About Norway

     Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is bordered by Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Norway has a very elongated shape: The country's extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean is home to its famous fjords.

     The Kingdom of Norway also includes the Arctic island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Norwegian sovereignty of Svalbard is based upon the Svalbard Treaty, but this does not apply to Jan Mayen. Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and claims for Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land in Antarctica are also external dependencies, but these are not part of the Kingdom.

      Since World War II, Norway has experienced rapid economic growth, and is now amongst the wealthiest countries in the world, with a fully developed welfare system. This economic progress is caused in part by the exploitation of oil and gas reserves off coast. Norway has ranked top among all countries in human development since 2001. It also rated the most peaceful country in the world in a 2007 survey by Global Peace Index.

    The Germanic Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. They have officially equal status, i.e. they are both used in public administration, in schools, churches, radio and television, but Bokmål is used by the vast majority, about 85-90%. Around 95% of the population speak Norwegian as their native tongue, although many speak dialects that may differ significantly from the written language. In general Norwegian dialects are inter-intelligible, though some may require significant effort. Several Finno-Ugric Sami languages are spoken and written throughout the country, especially in the north, by the Sami people. The state recognises these languages as official, and speakers have a right to get education in Sami language no matter where they are living, and receive communications from government in various Sami languages. The Kven minority speak the Finno-Ugric Kven language/Finnish.

     The main foreign languages (primærfremmedspråk) taught in Norway are English, German and French. People may contact the authorities or take their exams in any of the three main foreign languages as well as in the two other Scandinavian languages (Danish and Swedish)

     Any Norwegian student who is a child of immigrant parents is encouraged to learn the Norwegian language. The Norwegian government offers language instructional courses for immigrants wishing to obtain Norwegian citizenship.

     Norwegian is highly similar to the other Scandinavian languages, Swedish and Danish. All three languages are intelligible and all the languages can be used to communicate with each other.

About Sandefjord

     Sandefjord is a town and municipality in the county of Vestfold, Norway.

     Sandefjord was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Sandar was merged with Sandefjord January 1, 1968.

     The two peninsulas called Østerøya ("Eastern Island") and Vesterøya("Western Island") contribute to a total coastline of 146 km, and form the Sandefjordsfjord and Mefjord. The coastline offers a wide variety of sandy beaches, skerries and islets (116 in total), bays and sloping rocks.

     Of Sandefjord's total area, 37.7 km² is agricultural and 36.2 km² is forest. Neighbouring towns are Tønsberg and Larvik. A small part of Sandefjord (the farm Himberg) is lying as a exclave inside the borders of the municipality of Larvik.

     Sandefjord is home to the paint producer Jotun, the brewery Grans Bryggeri, the chocolate factory Hval Sjokoladefabrikk, as well as three of Norway's largest online shops, Komplett.no, mpx.no and netshop.no.