Ye Olde Pub (The English Pub)

[henbruas]

Only two years are mandatory, you can continue with a third year, but that's optional. However, if you chose to have extra lessons in either Norwegian or English from eight trough tenth grade, you will have to have three years in high scjool. There are also two levels of each language course, I and II. You can continue with the language you had in Ungdomsskolen (what would that translate to?), then you would have to have II, which is the more difficult one. If you choose to have a different language, you would have I, the easier one. There is also a III, I think that's for those who want to enter even more deeply into the language in the third year.

 

(Disclaimer: This post may contain errors. I've gotten this information piece by piece, searching Norwegian school-related sites all over the Internet. I may have misunderstood, got something wrong or remember wrongly. )

[Bear^]

I still think the languages should be optional except English mainly because in today's society you will come into a use for English anyway. But I can honestly say that I have never had any use for the french I spent almost 4 years in school trying to understand.

 

What I think about thie norwegian school system is that they place to many mandatory subjects into the whole ordeal. They don't consider what you will have to use in the future and not. If you're going to become an Engineer you will need math and physics but you most definitly won't need French or German. The school should build on what you want to do in the future when you get as high as High School, not what a bunch of things you might never get to use anyway.

[henbruas]

I've had Spanish for the last three years (I'm going to High School next year) and I must say, that's one failed subject. I don't think I've learned anything at all! And for the next two years I'll study German. I bet it won't be much better.

 

There should absolutely be more of a choise between different subjects, and earlier than High School too. In High School you actually get to influence what you subjects you have (social studies, economy, languages, science subjects), but in Ungdomsskolen (translating to ?), the only choice you get is what language to study.

[Bear^]

Hehe, tell me about it. 4 years of French here and I still look like a big questionmark when someone enters the hotel and start speaking in French to me, I have no clue what so ever what they're talking about. I think I know how to say that I prefer English but I don't dare use it in fear of offending them in some kind. Who knows, I might tell them to go to hell in French and that wouldn't be to very nice for the hotel

[Euklid]

Ungdomsskolen (translating to ?)

Middle school/lower secondary school could be appropriate terms.

 

(By the way, there's an independent international school in Sandefjord, might be interesting to Moraelyn.)

[-MK-]

Only two years are mandatory, you can continue with a third year, but that's optional. However, if you chose to have extra lessons in either Norwegian or English from eight trough tenth grade, you will have to have three years in high scjool. There are also two levels of each language course, I and II. You can continue with the language you had in Ungdomsskolen (what would that translate to?), then you would have to have II, which is the more difficult one. If you choose to have a different language, you would have I, the easier one. There is also a III, I think that's for those who want to enter even more deeply into the language in the third year.

 

(Disclaimer: This post may contain errors. I've gotten this information piece by piece, searching Norwegian school-related sites all over the Internet. I may have misunderstood, got something wrong or remember wrongly. )

Most of it seems right, except that no matter what you choose there are only 2 compulsory years with a second foreign language in High School. The third year is optional no matter what you've chosen before.

[Lidskjalv]

I still think the languages should be optional except English mainly because in today's society you will come into a use for English anyway. But I can honestly say that I have never had any use for the french I spent almost 4 years in school trying to understand.

 

What I think about thie norwegian school system is that they place to many mandatory subjects into the whole ordeal. They don't consider what you will have to use in the future and not. If you're going to become an Engineer you will need math and physics but you most definitly won't need French or German. The school should build on what you want to do in the future when you get as high as High School, not what a bunch of things you might never get to use anyway.

 

German is actually a very important science language. A vast number of Eu's industry is located in Germany.

[Bear^]

And a vast amount of the world's scienetists are from diferent contries, so I think English will get you somewhere all the same. I think still the forced language in school is a big mistake.

[Molotovcocktail]

I think it's still important that we learn languages like German and French in school. In Eastern Europe German is still used as the main lingua franca, and many countries in both Africa and Asia still use French as their lingua franca. Contrary to popular belief, English hasn't conquered the whole world yet. And just think about those Norwegians who got detained in (Congo was it?) and accused of murder, I heard they were unable to defend themselves against the accusations because they didn't speak French.

 

We must focus on the real linguistic disease that has infected our schools, it goes by the name of "nynorsk" and we must rid this disease at once. At least it shouldn't be mandatory.

