• 1 Post
  • 13 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
Cake day: December 30th, 2024
  • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.worldtoNorway@sopuli.xyz•Summer in Norway
    2·
    3 days ago

    I will say that pretty much everyone over the age of 10 here speaks passable English, but most workplaces prefer to use Norwegian as the working language. Academia and the service industry are obvious exceptions, as well as any industry that relies heavily on foreign workers (almost all the mechanics I’ve been to here ar polish for example). Life here will, however be much easier if you learn Norwegian, but it its not necessary to get started.

    But yeah i don’t like the orange twat and if I can help someone leave, I will.

  • Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.worldtoNorway@sopuli.xyz•Summer in Norway
    2·
    7 days ago

    So Norway is interesting in regards to the LGBTQ community. Sexuality things are generally very accepted all over Norway and have been for longer than most places. Gender things are a bit different, but progressing slowly in the right direction, I think.

    For example doctors are not allowed to prescribe HRT unless they can show that their patient has been living as the gender they identify with for a year (I have heard this, don’t know if it’s accurate). One article i read also said that in order to be officially change your sex (new I’d number, passport etc), removal of the testicles/ovaries is required. So not exactly progressive. But I think that a lot of the official stuff might just be that Norway is extremely slow to change things. There’s very much an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude here and that means that most things are very close to broken most of the time.

    Individual views tend to be relatively open minded in most circles, but you do get a lot of closed minded people who can be quite forthcoming with their opinion after a few beers. Although that being said the majority of Norwegians don’t like to involve themselves in other people’s business beyond a snide comment between friends. I would be genuinely shocked if a trans person were physically assaulted. According to statistics from the police, there are between 5 and 15 counts of bodily harm (including grievous bodily harm) and fewer than 5 counts of bodily injury (not sure why the distinction) motivated by gender identity each year and 2 murders in 2022 although the statistics I saw only covered 2021-2023. I have no idea how they collected or handled the data.

    Regarding pronouns, my NB friend has said that they constantly need to remind people. Also an NB colleague of mine who’s they/them pronouns are visible in their zoom profile is habitually referred to as she by all but a couple of my colleagues (2/50) and even when I emphasise they there are only a couple more who switch.

    I know that recently the orange administration has been sending ultimatums to all the universities in Europe saying essentially saying “stop teaching woke stuff and practicing dei or we won’t recognise your university or fund American students who go there”. I believe the response has been a mixture of offence and disgust. One of the department heads signed it and was quickly reprimanded by the administration and told to walk it back. So there’s that at least.

    That’s my knowledge of the situation in Norway, it I’m not trans so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Hope it was helpful.