Posted on 09/26/2007 10:49:05 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Norwegian companies insult foreign clients, lose business contracts and are reluctant to expand into new markets because of the poor English language skills of employees and business leaders, according to a new survey. "Norwegians think their English is much better than what it really is," philologist Glenn Ole Hellekjær said.
More than half of the Norwegian business leaders in a recently conducted survey admitted that they had insulted foreign business partners because of insufficient knowledge of the English language, newspaper Aftenposten reported Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by philologist Glenn Ole Hellekjær on behalf of The Norwegian Centre for Foreign Languages in Education, is disappointing reading for Norwegian business. Almost 30 percent of the 664 business leaders surveyed said that their business had avoided expansion into new markets because they did not believe they had the English skills required.
Approximately 40 percent also said that representatives from their business had experienced difficulty socialising with foreign business contacts, and had avoided to follow up on new contacts because they felt unable to express themselves in English.
Worse still, 40 percent of business leaders said that they had lost business deals with foreign clients as a direct result of poor English skills.
Not surprisingly, Hellekjær commented that, "Norwegians think their English is much better than what it really is." Hellekjær said that businesses would benefit from "thinking about language more professionally," and that sending their employees on language courses would increase both language skills and cultural understanding.
If you have nothing to sell, your poor english probably won’t help you much.
Judging from the title I thought this was going to be about Ebonics at first.
Das ist nicth ser gut! (sp)
What is das praat aboute?
Thank God I don’t have to learn Norweigan.
“Thank God I don’t have to learn Norweigan.”
- Busty blondes probably never will chase you through the wilderness, hit you over the head with a large battle-axe and so on.
It often happens to me here in Scandinavia. But, still I don’t speak Norwegian. I speak Swedish.
WORD.
(Give yourself some comic relief - ask 'em what the weather is like in Delhi)
Que?
To be frank, most of the American college graduates I meet today can’t speak English, nor do they know history, the times table, geometry, logic, rhetoric, basic thinking skills....
See the loveli lakes
The wonderful telephone system
And mani interesting furry animals
Including the majestic moose
A moose once bit my sister...
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: “The Hot Hands of an Oslo
Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink”...
Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti...
I never chide my Chinese wife on her poor English. If I could speak Chinese half as well as she speaks English...
On the other hand, of those who are born into an English speaking culture, and can’t speak or write the language, I have no use.
Recently, an associate revealed that the products she had tested - PAST the test...
Don’t get me started.....
Norwegian dentitist are seldojms named “Svenge” - it is a fictional najm from the movie The Exorcist (film)
pax Vobiscum!
“Don’t get me started.....”
- C’mon! There’s nothing to fear.
I’m a bit drunk right now, so I’ll dare to type this sentence on the internet at safe distance, hiding somewhere in the woods of Scandinavia:
“We don’t need youl kinda tark round hel..”
- Furthermore, Americans can’t build cars
or play games like ice hockey or soccer.
Wait a second.
I wanna cry.
I think I might have distant relatives in the US.
Perhaps.
There is good business in tutoring English in Europe.
I make my living here in Slovakia as an English tutor
for business people.
I make good money just spending an hour or two conversing with adults who know basic English but need help with vocabulary and pronunciation.
English is now considered the international language for business.
“Your wife smells like fish is not a compliment.”
- Your fish smells like my wife is a hot compliment.
“English is now considered the international language for business.”
- Considering this, it’s funny how the world’s most successful businessman speaks the worst English of the entire international business world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad
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