Starting English Teaching business in Norway

Hi JerCastle,

Welcome on Expat-blog!

I hope that other members will be able to advise you very soon.

Wish you good luck
Christine

Hi There,

I'm under contract to teach Business English in Ålesund and there is really nothing to report.  There are several companies that do that through out Norway.  Their contracts for their teachers are extremely harsh.  From what I've seen they try to cut a lof of corners with online courses and their process of vetting their employees is pretty laughable.  I was assigned with a waitress from Liverpool who assumed she could not only teach, but teach the complicated vocabulary involved in business negotiations, accounting and banking.  It was really very sad.  Her dialect was difficult for even the most hardened English native to understand.  And she had zero education in communication or teaching.

From the teaching I have done, the primary stumbling block for Norwegians is dialect issues or they are younger and a product of the 'new style' of teaching English here which is no longer based on the formal Queen's English but an attempt to muddy together informal, formal and dialect.  This has made it difficult for norwegians to converse with other non-native english speakers.

Norwegians who CAN speak some degree of English consider themselves 'generally' fluent.  If they believe they are being 'tested' on their English, they get very self conscious about it.

The reality is about one in ten of the Norwegians I know are fluent in the language - the spelling errors and 'context' errors even for government forms and corporate websites are pretty bad.  But pointing that out to them is very difficult and from the three or four corporate english companies I've talked to, they are not very successful at it.  The Swedes, for whatever reason, seem a lot more open.

The verticals in Norway that might be interested are: international finance, maritime and export.

HTH,
Sarah

Hi Sarah, thanks for your reply.

I was thinking of starting a business that focuses more on general knowledge, not really specifying for example, in business English. However, that is something to think about and I will consider it.

I know that many Norwegians can feel a bit shy about using their English, so teaching them in their home one on one might make them feel more at ease.

So, do you think this type of business is viable?

Comprehensive tutoring might work, I really wouldn't know.  I think the competition against software might be something to consider.
Tutoring for folks over 40 might also be an idea because we need ten times more training for a new language than our younger counterparts.
Good luck!
Sarah