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flamyliss-blog · 7 years ago

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Tiny guide to Oslo and Norwegian stuff for SKAM writers

I’m Norwegian and live in Oslo, and this is my attempt to give SKAM writers from other countries a tiny reference work. SKAM is a very realistic show and many writers would like to give their fic a realistic feel, but research isn’t easy! Especially not when it comes to all the little details that are so very culture/area specific and that you never even think about..

Fellow Norwegians and others knowing Oslo well: please feel free to comment on things you disagree with or would like to add!

General tip: avoid mentioning specific brands if you can. Chances are that whatever product in particular you’re mentioning is available in Norway, but it’s not a given, and it may be that there are brands specific to Norway/Scandinavia that are preferred here.

Locations

Here is a map showing the schools and where the characters live. That is, the lower secondary schools the characters went to are marked. The characters who live with their parents will be living near those schools.

For instance, if Jonas and Eva decide to hang out outside their homes, they won’t arrange to meet at Nissen - it’s far from where they both live.

Transport

Oslo has a metro, trams and buses (also trains, but you mostly use them for trips out of the city). Isak runs into Even on a tram in Mekke øl - not a bus, not a train. That tram line (no. 12) will conveniently take you to Nissen, Isak’s flatshare and the homes of Even, Magnus, Jonas and Eva (I don’t know why Magnus and Jonas don’t get on it in Mekke øl…).

William and Penetrator Chris have the use of cars, but I don’t know if they own them (have been given them by their parents) or if they’re borrowing them from their parents. It’s unlikely that the other characters drive anywhere, it’s very common to use public transport or bikes.

You have to be 18 to get a driving licence, and it’s pretty expensive. Getting one is fairly common in Oslo, but more common elsewhere in Norway where the public transport isn’t as good.

Food and drink

Coffee shops

Sorry, but the barista won’t find out the cute customer’s name by the “need your name to write on the cup” trick - we don’t do that in Norway. What you do when you’re getting coffee is order and pay, and then lurk near the counter until the barista calls out the order, not a name.

There are a couple of Starbucks in Oslo, and they are the only coffee shops where you tell the barista your name. The baristas at Kaffebrenneriet (a popular coffee shop chain, mentioned several times in SKAM and where Isak and Even meet up before going to the hotel) will certainly never ask.

Alcohol

You can’t buy alcohol in a store in Norway after 20:00 (18:00 on Saturdays). No, I don’t understand it either, but there you are. Actually you can only buy beer, cider and alcopops in regular food stores, but not wine (except maybe for a couple of weak and horrible sorts) or spirits. You go to Vinmonopolet for wine, spirits and strong beer.

You have to be 18 to buy wine, beer, cider and alcopops, and 20 to buy spirits. This also means that you have to be 20 to go to bars and clubs where spirits are sold, by the way.

You can’t buy kegs of beer in Norway, so keg parties are not a thing here. You bring your own beer/wine/etc. to parties.

Bottled water

If you’re out somewhere and get thirsty you might buy a bottle of still or sparkling water. In a private home you’ll almost never be offered a bottle of water, you will be drinking glasses of (completely safe) tap water. In coffee shops, cafés and restaurants you may order bottled still or sparkling water, but tap water will always be available to the guests.

Cardamom on cheese

There is no cardamom on the horrible cheese toasties in season 3. Isak and Even joke about how that is the problem. It’s not a Norwegian delicacy.

(Sour cream in scrambled eggs is delicious though.)

Language and swearing

Names

It has to be mentioned that not all canon SKAM character names are entirely plausible, or even exist in Norway. Valtersen, for instance, probably isn’t in use at all. If you do a name search you’ll only find out that there are four or fewer persons in Norway with that name, because the official name search doesn’t narrow it down further than that.

That name search is a great help though, because while rare/non-existent canon names in SKAM sound pretty plausibly Norwegian, that is probably not something you as a foreigner will achieve. Look up the names you’d like to use in your fic, and if you can’t find them or get a very low number of people with those names, consider ditching them. Remember that baby name sites often list utterly outlandish first names suggestions, so don’t take all names on Norwegian baby name sites as perfectly good to use.

Local colour

Quite a few non-Norwegian SKAM fic writers like to use a few Norwegian words and phrases, which in my opinion isn’t necessary to get a feel of where and who they are. It’s difficult to get it right when you don’t speak the language.

I’m not going to compile a full SKAM dictionary, just list a few examples I’ve seen several times in fic, and let’s start with the worst of the worst (which isn’t your fault at all, dear writers): “Knulle deg” - well fuck you, Google Translate. The phrase “fuck you” may translate word by word into “knulle deg” (or “pule deg”, which Google translate doesn’t suggest), but this machine translation is just horrible. The phrase you’re looking for is “faen ta deg”.

