followed by their age in brackets. Except if you are very famous, like Erna Solberg, and then it is not needed. Why? No idea.
9. A friend is telling you about a movie, and then suddenly says “terningkast 5!” and you wonder what on earth he or she means? In Norway, any review of a movie or a book will not be rated with stars like in the rest of the world. Here they use a dice and show how many of the 6 dots it got on the dice. Then they say it in a regular conversation, and even translate it to “dice 4” in English and expect everyone to understand.
10. You think Norwegians have no humour and you are wrong. They don’t laugh out loud or tap each other on the back when they think something was funny, they probably have a straight face like other days, but they are totally cracked up inside. Tough love, but you’ll eventually know how to recognise it. Look out for a face cramp. There is even a typical Norwegian humour.
11. Norwegians habits especially regarding how to raise children cannot be questioned under any circumstance. Putting your kids to bed at 7pm, not giving them limits and feeding them exclusively with sausages, bread and havregryn have to be the greatest things. Otherwise Norwegians wouldn’t be doing it, right? Check here on How to be a bad Mother in Norway.
12. Norwegians will respect all laws to the dot. With two exceptions: 1- when going home from Sweden with extra liters of alcohol above the allowed quota, and 2- when driving a bicycle. For some reasons when on a bicycle Norwegians will not respect any (I mean none) rules of the road: going through red lights, cycling on pavements, in areas where many people are walking, not notifying when turning left or right. Something they can learn from the Danes!
13. In public places you are expected to have eyes behind your back. If you are standing in their way of a Norwegian in the supermarket or in any other public place, they will not tap on your shoulder lightly and tell you with a smile “excuse me”. Instead they will patiently wait behind you until you turn around and see them, jump by surprise, and let them go ahead. You made them lose a seconds minutes of their lives, but that look of guilt on your face was worth it.
14. When looking at purchasing or choosing the best bottle of wine or alcohol in general, Norwegians will not look at the age of the wine or its quality. The best choice is obviously the one with the highest percentage of alcohol. As a French, my skin crawls to this fact of Norwegian life. See here for What to expect from a drunk Norwegian?
15. The Hytte Life has many rules. One of them is that whatever classy or hip clothes you are used to wearing in your everyday life, all of them can be replaced with one set of woollen underwear and grilldress available in your cabin’s closet. Untouched since 1970, except every time you need a dry change of clothes.
16. Regular human beings have enough time to work, take care of their kids, and meet their friends. Not Norwegians. They have this thing called tidsklemma which makes them run from one appointment to another without managing to enjoy anything they are doing.
17. The sun is shining, it is the 14th of June. Summer holidays are just around the corner. Life could not be better. And then your Norwegian colleague says “Only seven days until the days get shorter again”. Some Norwegians have the art to be party poopers. But guess what, that was maybe a joke! As explained above, Norwegians do have humour!
Much more of The Frog in the fjord in my new book En frosk i fjorden – Kunsten å bli norsk. Soon in English!!
This article was published in the Norwegian newspaper VG under the title Enda flere norske rariteter on the 18th of June 2017. I have a chronicle there on Norwegian culture since October 2014.
Comments
21 responses to “More Weird Things Norwegians Do”
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SPOT ON!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Not 100% spot on, though. After 35 years here I think that some of these weird things are a bit overdone for the sake of a book. I agree that cyclists seem to think they are above the law, but cycling on the footpath is actually legal as long as you “adapt” your cycling to take account of the people walking on the footpath; in many cases I prefer that to risking my life together with an 50 ton artic. Looking forward to shorter days – and snow in particular – is not party pooping; some of us really think that life is better midwinter at -5C! But Norwegian “public” humour (e.g. TV) is definitely a bit special when viewed with English eyes. Too much noisy slapstick and little subtelty! Strange, when my Norwegian friends all really appreciate understated English humour.
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Sure!
Monty Python…. Benny Hill…Lenny Henry…Rowan Atkinson…Not the 9 O’Clock News gang…Hale&Pace… All wonderful representatives of that subtle English humor who only the educated mind will understand…
You got us there mate 😉
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Morsom)
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This was not 100% spot on, quite the opposite. I will not spend time arguing against all the points raised but it is obvious that the author adopts the same attitude as most French expats coming to Norway, critisising and generalizing everything after a few weeks. However, when expats have to return to France, then they start realizing that Norway is not so bad after all. There are pros and cons in Norway like there are in France – maybe the perspective from the author would be more objective if she had been French – Norwegian like I am.
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She is at least right about Norwegians not being able to handle anything negative said about them.
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Well, not sure if Max is responding to my comment or not but I am as Norwegian as French so I am trying to be objective here, believe it or not!
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To the commenters. This blog is the bloggers opinion, not facts. Give her a break. She is funny, and she got some points, even if they are exaggerated.
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12. There is one more law that this Norse writer would violate at a blink of an eye.. Or a toke if you will…
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Being American of Norwegian heritage, I’ve taken this blog with a grain of salt. She is a humorist so she has to exaggerate. The most important thing I learned is that there is equality among men and women. I love that!! America is disgusting in that department. Yay to Norway!!
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i will lay on the floor and just chill when the sun rays comes, yeah kinda weird but the sun is soo nice and warm after being in dark for months -
Too funny! I thought I was the only one who found Norwegians rather odd. One more thing, Its not easy to make friends with a Norwegian but Norwegian families are very close. They do EVERYTHING together. Its as if your family IS your friends. Can get a little claustrophobic but you learn to cope.
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Even though Norwegians don’t realize it, they live and have been living isolated from the rest of the world for all of their history. Occasional trip to Canaria and fake openness towards foreigners and other minorities is not enough to claim they are aware of how the rest of the world works. They pretty much don’t understand the rest of the world, nor does the rest of the world understand Norwegians. Damn, most of Norwegians havent explored their own country, and crashes between people from different regions of the country are constant. Basically south of the country considers north to be a s*#”t hole, and north doesn’t even consider southerns to be Norwegians at all, as they are ”spoiled” and living in a “tropical” region of the country. Nothing bad about that, Norwegians are still in their own way kindest and sweetest people i ever met, but expecting mutual understanding to happen any time soon is wishfull thinking.
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