General Discussion Thread

[Fimbulvarg]

Dumb question on my part, I guess, but do most Norwegians study English?  Americans are so complacently monolingual, you could never assume the majority of an audience understands a shirt/sign/etc. in ANY foreign language, even Spanish.

In primary to high school - yes, everyone. In university/college - no, only a few.

[Haiz]

Dumb question on my part, I guess, but do most Norwegians study English?  Americans are so complacently monolingual, you could never assume the majority of an audience understands a shirt/sign/etc. in ANY foreign language, even Spanish.

OH MAN DO WE
we start learning english in 1st grade
and not only that, most of our TV is undubbed (as opposed to most of europe) so we hear english all the time. ALso, english words are sneaking more and more into our language, i've had several conversations with fellow norwegians where we just accidentally switch over to english completely, and there are theories that in a 100 years norwegian is mostly english anyway. SO yeah english around these parts is no problem

[Viisikielinenkantele]

and like. people DO NOT get to throw the "be the change you want to see!" rethoric at me in one breath and "why does it even matter why do you try so hard" in the next. I just wish I had the mental energy to go all the way with leaflets and all.......

AS FOR UNI LIBRARY,, i like libraries. I'm just very bad at adjusting to uni in general. My previous school was a teeny tiny blue building by the docks, we had less than 100 students total, everything was small and cozy and comfortable and uni is.... huge........ full of people......... full of people who know what they're doing........


edit: woops i made it seem like i wear lots of rainbows and cut my hair just to make people assume things about me. not true: i just really love colours and rainbows. and the haircut was for dumb ocd reasons more than anything.

Not so many people at university who know what they´re doing, just lots of people pretending to know what they´re doing in my experience...so don´t let them intimidate you, most of them don´t know more than you, I am sure. Edit: Melusine was faster than me to type...

I love it when people have their own style and yours is very nice, yay for colours!

[Fimbulvarg]

Not so many people at university who know what they´re doing, just lots of people pretending to know what they´re doing in my experience..

Sssh, don't you rat us out!

[Laufey]

(oh and are non-binary identities a thing people care about in Iceland? because that must be VERY FUN with all your patronymic names..)

It's actually a bit of a hot topic at the moment - people are trying to see how Icelandic could work in a gender neutral way. So far there's been a few suggestions for new pronoun sets but like mentioned, it's the grammar in general that's making it so miserably difficult. As for the patronymics, it's becoming more and more popular to use a matronymic instead (matronymics have actually always been a thing in Iceland, just look at Loki Laufeyjarson); it's just that they used to carry a stigma because they hinted the father was not known. Nowadays there's no such stigma and some people even change their patronymics to matronymics especially if their father's not been a central figure in their life. It can even be seen as a way of showing respect to your mother for bringing you up alone.

"Fun" fact, at one point during the American occupation lots of Icelandic single mothers had children by the patronymics Hansson/Hansdóttir, which can mean a son or daughter of Hans OR simply "his son/daughter" instead of a matronymic. For quite a while being too friendly with the American soldiers gave the girls horrible reputation and a matronymic would have all too easily hinted at the child being half American, so the patronymic was used to protect the children from becoming easy targets to bullying.

[P__]

Dumb question on my part, I guess, but do most Norwegians study English?  Americans are so complacently monolingual, you could never assume the majority of an audience understands a shirt/sign/etc. in ANY foreign language, even Spanish.

that pretty and clear map about english-speakers in the EU doesn't include Norway, but here's another one
(possibly not entirely up to date; from wikitravel)

[Chizu]

Sssh, don't you rat us out!

I have  a pretty good idea what I am doing. And I am doing it well, getting all the right work placements, volunteering and grades. I don't have the luxury to fail. Nor do I want to....Uni is good. Now when I am out with my friends and after a few drinks, THEN I have no clue what is going in the world, but I do know I will never again snuggle my shoes...

I do apologies for the unrelated post in the politics discussion....but Uni

[Viisikielinenkantele]

Sssh, don't you rat us out!

 
Arts-degree study is all about learning to pretend to know something by rambling so long nobody is staying attention anymore...hach, these were good times at university *wistful*
Seriously, I loved the time at university doing something that really interested me...

