{"id":2640,"date":"2020-05-17T17:31:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T17:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2640"},"modified":"2020-05-17T17:32:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T17:32:57","slug":"17-things-to-love-about-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/17-things-to-love-about-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Things to Love about Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Image courtesy of J\u00f6rg Gross<\/a> at Pixabay<\/a>, no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Gratulerer med dagen!<\/strong> (Happy May 17th<\/span>!) Today Norwegians all over the world are celebrating their grunnlov<\/strong> (constitution \u2013 from 1814). This year, of course, is very different. Most of the fun 17. mai-tog<\/strong> (May 17th parades<\/a>) have been cancelled. \ud83d\ude41 Instead, children and adults have to celebrate hjemme <\/strong>[YEMMeh] (at home). Let\u2019s join the celebrations online with these 17 things to love about Norway!<\/p>\n

1. Norsk natur er fantastisk<\/strong> (Norwegian nature is amazing). Where else in the world can you enjoy a similar sight of fjell<\/strong>, fosser, fjorder <\/strong>(mountains, waterfalls, fiords) \u2013 and actually hike in the middle of everything?<\/p>\n

2. Nordmenn er vennlige<\/strong> (Norwegians are friendly). Many tourists are surprised by the Norwegians\u2019 genuine kindness.<\/p>\n

3. Troll!<\/strong> (Trolls! Don\u2019t believe me? Well, watch the movie Troll Hunter<\/a> and you\u2019ll see just how many trolls are lurking in the countryside!)<\/p>\n

4. Brunost smaker nesten som karamell.<\/strong> (Norwegian brown cheese<\/a> almost tastes like caramel.)<\/p>\n

5. Norwegian is a very melodic spr\u00e5k <\/strong>(language) \u2013 to many foreigners it sounds as if Norwegians are singing<\/a>, when they\u2019re in fact just chatting!<\/p>\n

6. Norwegian cities are very peaceful, and lufta er rein<\/strong> (the air is clean \u2013 at least compared to many cities elsewhere in the world!)<\/p>\n

7. Viking heritage! From dragon ships in Oslo to words from the old Viking language surviving in modern dialects, the heritage of the vikinger<\/strong> is still very much alive in Norway.<\/p>\n

8. Midnattssol <\/strong>(midnight sun). North of Polarsirkelen<\/strong> (the Polar Circle), during summer, sola<\/strong> (the sun) never sets \u2013 just kind of makes a touchdown on the sea before bouncing up again. (The price for this marvel, of course, is total darkness during winter, but remember, this is a celebratory post!)<\/p>\n

9. Nordlys<\/strong> (Northern Lights). Just as with the midnight sun, you have to cross the Polar Circle and go to places like Troms\u00f8 to fully experience this amazing phenomenon \u2013 although the green \u201dsky-curtains\u201d can certainly also be sighted further south (if you\u2019re lucky!)<\/p>\n

10. Norsk sjokolade er veldig godt.<\/strong> (Norwegian chocolate<\/a> is very good!)<\/p>\n

11. Norwegian is your stepping stone to the other Scandinavian languages. Surveys have shown that Norwegians understand Danes<\/a> and Swedes<\/a> far better than the other way around. Due to its history, (Bokm\u00e5l) Norwegian shares a huge amount of vocabulary with Danish \u2013 but is pronounced in a way that is much closer to Swedish.<\/p>\n

12. Even with climate change and receding breer<\/strong> (glaciers), Norway remains a place where you can experience a real skieventyr<\/strong> (ski adventure) with endless, snow-covered plains<\/a> and slopes beneath a blue sky.<\/p>\n

13. Norwegians protect diversity. While dialects are getting watered down in many other European countries, Norwegians strive to maintain their local way of speaking \u2013 and people can even pick from two official<\/a> writing systems, Bokm\u00e5l<\/strong> and Nynorsk<\/strong>. (Well, for Norwegian learners this may admittedly be confusing, but remember, this is a glass-half-full post, and diversity should certainly be more interesting to language geeks than uniformity! \ud83d\ude42 And let\u2019s not forget about the languages of the Sami<\/a> people either\u2026)<\/p>\n

14. Norwegian nouns can be stringed together in marvellous ways: menneske <\/strong>(human being) + rettighet<\/strong> (right) + erkl\u00e6ring<\/strong> (declaration) = Menneskerettighetserkl\u00e6ringen<\/strong> (the Declaration of Human Rights).<\/p>\n

15. It\u2019s bit of a clich\u00e9, but a considerable number of Norwegians of both sexes actually do a lot of outdoor sports and become these smiling, jovial and fit persons that seem to attract singles from other countries. If that\u2019s you, you may join the chorus of Big Bang\u2019s 2009 hit: Can I talk to the prettiest girl in Oslo?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

16. Norway has one of the longest coastlines in Europe, and there is just so much to explore \u2013 whether you go island-hopping in Lofoten or travel with the Hurtigruten<\/strong> ship<\/a> from Bergen and all the way to Kirkenes in the far north.<\/p>\n

17. In many countries, national days are celebrated with military parades and the display of heavy weapons. In Norway, May 17th<\/span> is celebrated with parades of singing and jubilant children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Gratulerer med dagen! (Happy May 17th!) Today Norwegians all over the world are celebrating their grunnlov (constitution \u2013 from 1814). This year, of course, is very different. Most of the fun 17. mai-tog (May 17th parades) have been cancelled. \ud83d\ude41 Instead, children and adults have to celebrate hjemme [YEMMeh] (at home). Let\u2019s join the celebrations…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[913],"tags":[274100,529649,351815,10178,48605,386127,529650,13015],"class_list":["post-2640","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traditions","tag-17-mai","tag-big-bang","tag-brunost","tag-dialects","tag-hurtigruten","tag-may-17th","tag-nordlys","tag-trolls"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2640\/revisions\/2643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}