"Defrosting Norwegians" Norway Favorite Tip by diocletianvs

Favorite thing: If you happen to arrive to Norway from another European country you’ll probably find Norwegians a little bit cold. If you’re coming from Mediterranean country then your first impression is most likely be that Norwegians are deeply frozen. So it’s essential to learn some “tricks” on “defrosting” Norwegians.

Norway is a huge country, that doesn’t have a strong urban tradition. If you look at typical Norwegian landscape, you’ll hardly find any villages as well – it is a landscape of scattered farms. For generations Norwegians were used to live with first neighbours being a couple of kilometres away.

The second theory of northern coldness takes the weather conditions into account: if you live for the most of the year with average temperatures of minus 10 degrees C, with strong wind blowing heavy snow into your face, it is unlikely that you’ll walk the streets cheerfully smiling and waving to everyone coming from the opposite direction.

There’s also a third theory, saying that Norwegians are simply somewhat shy.

Fondest memory: Whatever the cause, it’s up to you to try to broken the initial blockade (you don’t expect THEM to make a first move?).

The first step is to learn few words of Norwegian. Goddag and Hei are very close to English, use Unnskyld (Excuse me) if you approach someone for the first time on the street and don’t forget to say Takk (Thank you). Almost all Norwegians speak English, but don’t like to show it. After your first attempts of speaking Norwegian they will probably automatically start speaking English. That should be enough to start the conversation.
If you want to know Norwegians a little bit better, then there’s only one sure recipe of the success: you have to get drunk together with them! (One of the minuses of this approach is the fact that they probably won’t remember you the next day).

Once you break the initial barriers you’ll find Norwegians as very kind and helpful people. Despite the recent richness of their country Norwegians are very simple and proud of their nation. If you gain their trust and become a friend, you’re most probably found yourself a friend for a lifetime.