Moving to a country where I don't speak the language?
The percentage of people in Norway (as in Sweden and Denmark also) who speak English as a second language is amazingly high. You will be understood if/when you fall back into using English occasionally in normal life. Second plus: if you have already been learning the language at this early date (according to your plans), you are several steps ahead of others who don't even bother to do that when they go to Scandinavia. It probably doesn't matter at all, but I'm a little curious about your 'European citizenship' remark, since Norway is currently not a member of the EU -- if that's what you meant by that. (What, otherwise, is 'European citizenship'?...). But, as noted, whatever that means is not going to matter very much in daily life; was just curious...
Would you move to another country whose language you can't speak?
I did move to Italy about ten years ago with my job when I knew almost no Italian other than being able to read menus. I took lessons when I arrived here and managed to assimilate without any real problems. There were people here that could help while I was learning and English was at least spoken some in the tourist areas. It really wasn't all that difficult to come up to speed. Your problem is going to lie in the statement: "I don't even care to learn it really". If you're not interested in learning the language, it will be a struggle and you certainly won't be able to support yourself. Why would you even want to live somewhere if you couldn't effectively communicate?
Moving to a different country alone?
I really want to move to a different country but I have never lived on my own. When I think about leaving my family and friends, being on my own in a totally different country, basicaly starting from zero I get really scared. I would like to hear other people experiences who moved out of their country alone or some advice how to prepare myself and how to start a "new life".
English homework---if you were forced to leave your country and settle in another land how would you feel?
I understand this is a question about your feelings, so only you can answer this. However if I was to answer this I guess I could think about this on two levels: 1) Fear of the unknown 2) Opportunity to grow - make new friends, have new experiences, educational or career opportunities you couldn't have at home. With jet airlines there really is no need to feel worried that you may never come back again even if you go to live on the other side of the world. With the internet communication is easy and could be daily. Say for instance you had a job, and the company wanted you to help out at the London or Paris branch for a year. Lets say you loved it there and quickly made lots of new friends. You may feel you now have twice as many friends as if you had stayed at home all your life. Given the siteseeing, shopping and cultural opportunities, maybe this may seem also a very enjoyable experience. On the other had if you say you lived in a country which was invaded and you were forced from your home and you had to find somewhere else to live, a mixture of anger, fear and determination to survive would be more likely.
Why have you not bothered to learn the local language when you move countries? Don’t you find it disrespectful?
I tried to learn Tamil when I moved to Tamil Nadu. I really, really tried hard.In the months leading up to my flight over to India - my first time going to the country - I self-studied the language. I landed and felt prepared. I wasn’t going to be able to hold a full conversation, but I’d be ready to exchange pleasantries at least.I got into the taxi and attempted to start up a conversation with the driver. He understood my greeting ‘vannakam’ just fine. Then I asked him how he was:Yeppurdi irrukingala?And I was met with a blank face. He hadn’t a clue what I was asking, though he eventually realised what I was asking: nalama? Y’wot? I tried out my other phrases and he didn’t understand any of them, so we spent the journey talking in English.I had real difficulty making myself understood in Tamil, even the most basic of phrases. I had phrase books, which most of my Tamil-speaking friends took one look at and dismissed saying that they taught a highly formal, old-fashioned style of speaking, i.e. not the way real people talk in normal conversation.I ended up learning a weird mish-mash of phrases, some formal, some informal, never really understanding the difference between them. There aren’t many resources for learning Tamil - it’s not like French, or even Hindi, which I can speak relatively well. Some of my Tamil I’m fairly sure is actually Malayalam and Kannada because code-switching is so common there, but I don’t know this for certain - it’s just what locals have told me to say!I was working exclusively in English and in a town like Ooty most people you come across speak at least some English, so I didn’t get a whole lot of chance to practice. I can make myself understood in Tamil now for basic interactions, but I’m truly terrible at it. It didn’t help that Tamil is a very different language to English and if I’m being honest I can’t hear the difference between the multiple R-sounds. I can read and write Tamil better than I can speak it.Disrespectful? No. I tried, but in my experience most Tamil people had no interest in speaking to me in Tamil anyway. Some did, and those people are my heroes! I really loved it when older men called me thambi (little brother) or even dorai (white person). It just helped me feel more included, and I called these people anna (older brother) or akka (elder sister - not ‘auntie’ as I’d originally written, thanks Madhusree!).
I'm a US citizen who wants to move. What country would be the best to move to?
Norway has a language problem. If you suck at languages, you're probably not going to have an easy shot at ever getting citizenship. You say you suck at languages, but you want to go to countries where you will almost certainly need to learn them. That strikes me as the height of poor planning.You think Australia is not more-or-less the same as Australia. You're wrong and I'd avoid it if you think England and Ireland are more-the-same as the United States than Australia. I had really bad culture shock in Ireland, but not so much in Australia because suburbia is suburbia.My radical answer is: Don't leave the United States. This isn't going to be a popular answer, but you clearly haven't traveled. You haven't investigated the possibilities already. You haven't indicated you've looked at visa options. You haven't expressed a willingness to learn a language because you need to. Unless you're offered a job by a large transnational, I would wait until leaving the USA. You don't move to another country because you think it will be better. It isn't automatically better. You'll have pretty much the same problems where you go, with the added disadvantage of not knowing the system and not having the language.
Thinking about moving to Europe..what country?
I love Europes rich history and culture and in the future deff see myself living there. but what country do you think is best? i was thinking about england because they speak english, but i could also move elswhere and learn a new language. i really just want to live in a beautiful historic town with friendly people but also have access to pplaces where i can go out and have fun and go shopping of course!