Tell me of Norway.

[Adso de Fimnu]

Why hello.
I'm an American of Norwegian heritage (hurrah) and I'm wondering about the country from whence my ancestors came. More specifically, I'd like to learn about how it is today - the US just isn't my cup of tea these days.
So I have some questions, if there are any Norwegians (and I know there are) who can answer them, please.
What is life like in Norway? If it is really the highest quality of life worldwide, what is that like?
How many people work for oil companies there? What is the job distribution like?
Are the Norwegian people (as a whole, if you can generalize) friendly? What are the general feelings about intellectuals?
What is the government like? Is it rather socialist, like Sweden, or more capitalist? How are the education and healthcare systems?
What is the exchange rate, in practical terms, between US dollars and Norwegian kroner? Will a dollar go very far in Norway?
How many people there speak English?
How different are Bokmål and Nynorsk? Would an average foreigner have trouble with them?

I've read about Norway at Wikipedia, so I have some general ideas about it, but I'm just wondering what the people there have to say about the country.

 

[Riesstiu IV]

Norway

Population: Crab
No. of Lions = 0
No. of Tigers = 0
Main Export: Tree

 

[Perfection]

Damn it, Riesstiu, you beat me to it!

 

[Luddi VII]

Why hello.
I'm an American of Norwegian heritage (hurrah) and I'm wondering about the country from whence my ancestors came. More specifically, I'd like to learn about how it is today - the US just isn't my cup of tea these days.
So I have some questions, if there are any Norwegians (and I know there are) who can answer them, please.
What is life like in Norway? If it is really the highest quality of life worldwide, what is that like?
How many people work for oil companies there? What is the job distribution like?
Are the Norwegian people (as a whole, if you can generalize) friendly? What are the general feelings about intellectuals?
What is the government like? Is it rather socialist, like Sweden, or more capitalist? How are the education and healthcare systems?
What is the exchange rate, in practical terms, between US dollars and Norwegian kroner? Will a dollar go very far in Norway?
How many people there speak English?
How different are Bokmål and Nynorsk? Would an average foreigner have trouble with them?

I've read about Norway at Wikipedia, so I have some general ideas about it, but I'm just wondering what the people there have to say about the country.

I think I can answer some of your questions.I like the life in Norway ( I live on the country land ).And Norway was elected to the best place to live in the world for a little while ago.I really don't know how many peoples that work for oil companies here, but I think it's mostly the people on the coast that works there.The job distribution is not too good, but not too bad.I think the tourists are friendlier than ourselves, but some of my neighbours are very friendly.The education systems are good enough, but many peoples cannot read and write so well.I think the health systems are 99% bad.Because the leaders of the health systems only cares about moneys.1 dollar is about 8-10 norwegian kroner ( NOK).Almost all the peoples speak english, except the childrens of course.Bokmål and Nynorsk are not very different.Only some general words.I have no trouble with it.

I hope that was enough to know a bit.

 

[trader/warrior]

The education systems are good enough, but many peoples cannot read and write so well.

i have never seen fully educated people in norway not read and write so well.

also i believe the dollar is more like 7 krones now

 

[col]

Norway is one of my favourite countries in the world. Geographically it is dominated by sea and mountains. Think westcoast Canada or on a slightly smaller scale westcoast Scotland. The fjords are simply breath-taking. Geiranger is a favourite. I once went on a sea plane tour of it which was incredible. 3000' vertical cliffs. Nothing to compare with the vertical mile of Trollstigen though. The sea is at the heart of most Norwegians.

The people are open and freindly. They have a very communal nature probably due to the extreme difficluties of survival in the past. They are extremely well educated. I once was taking a party of students to the Arctic Circle. We were searching for a campsite and were miles from anywhere. We asked an old woman (80+ probably ) working in a field if she knew anywhere. In perfect English she sent us to a site withing a mile - and phoned ahead to let them know we were coming so the kettle was on.

Norway used its oil bonanza wisely, investing in infrastructure and building many many new roads, rail links and schools and hospitals.

The people are fiercely proud of their viking heritage, love life outdoors and welcome visitors. Scandinavia is just a wonderful place to go.

 

[Cilpot]

What is life like in Norway? If it is really the highest quality of life worldwide, what is that like?

I guess the every day-to-day life is about the same here as most places in the western world.. At least compared to the places I've been to. Quality of life is very subjective. I don't think norwegians are happier than other places, and our suicide rates are higher than most countries.

How many people work for oil companies there? What is the job distribution like?

It depends on where in Norway you are. In the southwest many people work in the oil-sector, but most other places they don't. Except for the oil sector not many people work with natural resources.. Our farms are widely subsidised as the rest of the western world. After the oil-exports Norway's most important industry is the fishing industry. Most people actually work in administrational jobs, though. Industry is being flagged out (dunno if thats the right expression) to cheaper countries like anywhere else..

