From Northern Ireland wanting to move to Norway

I started learning Norwegian from a dictionary on ebay, and embarrasingly enough Norwegian Harry Potter books and the accompanying audio book, I found phrase books/ courses pretty naff.

I also spent a lot of time writing out lists of words- food, animals, work related objects.... my written Norwegian soon surpassed my spoken Norwegian. Unfortunately I was learning Norwegian for work (nothing like months on a ship with no-one speaking to you unless they had to, to hone your skills) where they speak west coast Norwegian- like learning oxford english from a book and then moving to Glasgow . Eventually it all started to make sense, reading helps but speaking and being surrounded by the language is really when the learning curve goes up! Saying that watching films with subtitles, either with Norwegian subtitles or Norwegian films with english subtitles does help too.

Good luck, not so different to English but hard to get hold of learning resources.... brighthouse uk sell foreign books (Norwegian books are incredibly expensive and difficult to get hold of I found).

Klartale.no.   Newspaper with podcasts written in clear and simple norwegian.

Pretty cool language though! Good luck

Thanks for the reply! What do you work at in Norway and or what encouraged you to move from the UK and how are you finding life there?

Hi,

I actually work on a ship, I work with a lot of Norwegians and did my training with a Norwegian shipping company and have sailed up and down the coast a fair bit. I now spend most of my leave here due to my Norwegian partner but I still officially live in Scotland, though 3/4 of my time off is in Norway... life's never simple is it!

In many ways I love Norway, but it is a bit of a culture shock, I've never had a bad night out here and once you get to know a Norwegian they are some of the warmest people you'll ever meet. In comparison to west coast Scots who make friends and talk to strangers easily, Norwegians are polar opposites but once you're friends with a Norwegian- you're friends for life. I find the prices extortionate and despite the 'high standard of living' the 'quality of living' is in some ways less than that of the UK, i.e forget dinners with friends or drinks after work, work lunches etc... very frugal existence in many ways, it just costs too much! But that isn't to say it is a necessarily a bad way of living, time with family and friends is highly valued and Norwegians work to live, not live to work.

Because I don't work here permanently and due to my job I find it kinda lonely to be here, most Norwegians are still close friends with the people they grew up with, my boyfriend's group of friends for example, he has known since he was two or three and although they're all lovely I am very much never going to be part of that gang in the same way he is, I'll go out with them but they would never invite me without him. If I was at work here maybe I would join a sports club but at the moment that isn't really a possibility. Sounds crazy but even going into a supermarket and not getting any smiles or smallchat can get you down when you don't know a soul, but then it's a different culture to the west coast of Scotland- to compare if you bump into someone here you both pretend it didn't happen, in Scotland it's profuse apologies- two very different attitudes to dealing with other people.

If you're not over dependent on other people, love the outdoor life and are willing to become 'Norwegian' both in language, appearance and way of living you'll have a good time and get on fine. Good people but I do find it a bit hard being here at times, I'm not so sure I'll make the move permanent, unless you have kids/ are pregnant -and even then you need to have worked for long enough to reap the benefits- the Scottish welfare system is much more advantageous if anything goes wrong (losing job, nhs, dentist and so on)it is not a utopian existence as the papers in the UK would have you believe: advantages and disadvantages, depends on how you want to live. Many foreigners certainly seem to struggle finding work and in general most employers will choose a Norwegian over a foreign employee (fair enough) unless you are highly skilled or in a specialist role. I do not say this to put you off but it is something to think about. Norway is great but it's Norway and the attitude is very much, love us or leave us, which again I have no qualms with but it doesn't have the same immigrant culture as in the UK or Australia for example.

Good luck anyway, good people but it ain't easy, whatever you decide I hope it works out for you though

Just a corrective note, unemployment benefit in Norway is much higher than in Scotland - about 80% of your last salary (unless they've changed it, but I doubt it!).

I wasn't talking monetary value, though I guess that's how I've worded it, but my being able to access it as a foreigner, there's a lot of horror stories over people who have lived and paid taxes here for decades but when something has gone wrong they've got nothing from the government and have basically had to leave and go to a home land they haven't lived in for decades either.... saying that I can't speak from first hand experience so I'll get off my high horse and say that aye, you're right and that's correct. It's not something I've really looked into, I wouldn't move here or any other country for the benefits, love is the reason I'm here nothing else and I work... my only concerrn if choosing a new land would be the dentist, £150 for a filling here! £30 if you don't turn up for an appointment? This has happened to my partner who works at sea- doesn't get the letter for a scheduled appointment as he's not home, then misses the appointment as he's not home and then has to pay for the privilege of not going to the dentist. Arg! Well saying that the NHS ain't perfect either....

I think I read that something 25% of the population are on sick leave, a high number. I don't know? Not something I worry about but I grant that there are definitely some monetary advantages to being here, not in the supermarket though! 

They changed the rules recently, so you only have to work a day to get access to no-fault unemployment benefit.  But really, the UK isn't much better in this regard.  My sister in law worked for a company for three months, and they "forgot" to pay her NI, so she wasn't entitled to any unemployment when the company went bankrupt.  Of course, for every scare story, there are plenty of success stories.

I don't know how many are on sick leave, but it's certainly enough to reduce the unemployment figures by a good one or two percent.  Of course, lots of people are on the sick/disability because they are sick/disabled, although I think it is easier to be on sick leave here and for longer than in the UK.  Having said that, the government is introducing partial sick-leave/disability with write-ups of what you *can* do, so that you are available at least for partial employment.

Dentists etc are expensive, yeah.  But try finding an NHS dentist these days .