[-MK-]

I agree it's important to learn other languages in addition to English, but I don't think French and German is the right choice. In my opinion it's more profitable to learn the languages of new and upcoming nations like China and India. Together, these two nations amount to approximately 1/3 of the worlds population with respectively 1.3 and 1.1 billion citizens. Why should we exclude Norwegians students from communicating with a third of the world's population?

 

Furthermore, you are correct when you address "nynorsk" as a disease. I think it's absolutely outrageous that this still is a subject at Norwegian schools

[Bear^]

I think it's still important that we learn languages like German and French in school. In Eastern Europe German is still used as the main lingua franca, and many countries in both Africa and Asia still use French as their lingua franca. Contrary to popular belief, English hasn't conquered the whole world yet. And just think about those Norwegians who got detained in (Congo was it?) and accused of murder, I heard they were unable to defend themselves against the accusations because they didn't speak French.

 

We must focus on the real linguistic disease that has infected our schools, it goes by the name of "nynorsk" and we must rid this disease at once. At least it shouldn't be mandatory.

 

Well if you don't have the urge and want to learn different languages then it doesn't matter how much they want you to learn it, if you don''t want to learn it they can't, and shouldn't, force you to it. I agree it's important if you're going to travel around the whole world but if you're staying in the near vicinity of Europe I don't see it as that important.

 

I've seen to many students who have flunked out of the entire school because they didn't coop with the forced German or French language they had to learn. They had decent grades in the other subjects but in the language subjects they didn't manage at all and that destroyed the whole education for them, they broke out and left school. School doesn't have to be the most boring thing in the world, as long as people are left with a choice it can be made very fun.

[Euklid]

In my opinion it's more profitable to learn the languages of new and upcoming nations like China and India.

Not that I disagree with your general point, but English is perfectly fine in India.

[Molotovcocktail]

Yeah, English is an official language in India. Used to be a British colony.

[-MK-]

Well, in that case I replace India with the Arab world ^^ Arabic is used by approximately half a billion people. In either case, it's a hundred times more useful than "nynorsk".

[CypheroN]

Everything is more useful than Nynorsk-

[marcusss]

- Exept for example Ume Sami, spoken by less than 10 people. But I have to agree, Nynorsk is more useless than Bokmål (but at least three times more beautiful!).

I think Mandarin in school is a good idea In less than 100 years, I think Chinese (Mandarin) and English (and maybe Spanish?) would be the two (or three) ruling languages.

[-MK-]

I guess you have to be at least a bit supportive of Nynorsk, seeing as you have accepted the challenge to express yourself in this miserable language on this forum.

 

By the way; Ter Sami is spoken by 6 people only.(in 2004)

[Lidskjalv]

If availability and usability is the criterion for what language to teach have a look at this rank by number of persons speaking each language:

 

1. Chinese* (937,132,000)

2. Spanish (332,000,000)

3. English (322,000,000)

4. Bengali (189,000,000)

5. Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)

6. Arabic* (174,950,000)

7. Portuguese (170,000,000)

8. Russian (170,000,000)

9. Japanese (125,000,000)

10. German (98,000,000)

11. French* (79,572,000)

 

114. Norwegian....

 

Another list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_langu...native_speakers

Endret 26. mai 2009 av Lidskjalv

[Euklid]

Note that the list shows number of native speakers though, thus hugely underestimating the value of knowing English.

[Moraelyn]

Living on the border between Arizona and Mexico for so long, I associate the spanish language with the mexican lifestyle and culture. It is not a healthy association. Ick. Just... ick.

 

I don't know much about the nynorsk movement, so I don't have a comment one way or the other.

 

I would definitely support learning some chinese though. They used to say english was the business language, but that hasn't been true for a good 20 - 25 years. The Mandarin chinese language is the business language these days.

 

Ungdomsskolen (translating to ?)

Middle school/lower secondary school could be appropriate terms.

 

(By the way, there's an independent international school in Sandefjord, might be interesting to Moraelyn.)

 

Grades 1 - 6 are commonly referred to as "grade school". 7 and 8 are referred to as "junior high", and often have separate schools for just these two grades. 9 - 12 are referred to as "high school". Anything beyond 12 is referred to as college, university, vocational training, etc. Occasionally you will see a reference to "K - 6". This is grade school that also includes Kindergarten.

 

As for the international school in Sandefjord... that might explain why the Meny in Sandefjord sells so many american products. I didn't know about that.

 

PS, anyone know of a place around Sandefjord that does laser cutting?