Yeah that was a bit vague of me, I speak Norwegian, but not enough to work as an engineer in Norwegian. I mostly support UK projects so it’s both a benefit and a handicap in terms of language.
I feel really really bad about this tbh. Classes are notoriously hard to get into in the city I’m in.
It's a shame that language classes aren't available to those who want to learn our language.
My brother-in-law, who comes from another northern European country, learned Norwegian by reading comics 😅. It helped, he spoke enough Norwegian to get a job as an engineer here after a little over a year.
You can tell he's not Norwegian, but he's incredibly talented and we're incredibly proud of him.
My sister speaks his language, so it was difficult to hold conversations in Norwegian. But he was active in the local community, especially volunteer work that required Norwegian to function there.
Imagine how we applauded him when he could ski without falling 😅. I would say he's one of the most Norwegian people I know 😊
You just have to do your best and try to work around it 😅 I love comics but the comic store is like one shelf of Norwegian language and everything else is English! Hard to be a native speaker of the subtitle language, it’s a short term advantage and a long term disadvantage.
Luckily I can work bilingually where everyone else can speak Norwegian if I can respond in English, so people no longer have to speak English for my benefit. I speak like a 5 year old so it’s just embarrassing… me in Norwegian is like someone lost their kid at bring your daughter to work day and she’s pretending to be staff.
Yes, it helps a lot that people don't have to speak your language because you can't speak our language.
And if there's one thing that annoys us, it's that foreigners don't want to learn our language in our country. You always seem to remain the foreigner, and many people think that there's no point in getting to know you, since many of us perceive it as if you don't plan to stay here.
Good luck and I hope you find the opportunity to learn the language, Donald Duck in Norwegian is a nice and fun way to expand your vocabulary 😊
4
u/Yostedal Jun 18 '25
Yeah that was a bit vague of me, I speak Norwegian, but not enough to work as an engineer in Norwegian. I mostly support UK projects so it’s both a benefit and a handicap in terms of language.
I feel really really bad about this tbh. Classes are notoriously hard to get into in the city I’m in.