Milutin writes: > Martin wrote: > >available. The Norwegian news reporting is also very good, but I > >don't understand Norwegian well enough to accurately compare it with > >the quality of the BBC. > > How do you get by in Norway if you can't speak the language, do many > Norwegians speak English? I do speak Norwegian well enough to communicate in daily life, like at the grocery store, the bank, or the post office, but discussing politics, religion, etc in a second language requires a much higher fluency. All Norwegian kids learn English, from age 9 I think, all the way through high school. Most Norwegians in the metropolitan areas speak very good English. Many who live in rural areas, who probably don't need it as much, have a bit of trouble. The Norwegian government pays for 500 class periods of Norwegian language instruction for everyone who comes to live or work in Norway for more than three months. I have been through that course. I can read and write Norwegian better than I can understand spoken Norwegian, because I get a lot more practice reading and writing it than I do hearing it. My problem is that I work in computer software development, and the Norwegians I work with are all very comfortable speaking English. It is just more efficient for them to speak English to me, and because I am single, I don't have a family speaking Norwegian to me everyday either. It was surprising to me to see that I had become fairly competent at reading and writing Norwegian while remaining at a much lower level of competence understanding spoken Norwegian. These different aspects of language learning and use must be controlled by different areas of the brain. martin Martin Smith Email: [log in to unmask] P.O. Box 1034 Bekkajordet Tel. : +47 330 35700 N-3194 HORTEN, Norway Fax. : +47 330 35701