Test in real life

Friends do not usually judge your language skills. For them, it is enough that they understand you and that you understand them. That's good, because people who are more interested in your mistakes than your message are a pain in the ass. However, you need to be judged by others in order to properly assess your competence. Only after you have gone through the external judgement can you know that you know the language. I found an opportunity to get such an evaluation when circumstances forced me to look for a new job.

Need a job

My first job in Norway was mostly in English. I researched and wrote about educational ideas developed by my colleagues. This job was exciting and very good for my development, but it did not provide a minimum of financial stability. It was a part-time job with very few hours. In addition, the company was on its way to bankruptcy. After a few months of working there, I realised that I needed to find another job.

At that time my Norwegian was quite good. I could handle most everyday conversations. However, I was not sure if my level was good enough to work in the Norwegian language. If you accidentally say something stupid to your friend, it is usually no problem. If it happens in a conversation with a client or a boss, it can have serious consequences. The work environment is much more demanding and less forgiving.

I wanted to find out how good my Norwegian really was. But I have never respected standardised tests like Norskprøven. I know people who have passed such exams and still cannot communicate in the language they have studied. I have met at least one person who was able to communicate freely in Norwegian in everyday life, but who struggled to pass official tests. They test how well you perform on a narrow range of decontextualised tasks that have little to do with real life. Passing Norskprøven at level B2 would not convince me that my Norwegian was good enough to work in a position where communication in the language was essential. I needed a real-life test. Getting a job and doing it well would show me that I knew the language well enough. So I approached the process of looking for a new job as a test of my language skills.

Reading and writing

The test started with the "reading part". I had to read through the job offers and find something that suited me. I considered jobs where English was the working language, but that was a backup plan. I saw a great learning opportunity in finding a job where I would have to use Norwegian, so I applied for those jobs first. I was interested in education in a broad sense, so I responded to several offers from schools and youth clubs.

I applied for a job as an assistant at Aktivitetskole. This is a department in a primary school that organises the pupils' free time after school. The job is about leading recreational or educational activities, being there with and for the children, helping them to solve their conflicts and making sure that they do not kill each other. It involves a lot of communication with the kids. Primary school students are among the few people in Oslo who do not speak English. Therefore, Norwegian is a basic requirement for the job. After reading my application, the head of Aktivitetskole at one of the schools in Oslo invited me for an interview. I passed the first part of the test.

Searching and understanding the offers was easy. Writing a CV and application was a bit more challenging, but I managed. I used Google Translate and asked my Norwegian friend to correct my writing mistakes. You can "cheat" in reading and writing tasks, but it is not so easy in speaking. This skill was tested during the interview.

Speaking

For me, my first job interview in Norwegian was an important test of my speaking skills. My friends don't care much about my language proficiency, but my boss does. If I mess up something at work because of a misunderstanding, he will have problems. So at a job interview he had to find out whether my Norwegian was good enough to communicate with children. Without it, all my other skills would be useless.

I was lucky. The interviewer was very nice and spoke clear standard Norwegian, so I understood him easily. At that time I understood almost everything that Norwegians from the east said, but I could not understand some Norwegians from other parts of the country at all. If I had met an interviewer from Stavanger, for example, I would have had a hard time understanding anything.

The interview was a pleasant talk. The head of Aktivitetskole, who conducted the interview, asked me about my previous experience and my motivation to work with children. I understood everything he said and expressed effectively what I wanted to say. When I asked if my Norwegian was good enough for the job, he said yes. The next day I was hired.

Empowerment

I got a job in a Norwegian-speaking environment. My employer thought my language skills were good enough for a job that involved communicating with children. For me, this kind of feedback is the most important. Your friends will forgive you any mistakes you make. Your teachers will correct you because they are paid to, but they will not suffer if you fail outside the classroom. Things are much more serious at work. If you mess up there, not only will your ego suffer. If it bothers clients or colleagues, it will also affect your boss. So, if he takes you on as part of his team, he is putting his own skin in the game. It shows confidence in your language skills. My boss relied on my ability to communicate with the Norwegian-speaking children he was responsible for. For me, it was a valid confirmation that I could actually speak Norwegian well.

When I got the job, my confidence in using Norwegian skyrocketed. I knew that I knew the language. The external confirmation of my linguistic competence gave me an internal experience of empowerment to use it more boldly. My Norwegian friends also took this confirmation seriously. Many of those who had mainly used English in their conversations with me switched to Norwegian when they heard that I had got a job at the school. This experience showed me that I was no longer just a learner of Norwegian, but that I had joined the community of Norwegian speakers. This kind of empowerment only comes from being tested in real-life tasks where your competence really counts.