Customer Reviews

Culture Shock! Norway (Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As I write this review from Førde, Norway, I realize that Culture Shock!: Norway gives a fairly realistic view of the culture and society that makes Norway one of the most diverse countries in Scandinavia. I read the book after having lived in Norway 4 months and was quite surprised that it gave such an accurate description of Norwegian mentality, custom, and etiquette. This book will greatly aid anyone who will be staying in the country of Aquavit.

I bought this book for my girlfriend when she came from South Africa to live in Norway. I had to read it first of course to see how Norwegians were portrayed. And I found the book quite amusing. The author has in my opinion done a very good job when it comes to describing our habits, food, customs and so on. And it gave information that one can normally not find in the normal tourist guides. I'm going to Thailand later this year and I will buy a Culture Shock Thailand so that I can understand their ways better.

As a former bookstore employee I sometimes took the time to check out the books we had. Reading travel books about my home country was fun because there will always be many incorrect facts and also stereotypes about the country. (You know, like "all Norwegians are blonde") This book somewhat captured the essence, the mentality of a Norwegian, but had, by far, the highest number of incorrect facts. Som much so, that I believe the author has been asking local Norwegians for facts and they've been trying to see how many strange things they could make her believe. And she did.
Take it from me, I recommend Eyewitness Travel Guides instead.

"Culture Shock Norway" is designed to be an introduction to customs and etiquette in Norway. Norway is a distinct society, far more diverse than its relatively small population of five million people might suggest. Any guide to a country at least as diverse as Norway is, must inevitably offer a great many generalizations from the author's necessarily limited point of view. That said, this book provides a useful overview of the experience of living in Norway.

"Culture Shock" provides interesting commentary on Norway's laws, customs, and culture. Considerable coverage is given to the challenges of moving to Norway and operating in its business environment. This information may be especially interesting to an American visitor expecting Norway to be just like home. For the first time traveler, this book will provide a leg up on getting acclimated. It may be useful to read the short bio on the author in the back of the book before reading the main text, in order to understand her point of view.

This book is recommended reading for the person planning to visit Norway or to take up residence in Norway.

This book contains very little useful information on Norwegian culture and etiquette -- and is a rather poorly structured continuum of platitudes and commonplaces with limited practical application, especially for someone already familiar with Western civilization (!) in general. Not worth the price, not even as entertainment.

The book had alot to do with bringing kids to Norway, which is a book in itself. That being the case, it should have been another title and not so saturated a subject in this book.
The text really did not have alot of meat to it.
Pleasant, but not substantive.