As an American living in Oslo, I can say that understanding spoken Norwegian is incredibly difficult. Even Norwegians admit that the divergence of some of the dialects creates problems for them as well. Bokmål's syntax and grammar is not actually that difficult to learn, but because the spoken language is really quite different - even in Oslo - it's very difficult to mentally map the spoken words to the written words. I'm also not sure that I would agree with you concerning the difference in English influence between, for example, Danish and Norwegian. Norway, much like France, does have a group dedicated to coming up with "Norwegian" words for new terms, but those words are often ignored, such as people saying dot instead of punkt when reciting a URL. There was also an article recently about the increasing tendency for Norwegians to say sorry instead of unnskyld or beklager.
Danes and Swedes do not have nearly as wide a variety of accents, and I think that is why they have a much harder time understanding Norwegian than you have understanding them. Norwegians have to grow up learning two native languages, figuring out all the different dialects, and start learning English around the age of 7 or 8 (these days, at least). The affect this has on your ability to grasp languages does not surprise me at all.
Of course, I still find it rather annoying that some of my Norwegian friends expect me to be able to learn Norwegian quickly despite knowing that I work in an English language environment (I share an office with 4 other people, none of whom are Norwegian) and not having a Norwegian spouse or samboer. And, of course, that most of them spent around 10 years in school learning English, not to mention being exposed to it through TV, movies and music.
One last question, though... What's the point of Norway not being in the EU if they keep agreeing to everything the EU enacts? Such as, say, the DLD?
Danes and Swedes do not have nearly as wide a variety of accents, and I think that is why they have a much harder time understanding Norwegian than you have understanding them. Norwegians have to grow up learning two native languages, figuring out all the different dialects, and start learning English around the age of 7 or 8 (these days, at least). The affect this has on your ability to grasp languages does not surprise me at all.
Of course, I still find it rather annoying that some of my Norwegian friends expect me to be able to learn Norwegian quickly despite knowing that I work in an English language environment (I share an office with 4 other people, none of whom are Norwegian) and not having a Norwegian spouse or samboer. And, of course, that most of them spent around 10 years in school learning English, not to mention being exposed to it through TV, movies and music.
One last question, though... What's the point of Norway not being in the EU if they keep agreeing to everything the EU enacts? Such as, say, the DLD?