This
land of the midnight sun and glacier-born fjords is
the birthplace of skiing and home of the Nobel
Peace Prize. One of the first countries to grant
universal suffrage, Norway was also the first
country to have a parliament for its indigenous
people, the Sami, a people with a unique culture
similar to that of Native Americans.
Inventors of the paper clip and the cheese slicer,
Norwegians have long played a role in global
culture.
Some
world famous Norwegians include the Viking, Leif
Erikson, who was the first European to land in
America, the explorers, Thor Heyerdahl and Roald
Amundsen, the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen,
the painter of "The Scream," Edvard Munch, and the
Olympic athletes, Johann Olav Koss and Bjørn
Dæhli.
From
the capital city of Oslo to the coastal port of
Bergen and the arctic city of Tromsø, Norway
with its 4.3 million inhabitants offers an
abundance of new and exciting experiences for the
American student.
Thus, many of the students who take Norwegian spend
a summer, semester or year in Norway in order to
experience the culture firsthand.
As Norwegian was influenced by both Swedish and
Danish during its union with these countries,
anyone speaking Norwegian can easily understand the
other two Scandinavian languages.
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