“Faen ta deg” means “may the devil take you”. A lot of swearing in Norwegian is based on religion, not all that much on sex.

“Kollektivet” - this is pretty iconic, and it’s understandable that writers want to refer to the roommates as kollektivet to keep a sense of the Norwegian-ness, but it’s a definite noun phrase. Writing “the kollektivet” is like writing “the the flatshare”. “The kollektiv” is better.

“Drittsekk”/”drittsekken” - a mild insult, almost invariably used jarringly in SKAM fic. It may be used jokingly as an endearment, but very very carefully and the ways Noora use it as she progresses with William are very subtle, so frankly you’re better off just avoiding it. “Asshole” is not as mild, but perhaps the closest you get in English.

“Halla” - a slang pronunciation of “hallo”. Many people, including myself (I’m a bit older than the SKAM characters), use it lots. It’s become quite iconic in fandom because of Even, so I see the appeal. It’s really informal, use it like you would use “hi”.

“Ja”/”nei” - well, it’s “yes”/”no”. Not too difficult, fic writers rarely get it wrong. It’s possible to mess up “ja” because Norwegian also has “jo”, which works as “yes” in some circumstances, but that is really technical and nitpicky.

“Ferdi” - is an intentionally wrong slang spelling of “ferdig”, and means finished, done, full stop, end of.

“Forelskelse”/”å være forelsket” - the state of being in love/to be in love. Just use English instead. Using iconic phrases like “halla” and “ferdi” may add a little something to your fic, but “forelskelse”/”å være forelsket” are difficult to insert in a way that doesn’t look very off.

Please don’t use Google Translate. It’s completely, utterly, eye-searingly rubbish at translating into Norwegian. It may seem like a nice touch to use Norwegian for things like texts between the characters, but the readers who know Norwegian will wince when (not if) Google Translate gets it wrong and the other readers won’t be able to read it.

Mr/Mrs

Norwegians don’t address people very formally at all. School children are usually on a first name basis with their teachers, older school kids and students are often on a first name basis with their teachers, grown-ups are usually on a first name basis with their bosses. Kids never address their friends’ parents as Mr/Mrs. Very occasionally you use people’s last name, but as a general rule, assume that Norwegians only go by their first names all the time.

English as a not so foreign language

Norwegians mix a lot of English, particularly US English, into informal speech. “Whaaat?” is common, for instance. The English words are often Norwegianised in pronunciation and/or spelling, for instance “å bænge” (“to bang”) or “plis” (“please”). This means that some English puns work perfectly fine when Norwegians are talking. Besides, when you write in English (or whichever language), use that language and its possibilities and limitations, don’t worry about making it all look Norwegian-ish.

Schools and education

Wikipedia is pretty good on education in Norway.

In Norway, you normally go to the primary/lower secondary school closest to where you live, but at least in Oslo, when you start upper secondary school, you may choose a school elsewhere in the municipality, which is why the SKAM characters go to a school which isn’t close to where most of them live.

Hartvig Nissens skole - “Nissen”

It’s named after a guy whose first name was Hartvig and his surname was Nissen. It’s a good and popular upper secondary school, and their music/dance/drama studies branch is especially popular. You need reasonably good grades from lower secondary school to go to Nissen.

Elvebakken videregående skole - “Bakka”

Also an upper secondary school. You need seriously good grades from lower secondary school to get in. It’s very good and very popular.

Please also note that a Bakka party doesn’t mean a party at Elvebakken, it means a party hosted by an Elvebakken student.

Revue

Lots of schools in Norway do a student revue, for students in all three years or just third year. It depends whether it’s the cool kids or the nerds who participate, though, subtle teenage social structures are at play. The revue is a satirical show, consisting of short sketches and musical acts that are more or less related to a theme for the revue. For instance, if the theme is SKAM, at least some of the sketches would be parodies of scenes from the show, or perhaps piss-takes of fans lurking around Nissen hoping to get a selfie with Tarjei Sandvik Moe…

Kosegruppa

Kos is pretty much untranslatable. Making things cosy, maybe? The kos group is one of the revue groups, and their job is pretty much cooking for the others working on the revue and trying to make everybody in the revue be happy and have a good time. It’s not something Vilde comes up with, it’s an established concept and not unique to Nissen, for that matter. In fact, it’s not entirely plausible that three second year nobodies like Vilde, Eva and Sana, who weren’t even in any revue groups in first year, would get to lead the kos group.

Note that “Kosegruppa” is a definite noun phrase, it means “the kos group”. “The Kosegruppa” is like writing “the the kos group”. “The Kosegruppe” is better.

Russ

The Wikipedia article about russefeiring is decent enough, but this Tumblr post is more to the point. You may also note that while William and his friends allow first years to come along and party in their russ bus, and this is a familiar concept to the SKAM girls, russ may regard not-russ tagging along as intolerable.