Are the Norwegian people (as a whole, if you can generalize) friendly? What are the general feelings about intellectuals?

Well, my feeling is that they are quite nice. Especially towards foreign visitors.. I suppose we just want other to like us. One negative thing I have experienced though is that norwegians are terrible at talking honest about their feelings. But we're getting better!

What is the government like? Is it rather socialist, like Sweden, or more capitalist? How are the education and healthcare systems?

Norway is a social democracy. There are parties ranging from extreme right to communism, but the only realistic parties to be elected are centric. Currently we have a government that is to the right in the spectrum, though compared to america I suppose it is not farhter to the righ than the democrats. Education is free all the way to doctors degrees at university level but you can go to private colleges and schools. The quality is often better at public colleges/universities, though. Norway also has free healthcare, but for some reason not free dental services.

What is the exchange rate, in practical terms, between US dollars and Norwegian kroner? Will a dollar go very far in Norway?

A buck is about seven kroner. Don't know how far dollars will take you..

How many people there speak English?
How different are Bokmål and Nynorsk? Would an average foreigner have trouble with them?

Most people speak english, except some elderly perhaps. You will have no practical use for nynorsk, as almost everything is in bokmål. It's also quite similar.

I've read about Norway at Wikipedia, so I have some general ideas about it, but I'm just wondering what the people there have to say about the country.

Well, I just rambled for a short time.. Hope it helps

 

[Cilpot]

Norway used its oil bonanza wisely, investing in infrastructure and building many many new roads, rail links and schools and hospitals.

A lot of people would disagree there. The state actually saves most of the money in something called the oil-fund for future generations. A generous idea, but many would like to see the money invested in industries that can keep the economy growing when the oil runs out.

I'm no economist so I really can't have a strong opinion on this..

 

[test_specimen]

What is life like in Norway?[...] Will a dollar go very far in Norway?

Everything is ridiculously expensive. And don't eat polser on ferrys because it's cheap - don't eat anything on a ferry that isn't packed in plastic.

 

[Cilpot]

Ah yes.. The best part of living in norway: Everything is really cheap when going abroad

 

[Cheetah]

What is life like in Norway? If it is really the highest quality of life worldwide, what is that like?

Nothing much different from the rest of the western world I think.

How many people work for oil companies there? What is the job distribution like?

I live in Stavanger on the southwest corner of Norway. There's about 150 000 people here (including the city of Sandnes and the counties surrounding Stavanger within 30 mins driving) and a lot of them work either directly with the oil, on platforms and in Statoil (the norwegian oil company, HQ in Stavanger) and other oil companies norwegian HQs, or they work with industries supporting the oil industry.
The rest of the country doesn't have that many oil jobs. Along the coast we have a lot of fishers and fishing industry. Other than that a lot of other jobs, both farming, industry (lumber, aluminium, mining, factories) and hightech jobs.

Are the Norwegian people (as a whole, if you can generalize) friendly?

As far as I know yes, we like tourists coming to Norway, makes us feel even better about our own country.

What are the general feelings about intellectuals?

Um.. good? There's nothing special about intellectuals as I know. Even university is free here (at least the public ones), and you can get financial support from the state to rent an apartment and such while you study. So a lot of people are well educated in Norway.

What is the government like? Is it rather socialist, like Sweden, or more capitalist?

A social democracy. Not long ago the state owned all the infrastructure and such, but it has been more privatised the last 20 years. I've heard Norway being called "the last communist state" as a joke, but we are becoming more and more like the USA.

How are the education and healthcare systems?

Both are very good. There's always things that can be better, and you can easily find a lot of norwegians being displeased with the healthcare system, some with less reason than others.

What is the exchange rate, in practical terms, between US dollars and Norwegian kroner? Will a dollar go very far in Norway?

About 7 NOK for 1 USD. How far it will go is another question. Both payments and prices are higher here than most other places, so you won't get more for it here than in the USA. At the grocerystore a 0,5 liter Coke costs about 11 NOK, a medium Big Mac menu costs 65 NOK, a movie ticket costs 80 to 110 NOK, a Donald Duck about 32 NOK, 1 liter gas is just under 10 NOK atm, diesel a little over 8.

How many people there speak English?

Lots. Only Disney-movies and the like are dubbed, so most other movies and tv-shows are with original speech and texted in norwegian. So a lot of norwegians speaks english. French and german is not as good, but you should be able to find a number of people who speaks that too.

How different are Bokmål and Nynorsk? Would an average foreigner have trouble with them?

I've heard that many pakistani immigrants think it is very confusing with bokmål and nynorsk, and a lot of norwegian students hate the fact that they have to learn both. I had a tendency to start writing swedish when I wrote nynorsk short stories.
But it should not give you to many problems. Everything found in nynorsk can be found in bokmål.