Answering American Questions about Norway

24 Comments

1. You've never seen northern lights? How long have you lived in Norway? I tend to see them 2-4 times a year, so it sounds like you've been unlucky.

2. As a Norwegian I feel like this video pretty much nails it on all fronts. Good answers to common – and understandable, if at times a bit silly – questions. Speaking of northern lights though, it's worth mentioning that while the solar maximum helps, the bright summer nights make seeing them pretty much impossible in the warmer parts of the year. So there are always tradeoffs!

   And while Tre Nøtter til Askepott is a banger, as some others here have said, Flåklypa Grand Prix and Elling are also worth highlighting as pretty much universally loved films.

3. There is a awesome Viking museum in Vestfold, Horten I think it’s in.
   It’s build on a historical Viking site, Viking buildings there

4. Tre nøtter for Askepott, or Three nuts (wishes) for Cinderella is Czech. 🤗

5. Tre nøtter for Askepott, or Three nuts (wishes) for Cinderella is Czech. 🤗

6. 17:00 The most clear northern lights I've ever seen was out in the wild far north. Far away from light pollution from the cities. I was dragged out of the tent by my officer. I was cursing and sputtering while coming out of the tent until I saw them. I instantly stopped and my jaw just dropped. It's absolutely beautiful. Hope you get to see them.

7. You're right that Norway isn't a purely socialist state in the traditional sense! What we have here is often called a social democracy or the Nordic model, but it certainly embodies a strong 'socialist way' of organizing society. We prioritize collective well-being through things like our universal healthcare and education, robust social safety nets, and strong unions – all funded by taxes. It's about ensuring everyone has a fair chance and a dignified life, blending a market economy with a deep commitment to social equality and shared responsibility but…
   Americans REALLY font know what a scosialist is and the red scare should not be present especially in videos answering questions to Americans. The scandinavian model should be educated to countries that think socialism is evil.

8. blod sei is what you normaly wud have if you wud have an normal fish that last a while (that needs to be atleast 1 year old to eat that fish i belive) (sei is known as an good fish that can`t normaly last an week ewen in an freazeer)

9. Thanks for this one. I'm Norwegian, 50YO, male, and I'm 158cm "tall" (5"2') and grown up in the south (just 100km east of Oslo). I've always been the small one and trying to find a date on Tinder, really doesn't work. However, I've been to Tromsø quite a few times and going there, is rather fun. Instead of being the small one, I'm just another another guy. It took me some time to understand this, but people in the north are generally shorter than in the south. I can only guess that this is because of sámi blood. That said, I've met tall sámis as well, but it's not that common.

   As for vikings, I'm quite fond of history and since the viking history is somewhat visible, I like it! I even studied Icelandic for a while and learned a bit of norse language (which isn't that far from Icelandic.) That doesn't make me a right-wing fanatic, like the ones that abuse it just like the nazi Germany abused various symbols they never had, but came to take ownership over, globally. I'm a socialist, which again, doesn't make me a communist and even more important, doesn't make me beleive in dictatorship. Quite a few americans don't know the differences here 😉

   PS: As for the Norwegian pronunciation, I think you're doing quite well, but how you pronounce Bodø, keep in mind that most vowels are quite strong and the ø is in the front of the mouth. Talk to a local about it and listen 🙂

10. This was as educational as it was entertaining. Please let me know if you acquired the outfit for this video or if it was something you already owned 🤭

11. One thing that is bad abour Norway, is that we have imported some of Americas culture. Celebrity worship, hyper capitalism, teenage crime «cuz you gotta hustle 24/7 to afford this lambo bro» hopefully this wont further develop.

12. Also: yes there is alot of Viking stuff around….IF you know where and what to look for, i live 2 ish hours away from Oslo and here in my city we have alot of Viking stuff, grave mounds, museums, Longboats (we currently have one being constructed), BUT it's a common thing here and we don't highly commercialize it as you mentioned the US does.
    Inside and around Oslo thought it's alot less Viking stuff.
    Mainly because most Viking settlements was a bit further out from the Oslo fjord along the coast.
    There is a few Viking settlement sites in around the Oslo area but it's mostly been moved out of the way of development and into museum's.

