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.
Aftenposten English Web Desk
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