[Koeshi]

THEN I have no clue what is going in the world, but I do know I will never again snuggle my shoes...

Are you sure about that?

[Haiz]

pffffffff I finally got myself to uni, and, indeed, the library. I will not allow myself to leave before I do the changes needed to the essay - it's due on monday and this is literally the only day I have the time to write it. Problem: i've never actually used any of the books here. Do i like, just, grab it and then put it back in place?? and if i cant find the book im looking for, do i like........ ask.........
i've been going to uni for over a semester and still don't know how to student. go me

also the weather outside is really stormy and maybe even a little snowy. the central bridge in trondheim was flanked with norwegian flags, but I can't for the life of me tell you why? it's not may 17th, it's not may 1st, it's not april 9th,, what is it about april 23rd that warrants this amount of flagging? does anyone know

Laufey: oh, that's cool! but i was worried about the son/dóttir-ending, because they imply son or daughter, but what when someone's neither?? what then

[Laufey]

Laufey: oh, that's cool! but i was worried about the son/dóttir-ending, because they imply son or daughter, but what when someone's neither?? what then

Wellllllp then... uh... you go to the States and change your last name to a surname, like Jón Gnarr did. That's the only way around it I'm afraid... -.-

[P__]

Do i like, just, grab it and then put it back in place?? and if i cant find the book im looking for, do i like........ ask.........

yep, just grab, and then either put it back or leave it on one of the book-carts you'll probably find around the corner for the librarians to place properly (if there are book-carts, I think it's assumed that books left alone on a table will be used again shortly, so they are generally not taken by librarians or other students)
as for books you can't find, there should be an online catalogue available on the library's computers (if there are any) and on the interwebz if you use your own PC. If this doesn't yield the desired result, or if the book turns out not to be in the public area but in sth like the Archive room, ask someone

At least that's what I gathered from my limited experience of libraries

[Mélusine]

Not so many people at university who know what they´re doing, just lots of people pretending to know what they´re doing in my experience...so don´t let them intimidate you, most of them don´t know more than you, I am sure. Edit: Melusine was faster than me to type...

Same kind of (good) memories, maybe ?

[Chizu]

Uni is amazing! The people you meet there, are really friends you can count on. They're essentially the thing that will get you through allnighters, exam stress etc. And of course they're the bunch of idiots who go roof climbing with you on top of the national welsh library in the middle of the night. Where all of you proceed to hide in multiple places as the fire brigade, police and library security try to find you.....ah good times!!
In general at Uni life is just crazy...where I am, there are so many societies, literally a nook for every odd owl. I am quite the hermit, but I have made quite a lot friends and I still have 2 more years to go.

[Haiz]

Uni is amazing! The people you meet there, are really friends you can count on. They're essentially the thing that will get you through allnighters, exam stress etc. And of course they're the bunch of idiots who go roof climbing with you on top of the national welsh library in the middle of the night. Where all of you proceed to hide in multiple places as the fire brigade, police and library security try to find you.....ah good times!!
In general at Uni life is just crazy...where I am, there are so many societies, literally a nook for every odd owl. I am quite the hermit, but I have made quite a lot friends and I still have 2 more years to go.

oh gosh that sounds super fun!!
that's not exactly my experience so far, but that might just be me being incredibly bad at socializing and too timid to join societies......... it's been months and my classmates are still in a "friendly acquaintances" zone to me, even after we had that excursion to Rome in October........... BUT to be fair I had the same classmates for three years at my previous school, and I think it took me the entirety of the first year to actually connect to some of them. friending me irl is such a chore, wow. 

also it's probably a thing that I live in the city outskirts with my parents still and not in some central student hive. and i spend a heckuva lot of time just cooped up in my room instead of going to parties and arrangements, but......... SIGHS


oh no oh no i ate all of my mints already i'm going to die. i'm going to die the Coughing Death. the library people will execute me for making noise.  oh no


edit. on a completely unrelated note: i have never wanted to fight an art -ism as much as i've wanted to fight futurism. im not even writing about futurism