this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe you don't need the language for work. But you will need te learn the language eventually for other day to day interactions.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or the paper works outside of the labs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Don't know about other countries, but in Norway you always have the option of getting websites and government information in English. Everyone speaks it including cashier's, cleaners etc.

The same thing is not true in Germany and Spain.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I would most certainly disagree that every person speaks English. Especially older people don't, but in general many people here do not speak a good english

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dutchie here, we do the same. Everybody speaks (some form of) English, almost everything is also available in English.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is true but also keep in mind that Dutch is still leading in most cases. E.g. if you have a contract that's both in English and Dutch, if issues arise the Dutch translation will usually be the one that is followed

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Dutch is still leading in most cases.

Sint Maarten should check-in and tell us about the English-Dutch separation and the class system it all but foments. It's 90% fascinating if 10% disappointing.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

but in Norway [:] English. Everyone speaks it

Scandinavia is absolutely killing it for bilingualism, among so many other ways they're killin' it -- no, really, other countries should just study them for clues in general. My experiences (just Sweden, Denmark and bonus Iceland, so far) is that they say Hej and listen for your "hello", flipping over into beautiful and perfect English without hesitation. Their language programmes are just fucking astounding, really.

Spain's fine in the touristy spots, but Spanish itself is VERY accessible as a language, so it's kinda moot like France.

In Germany I will have to rely heavily on the kindness of strangers as I will never grok the language.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

never needed german knowledge to do standard burocracy stuff

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

im in the country for almost 10 years now without speaking a word. not true.