Posted 3/15/2001 by Beorn
Jill Walker and Torill Mortensen, (both excellent bloggers), have followed up about language on the web. I'm glad to see serious discussion about this, because there isn't much of it elsewhere. The official position is either taken for granted, or simply ignored.

But I think I should clarify a bit here: When I encourage everyone who has something worth saying to write it in english, this isn't some radical call to arms, it's not about forcing or prodding anyone. It's simply acknowledging reality, a reality our cultural protectionists, (see image to the right), are well aware of, but still refuse to accept. The reality here is that to a lot of norwegians, including myself, writing in english comes as natural as writing in norwegian. And this is a good thing, because it finally gives Norway a voice in western culture, which since world war 2 has been dominated by the native english-speaking countries. Norway is pretty small and insignificant, in the larger scheme of things, but occasionally, once in a while, some of us say things that are actually worth listening to. We've been receiving for 50 years, and now it's time to start transmitting.

The way I see it, the norwegian language is a part of our cultural heritage, along with bunader, hardingfeler and Asbj�rnsen and Moe - but it's not a vital part of our culture as of 2001. Our heritage deserves to be remembered, but not artificially preserved. It could be argued that if you subtract western culture, protestant culture and scandinavian culture from norwegian culture, there's not much left to set us apart from everyone else - except our language. It could also be argued that subcultures are more important than national cultures these days, (a nerd is a nerd everywhere.) But I'm not concerned with being distinctly norwegian -- I feel more like a netizen of norwegian heritage than an actual norwegian. I am, however, concerned with all those norwegians - and swedes, danes, germans, belgians, french - who have something worth saying, who are encouraged, (even pressured), to use a language that prevents 99.95% of the world from reading their words.

By all means, use whatever language you feel comfortable with. There's nothing wrong with choosing to write norwegian, it's the cultural protectionists that are dangerous - and short-sighted. Our culture may not die if we don't start writing english, but it certainly will remain a well-kept secret. Nobody gains from that.