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williamtr3

Hi everyone, my name is William. I'm from Vietnam and have been living in Melbourne (Australia) since 2003. I'm thinking of relocating to Norway (for education and work and new living experience). I have several questions to ask and hope someone could help me out. Thank you very much.

Since education is free in Norway for international students, does anyone know how much to rent an apartment in Oslo and minimum living expenses per month? (rent/bills/food/living expenses).

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new_in_norway

William;

Accommodation) Around 5000 NOK for 1 person shared , or 700 euro
This is the cheapest. It will be too expensive to rent a whole flat for yourself while you are a student.

Food) It will be expensive, but supermarket prices are reasonable apart from diary products such as milk which is always expensive in Norway.

Transportation) Expensive even with a travel card/pass

williamtr3

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated!
Do you find Norwegian language easy to speak? I speak fluently English and I find it not easy to speak Norwegian (Pronunciation).

new_in_norway

william: I don't exactly speak Norwegian, but another Scandinavian language - I would say that for Vietnamese speakers then Norwegian can come across as difficult, allthough it will be easier for you since you speak English fluently.

Norwegian is easier to learn than Danish which has many silent letters such as "d" which is not pronounced if it's in the middle of a word. If I am not wrong then Norwegians pronounce almost all of their letters?

The three sounds or letters which you might not already know from before are Æ Ø Å , such as the town of Ålesund in which one of these letters is. They just represent 3 sounds so when you know how they sound like then everytime you meet them you will know how to pronounce them - e.g if you can pronounce Ålesund then you know how to pronounce Ål , Håkan, håb etc

Often you find two "A's" written instead of Å, so whenever you see a doube A such as in Haakan , then it's pronounced as Håkan

williamtr3

I've been learning Norwegian language from youtube and guess what? It is quite easy for me since the alphabets is pronouced some what similar to Vietnamese. We even have prouciation for those 3 special Æ Ø Å as well but just written differently in Vietnamese. Our language was created by the French using latin alphabets so I think thats why I could pronounce it easy. :) So excited!

new_in_norway

Ah that's cool William

So Vietnamese is written using the Latin alphabet?

I know that in the other Southeast Asian countries, such as Burma and Thailand - their scripture looks like an Indian scipture - perhaps it dates back to the time when Hinduism and Buddhism were exported from the Indian Subcontinent further east?

Perhaps Vietnam used Chinese letters.

williamtr3

We are lucky enough that we was colonised by the French back then and they changed our writing system from somewhat similar to Chinese characters into latin alphabets that we have been using since until today and probably forever. Haha! You might find it very funny because we speak similar to Chinese and we write like French!

yaklef

Hi all
Is education in Norway free for international students?
what about languages, Norwegain or English it's free too?
Is education in Norway be required only in Norwegian language, or can study other languages as English.
          Thanks, regards
              yaklef

new_in_norway

Yes yaklef, education is free for international students in Norway

There are very few undergraduate courses available in English - at what level do you mean? Degree courses or Master degrees?

williamtr3

Education is free for foreign students from any countries. Some universities offer courses in both english and norwegian. However, like new-in-norway says, they are very limited. And I think its better if you attend to a norwegian language course for communication purpose with the locals.

yaklef

Thanks new in norway, william
I want to improve my Engilsh and take Norwegian courses too
  after than  i will study Aviation degree.
    Thanks

williamtr3

Hi yaklef, Im not sure if Aviation degree is available to learn in English in Norway. I've seen a few courses in English and if I remember correctly, I didn't see Aviation. But maybe you could study that in Norwegian language. May I ask why do you want to study Aviation in Norway? Im living in Australia at the moment and they have that course in English here.

yaklef

ok william, can you send me address for some free english courses in Norway.
   Thanks

williamtr3

This is the official website of Norway in Australia. It has information about study in Norway. http://www.norway.org.au/studywork/

yaklef

Hi william
I just need to improve my English  , so How can I get free English courses  in Norway.
Thanks yaklef

williamtr3

Hi yaklef,
Im not sure if you can learn English for free in Norway! And i think English courses in Norway would be for Norwegian speaking people want to learn English so it will be hard for you to learn English there since you dont speak Norwegian!