12-16-2003, 01:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-16-2003, 01:33 AM by [wcip]Angel.)
In the old days, (pfft) Norwegian pupils started learning English in 4th grade, at the age of 11-12. Today, we're learning it as soon as we start in school, meaning at the age of 6.
I should mention that although we learn English very early on, not everyone are as proficient as one is led to believe. First off, there is a huge (huge!) problem with pupils' writing skills. They can speak English quite well for their age (at the age of 13-16) due to American popular culture (music, tv, cinema, etc) but they can't write. My aunt was an English teacher at a lower secondary (age 13-16) school and she (as well as other teachers I've spoken with) feels Norwegian pupils can't write proper English. There's a general consensus that while Norwegian children have an impressive command of oral English, they are severely lacking in knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation.
English is a germanic language, as is Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. There are some basic similarities. Russian and Czechoslovakian are not Germanic languages (as far as I know. And I don't remember the proper term for them either, but basically these modern language did not grow from the same language English and the Scandinavian languages did.)
I should also mention that today one could argue that there's an English invasion/contribution of words into the Norwegian language. More and more English words are being used as Norwegian. Even I (who am very much in favour of this) reacted when I went to see "Master and Commander" at the cinema a few days back. There were countless English words in the Norwegian subtitles which could have easily been translated into Norwegian counterparts.
I'm not sure if this was just lazyness or done delibaretely.
I should mention that although we learn English very early on, not everyone are as proficient as one is led to believe. First off, there is a huge (huge!) problem with pupils' writing skills. They can speak English quite well for their age (at the age of 13-16) due to American popular culture (music, tv, cinema, etc) but they can't write. My aunt was an English teacher at a lower secondary (age 13-16) school and she (as well as other teachers I've spoken with) feels Norwegian pupils can't write proper English. There's a general consensus that while Norwegian children have an impressive command of oral English, they are severely lacking in knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation.
English is a germanic language, as is Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. There are some basic similarities. Russian and Czechoslovakian are not Germanic languages (as far as I know. And I don't remember the proper term for them either, but basically these modern language did not grow from the same language English and the Scandinavian languages did.)
I should also mention that today one could argue that there's an English invasion/contribution of words into the Norwegian language. More and more English words are being used as Norwegian. Even I (who am very much in favour of this) reacted when I went to see "Master and Commander" at the cinema a few days back. There were countless English words in the Norwegian subtitles which could have easily been translated into Norwegian counterparts.
I'm not sure if this was just lazyness or done delibaretely.