Higher education

Very roughly: in Norwegian universities, you are admitted to a bachelor’s programme and may choose to apply for a master’s programme after that. The term “majoring” is not used. Summary of how bachelor’s programmes work in general: each semester you take three 10-credit courses (or some 5-credit or 20-credit courses), most are programme specific and if you’re writing a bachelor thesis it makes up for some of the credits you need to get your degree. One of the courses is examen philosophicum, which is a mandatory course in science philosophy and ethics. Another may be examen facultatum, which is more of a field-specific method course, it’s required for some programmes. You’re encouraged to study abroad for a semester or two. In most programmes you may also take some unrelated courses, but you’ll want those to be relevant to your field.

Study in Norway is a good starting point for information about higher education here. You will also find some general practical information for foreign students about living in Norway there.

Healthcare

This is information for immigrants about healthcare in Norway. It’s pretty lengthy and detailed, so I’ve tried to summarise: while there are privately owned clinics in Norway where you can pay the full cost for your treatment if you want to, most healthcare is government funded and you’re only charged a small sum for consultations (about $18/£14,50/€17 now).

You also pay a bit for lab tests and X-rays and the like, but not the full cost. You normally pay in full for your medicines (unless your illness is chronic, Even would pay much less than full cost if he’s on meds. Let’s say the full cost of his pills is 400 kroner for a pack, he would pay about 150 kroner) and your dental care.

Every Norwegian has the right to be registered with a primary general practitioner. Note that SKAM’s Dr Skrulle (not a real name, Noora gives her a nickname and it means crazy woman) reveals that she’s not really a doctor. She’s probably the school nurse.

School nurses in Norway aren’t necessarily present all day or week, but all schools have one, and students can see their school nurse as well as their primary GP about their health.

There is one pharmacy in Oslo which is open 24/7. There are lots of pharmacies, their opening hours vary.

Various everyday things

Money

The currency is krone (plural kroner).

It’s pretty suspicious that Even “forgets” his ID, because it’s likely to be his debit card (which usually doubles as a photo ID in Norway), and Norwegians rarely use cash and rarely go anywhere without our debit cards. However, debit cards as photo IDs are being phased out as national ID cards will be introduced soon. It may be that Even’s debit card is a new one, without photo ID, and if so his ID would be his driving licence (if he has one) or his passport (which most Norwegians do have).

Isak uses cash once, perhaps that’s easier in the Nissen cafeteria. We never ever use cheques. It’s also strange that Eva’s mum leaves cash for her one time, instead of just transferring the money to Eva’s account, but perhaps Eva’s mum wanted it to be more like a present.

By the way, both Noora and Isak ought to be receiving a government stipend when being in school but not living with their parents. I imagine Noora would know about that and have applied for it, at least. It’s only about 4000 kroner a month, so it would just cover the rent (which is cheap for Oslo!), and they would still have to rely on other income.

Bedding

Isak does not have blankets on his bed. He has a duvet.

You put a sheet on the mattress, you put the pillows in pillow cases and you put the duvet in a duvet cover. You sleep between the sheet and the duvet cover. No top sheet.

You’ll wash the sheet, the pillow cases and the duvet cover regularly. It’s not entirely uncommon to only use one set of bed linen, wash and tumble dry it in one day and put it back on before bed time - which may explain why Isak’s bedding doesn’t change during season 3. Or he may be a horrible slob who doesn’t wash his bedding at all for over two months.

Sometimes people put a sort of ornamental blanket on top of the duvet to cover up the bed in daytime, those blankets are removed when you go to bed. Some Norwegians also like to use warm blankets in addition to the duvet, but the duvet is invariably present.

Contraceptives/STD protection

The condom brand RFSU is what you buy in supermarkets, pharmacies, small snacks and tobacco shops (called kiosks), petrol stations etc. Sex shops have more brands, maybe Trojan too, but that isn’t the everyday condom brand in Norway.

Lots of girls are on the pill (sometimes in order to regulate menstruation), have contraceptive implants or use vaginal rings. The morning after pill is well known.

The age of consent is 16 in Norway, by the way.

Dating

Nah, we don’t go on dates, really. Especially not teens. They just hang out.

Craigslist

It exists in Norway, but just barely, and virtually nobody uses it. You use finn.no and various other (usually short lived) apps and web services to buy and sell stuff and find flats or houses for rent or sale, and you use Tinder/Grindr/various web services to find people to hook up with.

And finally…

Well that didn’t get long AT ALL.

If there’s anything else you’d like to know about Norway and Oslo, go ahead and ask me! I’ll be happy to help you if I can.

Many many thanks to @towonderland72, who acted as non-Norwegian test driver of this mini primer.

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