Do you speak Norwegian?

Norwegian is definitely needed if you wish to find work easily in Norway.  I am lucky that I work in an international company surrounded by many foreigners.  There was no push factor for me to learn norwegian.  I do want to learn it due to personal reasons.

Outside work, there isn't really a big need to learn norwegian because almost everyone knows how to speak english very well.

its not easy for me to learn a new language even though I grew up in a bilingual environment.  We speak English, Mandarin and dialect back in Singapore.  The theory that it is easier for bilingual speaker to learn a new language because their brain is "open".  That is not true, at least in my case.

It took me a long time to be able to speak some basic stuff in Norwegian fluently.  I find Pimsleur method works the best when it comes to conversing.  Unfortunately there is not much materials for norwegian in Pimsleur learning method.

I went to two different schools to learn Norwegian.  I am still in A2 level.  The first school was folkeuniversitetet - which is very popular but I don't like it.  I find the teacher not very experience in teaching language.  My current school is Alfaskolen and I find it much better. 

Norwegian grammar is gender based and this is very different from English or Mandarin.  I hate it.  There is no other way to learn this but memorize.  This gender rule will later branch out to affect how adjective or certain words are changed - which I think is sooooooo complicated.

I speak Norwegian and I'm very grateful for the fact that had to learn it in my jobb. The first year at work was difficult, because I didn't understand anything. If I hadn't been forced into this situation, I doubt I would have learned the language. I have many friends and extended family members who speak only Norwegian. This means I have proper relationships with native speakers.

By contrast, I know one woman who has lived in Norway for 18 years and still doesn't speak the language. Her life is quite isolated.

There are 2 (main) reasons that speaking Norwegian in Norway is important.

Firstly, there is a misconception that "Norwegians are good in English". That is quite a broad statement, and unfortunately it's not quite true. It's more accurate to say that "some" Norwegians are good in English and many Norwegians understand a fair amount of English.

Norwegians on the whole are not exactly brimming with self-confidence, I don't say that in a condescending manner, but that's just the way things are. It's because of a moral law that has been ingrained in society for many years, that prevents people from being recognized as successful and indeed even talking about being successful (in anything) is not the done thing. (this is improving a little but on the whole it is still the norm).

So, in conclusion. Those who 'are' proficient in English don't 'think' they are,  because no one ever gave them credit for it, because giving others credit, is not the done thing.  And those who are not proficient in English, because they haven't used it for years, or didn't pay attention at school, don't like using it unless they absolutely have to, and a foreigner needing a job doesn't constitute having to, so the burden is on the foreigner to learn it. (if you want to at least be considered for a job).

The second reason is nationalistic. Norwegians are, on the whole very proud, and love Norway, and if you want to be a part of it, then you have to show that you feel the same way by learning the language and partaking in various things like voluntary community work etc.

English is used a lot in Norway these days, but more in some parts of the Country than others.  It took me a long time to get a job because it took a long time to learn Norwegian. The best tip I could give someone learning Norwegian is to realize that 85% of it is pronunciation. You have to get that right and it only comes with practice and getting constantly picked up on it by friends who are close enough to be honest and tell you.

As a foreigner you get the impression that "Norwegian" is simply Bokmål (or Nynorsk) or simply put, "school book language", and that's it, but wait there's more....in Norway there is a mind blowing amount of dialects, and in many cases they can sound like 2 different languages altogether. Take for instance the Stavanger dialect and one of the Trondheim / Trøndelag dialects.  if you learn, and become reasonably proficient in either one of them, your ear will be trained to the different sounds, but move from one to the other and you'll feel like a foreigner all over again.

The sickening, but amusing part about this, in my case is that the job I finally got, was English speaking.

Hi.. I think it is important to get to learn our language as faster,as better..  Cz of English is in some way and places accepted as good enough to get work here, is there still many people that runs their business here that are having concern and support for our older ones around the country,that do not intend to or ever learned other language than Norwegian. So when it comes to getting a job,and not less integrated in our society  do not wait for tomorrow..  Start your study to day... Good luck to everyone 😊

i have learnt via babbel.com and watched the Videos and prepared for interview..

i am not an expert in Norwegian language.. but i have intermediate answers to norway customers.

Rgds - Bala
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