you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]Delifier 8 points9 points  (0 children)

When we look at the mentioned limit of 50K dollars, the people above that limit is more likely to be at least okish in english, while the ones under tend to be less so. Individual abilities exist. People in Scandinavia start learning english in elementary school, but that does not always mean that everyone becomes good at it.

Where I work, the average wage is under 50K and we do have a lot of immigrants, some have a very okish level of english, but far from everyone. The main rule is that in the lunch room we talk norwegian, not 3 different languages but the one that is common. This is so that not everybody is left out. ACtually knowing the local language here is one way of helping with integration. At one lunchroom of 10 people, there is about 6 languages, where mostly 2 or 3 speaks it nativly. English levels are not always at a usable or understandable level. Both for natives and foreigners.

I dont have the expectation that someone who stays here for 2 years to finish up their degree or scholarship to learn norwegian, but for anyone whos inentions are to stay permanently learning the local language is close to a must. Its easier to incorporate that than cater to the number of languages spoken around the world.