I would say that Norway is a multicultural country, at least in the cities. In one store you can buy asian food, nextdoor it's indian or how about shish kebab? I would say that our culture has never been better than in 2011.
Norwegians have always been good at keeping to traditions, and we still are, but now a days it's developing every day. All the different people that in the last 100 years, but mostly 50 years, migrated to Norway, have helped shape our country to the better. The three big topic that define a culture is language, food and music.
Language
We've got three official languages in Norway, bokmål, nynorsk and samì (last one normally only spoken by the samì people in the north). From the age of 6 we learn English in school and from 13 you normally have to learn another language (French, German, Spanish etc) I chose German, but cause I haven't spoken it in a while, having a conversation will be a bit hard at first, but I can understand some. As in many other countries, after the internet came, cultures and languages started to move around. Also after the EU started opening up borders and people from other countries moved to work here, they brought their culture and language with them. Main influence is English, where many day to day words come from, either in original form or an altered version. I get customers in the store who say "Thank you" instead of the Norwegian word "Takk". I use the word "invite" instead of "invitasjon" when I ask people to send me an invite to something. We use the word "deal". And this goes on and on. Also some words with origin from other languages, f ex Arabian.
I've particularly noticed this in the last year after I moved to the UK. Cause when I get back to Norway, many many English words is still left. Sometimes the English word comes out instead of the Norwegian. When me and the other "Swansea-Norwegians" talk, after we've been in UK a while, we almost speak a "fusion-Norwegian/English". One word here and there might be English or a phrase or saying might pop out.
Norwegian: "Er det middag nå?"
English: "Is it dinner-time?"
Fusion: "Er det dinner-time?"
Often it's just easier to use one English word instead of 2-3 Norwegian words. Also sometimes I simply forget the Norwegian word and just automatically use the English one. I love learning new languages, and between you and me, I regret not choosing Spanish, haha!
Food
I've always liked foreign food. Two very traditional Norwegian dishes would be kjøttkaker med poteter og brunsaus (meatballs with potatoes and brown sauce) and Fårrikål (sheep meat boiled for hours with cabbage and pepper/salt). They are OKAY dishes, fair enough. But if I get taco, Italian pasta or Tikka Masala on my plate, I'll get water in my mouth. Personally, I think some of the "traditional" Norwegian food is so boring and could have much more flavor. In Norway it's custom to eat taco or pizza on Friday and/or Saturday. I'm not joking. I work in a grocery store and the sale of sweet corn, tomatoes, taco kits and spice doubles on a Friday afternoon, it's crazy. I grew up with a mom who hate boring food and we'd never had Fårrikål until 2 years back. She likes to cook Greek food or should I just say, Meditarinian food. So naturally I've gotten that input into my taste of food. So called "fusion cooking" is great. Then you basically mix different types of food from different cultures. F ex Norwegian + Indian + Italian = kjøttkaker med hvitløksmarinerte poteter og karrisaus/ meatballs with garlic marinated potatoes and curry sauce.
I've always had milk in the tea and ever since I could speak I've said the English word "toast" instead of "ristet brød" in Norwegian. My "excuse" is that my great nan was British and then grandma grew up with that, then my mom and now me.
Left: Stella Mwangi - This years Eurovison song. (English and african)
Right: Erik and Kriss ft BYZ - A song that was played loads a few months ago (Norwegian and Swedish)
Left: Katastrofe - New up and coming Norwegian rapper (Norwegian)
Right: Samsaya - A great artist, with several "top 10" hits throughout the years (English + some Norwegian)
Left: Gabrielle - A new artist (I've never heard of her before this one any way) A song on the "top 10" now (Norwegian)
Right: Aqua - Let us not forget Aqua. What would the 90s or the world be without it xD
Oh and BTW, many of Rihannas songs were produced and written by a Norwegian company, Stargate. Anyway, music is a universial language. You may not always understand the lyrics, but you can understand the beat. I remember as a kid singing P!nks
Get the party started without really knowing what I was singing.
I'm not a huge Eurovison fan, but when Stella Mwangi was chosen to represent Norway this year I was proud. She sang in two languages and shows a new culture. Several people went public saying "Oh but she's not singing in Norwegian, it's an african language" "That's not our type of music" and some went as far as to say "But she's black, it's wrong that she should represent us". The last one was random people in the commentary field on articles who said, racist twats! Anyway, I was proud cause that song DOES show our culture, that we are a multicultural society. But I'm glad she didn't win, cause in 2009 the worst thing happened.... Alexander Rybak, Norway's singer, won... Oh my god... his song
Fairytail was E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E! Every single store, radio channel, TV channel, elevators, ringtones, people humming etc. People were going crazy. It was started several "hate" groups on Facebook and it got well over a million, haha! Lesson to be learned here; if your country didn't win Eurovision, be happy.
I think that most people find other cultures more exciting than their own. It's exciting trying something new, learning new stuff. My dream job for 6 months-a year would be to work as a camera operator for Travel Channel and travel the world to see its cultures.
Stella's new music video for her song
Lookie Lookie! Check it out
Today's song: Stella Mwangi - Lookie Lookie
