Mistakes expats make in Norway

For me, it's not really a mistake but more like a misunderstanding...

I used to get hurt and offended when I say something and Norwegians will reply with "Hva?" or "Ka?" because in English those words translate to "What?" which sounds very rude.

But I discovered later on that it was just normal. Norwegians don't normally say "I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" or "Pardon me?" or "Yes?". They will just say "Hva?" or "Ka?". It's not meant to be rude, it's just the way it is. 

the norwegians separate their work friendships away from their private life friendships.  They generally only invites their private life friends to their house for dinners or parties.

Back in my home country, we invite both work friends and social friends to dinners or parties and generally we will receive an invitation back from them.  After i got my own place, I invited a few of my colleagues to my new home for dinners.  They are a mix of norwegians and other foreigners.  ONLY the foreigners colleagues will invite me back to their home for dinners and NEVER the norwegians.  i was told it is normal because they consider me as Work friends, thus not close or intimate enough to get into their private space or life like their home and meeting their family.  i was quite hurt initially.....now ....whatever...

The issue I cannot get around is if they don't consider me as a close enough friend, why do they want to come to my house for dinner??  maybe they are interested to see what kind ofexotic food I will serve?  I guess they are curious but they don't think I will be curious about how their norwegian lifestyle is like.

I think it's nice to keep work mates and social friends separate. After work drinks maybe but inviting people you work with home for dinner ......ummm maybe not. Not that different to many other countries, perhaps. I spent 15 years working in Hong Kong and not once was I invited to a Chinese colleague's home for dinner.....or even just a visit. I just accepted that as the way it is. What was weird over there was that everybody at work was invited to wedding banquets, whether they were close friends or not. Could never understand why you would invite your boss to such a personal event.

As for asking for someone to repeat something you haven't heard clearly ........again different for different countries. I used to get a simple grunt in HK if colleagues hadn't heard me clearly. I guess it all depends on the context.