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Practicality of learning Norwegian? | ||
Tags: Motivation | Norwegian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5289 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 17 08 January 2014 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||
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My sincerest apologies if this has been posted already, but I am wondering how practical it would be
to learn Norwegian? Considering that 90% or so of Norway is fluent in English I am wondering what learning Norwegian would be like from a practical standpoint in two points: conversing with locals and conversing with immigrants. Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to understand conversations in Norwegian, if one were to approach a local and speak in Norwegian, would one expect a reply back in Norwegian or back in English? If they detect that one is a foreigner would they reply in English or would they attempt to communicate in Norwegian? Second, what about the immigrants in Norway? If one wanted to communicate with an immigrant from Pakistan or Somalia would one also expect that they'd speak English more fluently than Norwegian? Or would they likely speak Norwegian more than English? How about in ethnic restaurants and in interactions between Norwegians and immigrants. I am also sorry if this touches any sensitive topics but I am very very curious. Thank you all very much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 17 08 January 2014 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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If you just visit Norway as a tourist then you would have to have an interest in language learning for its own sake to learn Norwegian, and then the trip would become a part of that endeavour. But learning Norwegian is too much to do just for a single holiday. In that case it would be more relevant to learn the most relevant tourist phrases and greetings - and maybe something about the country itself, but you can read about that in English so just lean back and enjoy the pretty landscapes.
But once you start learning a language and use it to penetrate into the culture of the place where it is spoken then you may become hooked on this activity, even though it from a superficial point of view isn't strictly necessary. The real sad thing is when people decide to move to a certain country just to become members of the dodgy local expat community. The very least you could do to your new country - and for your own sake - would be to learn something about its history and culture AND its language, if that doesn't happen to be one you know already. Edited by Iversen on 08 January 2014 at 10:20am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3908 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 3 of 17 08 January 2014 at 11:59am | IP Logged | ||
I couldn't agree more! I like what you're saying so much that I really tried, but nope, I can't. I've maxed out my agreement. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4431 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 17 08 January 2014 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Living in a country involves dealing with car mechanics, plumbers, butchers assistants and bus drivers. Even in Norway, I'm sure plenty of people in manual jobs are not completely comfortable speaking English.
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| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3908 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 17 08 January 2014 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Comfortable, no, but able to (at least they are in Sweden, some ethnicities of immigrants who came to Sweden as adults excepted). But the point I actually wanted to make was this: You'd be surprised (or maybe not) by how clever members of the "expat" community can be when it comes to avoiding dealing with people who do not speak English well. They keep lists (online these days!) of anglophone workers and all use the same ones (even better if they too are expats), they have friends who speak the local language who make calls for them, they point, they subscribe to services that allow them to speak as little as possible to anyone anywhere (e.g. if you have an unlimited public transport card, you don't have to talk to a driver or ticket sales person ever). They fly/drive home frequently to avoid having to figure out how to go to an optician or a doctor. This is very much true where I live, where more people actually speak the "dying" local language than English. Living in Scandinavia speaking only English is a piece of cake in comparison. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 17 08 January 2014 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have noticed that many travel companies prefer to work with hotels and restaurants abroad which are owned or managed by expats, if they aren't downright sticking to institutions which are members of international chains. Maybe there really is a difference in quality between 'expat' places and places owned or managed by local people, but I am more inclined to see it as a result of the expat mentality from the representives of our travel agencies - they simply feel more safe with an emigrant than with someone from the country they are working in - and their costumers apparently agree. Otherwise the catalogues wouldn't use phrases like "Owned by a Danish/XXXX couple" as a sales argument.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4487 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 7 of 17 08 January 2014 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
My experience of Norway is limited to a few days in Bergen, so take this with a grain of salt: the only people I've had problem conversing with in English were the immigrants, and it made sense to me: if you're emigrating (probably because you come from a country suffering from poverty/war), you're less likely to have received a good education. Norway, I believe, makes sure its immigrants go through Norwegian courses and I think there may even be a certificate (B2? B1?) to be obtained to be able to work in the country (I may be entirely wrong here). So it's more likely that immigrants from third world countries would speak much better Norwegian than they do speak English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5289 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 8 of 17 08 January 2014 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for all the replies. So vermillion, you are saying that you feel that immigrants, say from Pakistan
or Iraq, who are living in Norway, would likely converse better in Norwegian than in English and that they use Norwegian more than English to communicate with native Norwegians? Can anyone else add in here? I think this is particularly interesting because when traveling, due to both personal and professional interests, I usually find myself gravitating around a lot of ethnic places and immigrant ethnic enclaves (but of immigrants, NOT local expats!). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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