How come

[brionon]

Norwegian Teenagers speak Far better English than ours do ?

[grasscarp]

and Dutch people speak English so well and so precisely that you know they are not English!

[emmie]

tampering with our educational system for years has put paid to children learning English, secondary modern, comprehensive call it what you like but
many schools have failed children over years, i sometimes wonder where all the money goes, wasn't Blair's mantra education, education, education, well that worked well didn't it.

[B00]

im sure they have their own Norwegian slang and "yoof" speak that has their elders shaking their heads at them torturing their mother tongue.

[pa___ul3]

you have to remember these teens to which you're referring (I'm assuming it's those off the telly this afternoon) are most likely the very well educated, you take your average Norwegian teen and they could well be as chavvy as our lot, we do have some pretty clever and well spoken kids here too!

[B00]

I think its probably that they've been taught "correct" English at school, and haven't had the opportunity to learn/hear slang English.

I'm sure if a bunch of English kids were taught to speak Norwegian, it would be the same, they'd probably sound terribly proper to your average native Norwegian.

[New Judge]

Although education (or the lack of it) plays a large part in the inability of young people to communicate properly, it goes far deeper than that. Have a look at this:

http://www.telegraph....-starting-school.html

I have provided a link to The Telegraph article, but similar information is available in most of today’s publications.

There are huge numbers of children and young adults who cannot properly converse or make themselves understood readily. The reasons are complex and various but many of them suffer from the sort of treatment outlined in the article. Time and again you see young mothers pushing their charges in forward facing pushchairs whilst engrossed for lengthy periods on the phone either talking or texting. The child might just as well be a sack of coal for all the interaction that is provided for it whilst it is out. No doubt it is in a similar. situation when it is returned home where there are even more distractions to occupy Mummy's time.

Then you hear of schools where progression in English is discouraged because it is too complicated and who prefer instead to ”celebrate the differences and diversity their pupils bring with them”. Many such children live in homes where a language other than English is most widely spoken.

Of course there will be variations in language competence wherever you look, but children who live in homes where they are barely spoken to in comprehensible English have very little chance.

[notasyoungasiwas]

Couldn't have put it better myself em10 .....

[keyplus90]

I believe it’s to do with the correct use of grammar. When I arrived here about 20 years ago my class fellows were impressed with my spoken English due to the correct application of grammar. Although I must admit I was not very fluent. Since I married a West Country English rose my English became more fluent over the years but grammar went out of the window. And that is sometimes very much noticeable when I write (or type) and does shock me occasionally. I do believe my English teacher must be very upset with me if he ever finds that out. But he is long gone to hereafter.

[R1Geezer]

can you correlate your evidence for this rediculous assumption?

[Mosaic]

I have been told by Dutch people that another factor is that British TV is much better than Dutch and they often choose BBC etc over home-grown channels.

[B00]

Hope you aren't lumping me with that remark R1? I give a totally, and what I think plausible, explanation!

[B00]

*totally different.

[mike11111]

It is all to do with learning correct grammar and pronunciation in schools. I am reminded of the English schoolboy who went on an exchange visit to France. Afterwards the French father wrote to the school and asked them in future not to send anyone who kept telling him when he should use the subjunctive!

[ladyalex]

I believe that in Scandinavia, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands, their University classes are conducted in English rather than their native tongue.

[Mosaic]

The thing is most people don't learn a language through grammar - they might learn it's sounds and structure but applying a language correctly and responding is different. To gain this you need to regularly listen and attempt to converse in the language you are learning.
This is where popular culture and media comes into play.
And the converse to the OP is that many immigrant families are now unable to become embedded speakers of english as quickly as in the past, becasue they can easily access their home television, music and news in their own language, so having to jump in at the deep end and swim is no longer necessary. I just taught a lady who's been in Britain for years but whose only spoken English was 'yeah, wo'evah'.

[jake-the-peg]

Mosaic is completely correct.

I'll bet Norweigian parents moan about their children mangling Norweigian!

A better question might be why our children don't speak foreign languages as fluently.

Oh probably because we don't either and more to the point we don't value it

[boxtops]

There was a feature on the radio a couple of days ago about languages now being optional in our schools - when I was at school we had to study French or German to O Level. In many other countries of the world, English is a mandatory subject - I was speaking to some eight year olds on holiday last month and their English was amazing. Our children no longer learn English Language in the way we did - we used to parse sentences etc. - state schools don't appear to do anything like that any more.

[TheTruthHere]

Can these Norwegian youngsters count from one to ten in urdu and punjabi, Do they know about the festival of lights like the youngsters in my local primary school.

[boxtops]

There isn't a huge Asian population in Norway though, THH - they can probably count to those numbers in English and German and French instead!

[venator]

My daughter is doing a Masters degree in Creative Writing, and the people on the course email their work to each other for helpful criticism.

I have been shocked at the inability of many of them to spell and punctuate.