Did some testing and confirmed that my Norwegian vocab has deteriorated by a standard deviation or so. Sad. But predictable, I suppose, after 6+ years living abroad.
My English has only improved, so at least there's that.
Conversation
Funny little anecdote:
Every time I raise some complaint about living abroad, friends & family ask when I'm planning to move back.
Very few people inside that bubble can appreciate just how nauseating Norwegian exceptionalism is.
"Problems abroad? Well we don't have those."
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I like to think that Norway is proof that American exceptionalism would still be a terrible idea, even if it were remotely justified today.
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If you want a stagnant society that will eventually stop improving, because everything is already "better", do go ahead and pursue exceptionalism.
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"Oh, our politicians were allowed to sell out and our institutions are rapidly metastasizing into amorphous cankers of decaying bureaucracy?
Well, it's still not as bad as -those- countries, so maybe this is just normal. Why do anything?"
Replying to
"Sure, you can get stuck waiting for your sick pay for eight months because someone didn't file the right paperwork, but we have a WELFARE STATE.
More efficient solutions, without killing waits, that would even save money? Why bother? We have a WELFARE STATE."
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And my personal favorite:
"So Barnevernet has been to the ECHR about ten times now, but I'm sure it's worse in other countries and the problems there are tolerated because people don't know better."
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Still, it's pretty funny to see a substantial minority of Americans take this meme even further and brush off issues like having by far the worst health care system in the West, by treating them as if they're somehow meritorious.