13. You mentioned the increased height.
    Us Norwegians are growing taller and taller with every generation.
    And currently we're growing back to the general height the Vikings was and we have just now slowly started to pass them.
    After the Viking age Norwegians height started to shrink, we don't know why this happened.
    And then it slowly started to pick back up and we started to grow taller again around the second WW.
    And then 1-2 generations later were just growing like mad men.
    And the same goes for the general body build too.

14. Funnily enough my grandma and mom (northern Norwegian) did actually ski and sled to work/school. They lived on a hill and with all the snow, they'd just slide down the mountain fast lol

15. There used to be a stuffed polar bear in Oslo outside the Fram museum. There is also the fun you can have with the snow snake that leaves yellow traces in snow, and why you should dig a pit in your tent opening.

16. A lot of people in the US are neither interested in nor knowledgable about geography, even their own country's. When I lived in the Midwest, one year I took my two-week vacation in the state of Washington. When I got back home people asked about how my vacaion was, and a lot of them had no idea where Washington is. Three of those folks seriously asked me, "Is that west of the Mississippi?"

17. 14:43 Oh my gosh, you actually talk about this! It's so rare to see someone actually talk about the Christian conversion, and of the erasure of Norse culture by the Christian converts. Most people never discuss that part, which makes me so happy to hear you mention it! 'Cos a lot of people think that Vikings (and Norse culture) just disappeared, when in reality, Olav the Holy enforced Christianity and thereby erased a lot of Norse traditions. It's just really refreshing to see someone actually know our history.

    Your video is great, really appreciate the research and dedication you put into it! And I'm incredibly impressed with your pronunciation of Norwegian! Our language is notoriously difficult for anyone not from Scandinavia (too many vowels and long syllables), so I always find it really impressive when someone can manage to learn our language!

18. It should be said that some of the polar bear myths comes from the late 1800's and beginning og the 1900's. Hunters from Norway used to stay on Svalbard over the winter months to hunt both seal, arctic fox, reindeer and polar bears. Sometimes if a female bear with cubs were killed they would bring the cubs back to the main land. There are photos of polar bears on leash walking the streets of Tromsø.

    But I've heard some funny questions from tourists, like ''When do you turn on the northern lights?'' or ''Do you have two suns?'' Since we have the ''Midnight sun''.

19. 11:11 You forgot about the statues. So many statues in birthday suits. Most cities have so many of them. It's honestly weirder to see statues with clothes than without at this point.

20. The "polarbears in the streets of Norway" is an old myth that simply will not die. It's understandable that it got established, but it's quite impressive that it remains 'active'.

    See, the thing is, the myth has its origin in an actual incident and thus isn't quite at uninformed and ridiculous as most of us 'snooty norskies' tend to think:
    
    On July 30th 1953, a polar bear and her cubs from Svalbard where being transported from Tromsø all the way to a zoo in Germany by boat. However, while in Bergen harbor, as the unusual cargo was to be moved from one ship to another, the mother broke free from her box and walked around on the pier for a bit. Then, as she tried to get back on to the ship, she fell into the harbour, and for the next two hours she was herded around by boats trying to get her back onto the crate she had broken out of, all the while stopping her from getting ashore at the wrong place, as there were hundreds of tourists around watching the spectacle – which explains how the story became the "fact about Norway" it has become; tons of pictures were taken, and the incident reported upon in newspapers all over the world. Of course, had she gotten ashore, the story might have gotten a far grislier outcome than it it did in the end. Finally however, they did get her back onto the crate and could lift her onto the ship and lock her safely up with her cubs.

    And there you have it – sometimes polar bears DO roam the streets of Norway 🙂

21. Another good channel that goes idiot-mode by inserting their short sighted political views. Unsubscribed. Keep you commie shit to yourself if you want to grow your channel.

22. Great presentation, my only correction would be that downhill skiing and using lifts is way more common than randonnee. But it really depends on whether you live near a ski resort or not.

23. As a swede I guess our norwegian brothers and sisters didnt like the outcome of this years ladies ski world championship then.. 😛

24. In terms of the northern lights, you have to be pretty damn far north to see them. I've lived here half a year, and I only saw them on a trip up to the arctic island of Senja – there is a hotel place there called the northern lights observatory I highly recommend, they run tours to try and find the northern lights. It's like a 1.5 hour ferry from Tromsø, so not too bad. (Also saw an arctic hare there, but I was hiking off trail with my dad so it was not expected in the slightest) We saw some crazy good ones, like it was all over the sky by the naked eye, there was pink and they were moving!

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