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A range of systematic incidents in one of my master courses has puzzled me ever since. The experience spurred my interest in language and communication problems in institutions caused by lack of mastery in language. Several Erasmus students registered for the course were severely limited in their presentation of academic work in English. The problems did not seem to be their academic qualities, probably far surpassing our own, but their limited mastery of English. This challenge made several students question the value of and academic limitations to having colloquiums with (Erasmus) students without satisfactory mastery of English. This led again to (unintended? and) hopeful expectations that only Norwegian students would attend the course; hence the lecture or discussion could be done in Norwegian, the language most of us knew best. The most unfortunate was probably that most Erasmus students sustained from the course, even though the course in my opinion was one of the best courses available at the time. This incident gave me reason to ask three elementary questions: First, does choice of language influence the academic quality of colloquiums, and second, do Erasmus students keep away from colloquiums because of limited mastery in language. Finally, what can be done t