First Day SFI jitters

Thought it might be of some help if I posted a bit about what to expect from the first day at SFI. From my own experience. I had absolutely no idea what I was walking into, other than the acceptance that I was likely to be the thickest kid in class. I attended an enrolment "assessment" meeting the previous week. With 2 of the SFI teachers. I can't recall for certain, but I had a feeling that was in Swedish. Fortunately my dearly beloved Swedish wife was in attendance. The purpose of the interview was to determine which class mix I would be best suited for. There are 4 levels to SFI, A through D. And the classes are divided accordingly. Level A is for people who have had very little education in their homeland. Level B is the general start point for most people. The rules around these levels are a bit vague, and it's not always easy to know what level you are studying at. It's a subjective grading, determined by the teachers. Let's say that you and another student are studying the same piece of text. You understand it pretty well, but your classmate is struggling. You'll be regarded as working at a "C" level, while your classmate may be regarded as a "B" level student. Even though you are both doing exactly the same task. So you might need to ask every now and then about what level you're at. There's is a formal exam for people to pass to transition formally from "C" to "D". That exam rule came in after I started the course, so I was exempt from it. I was just told one day, when I asked, that I was Level D. But back to day 1. Arriving at the school I was met in the foyer by my teacher, and by 3 other equally confused "first day" students. We were taken to a private classroom where we were introduced to the basics of the course, given our textbook, and so forth. Worth pointing out here that everything, from the moment you walk in the front door, will be in Swedish. Officially. Which made the first day pretty hard work, for both us and our teacher. But the teachers are excellent and very skilled at dumbing down the language to a level where we can vaguely communicate. With a combination of gestures and sign language. They know that we haven't got a clue. By the end of the first day we had been taught the basics of how to introduce ourselves. "Jag heter Grant", "Jag kommer från Nya Zeeland". Nothing too serious. The point was that we were going to present ourselves the next day to our new classmates, and they would be doing the same back to us. The intro class lasted a day, or it might have only been a morning. Then we were taken to our new classroom, where we all spent the next half hour introducing ourselves. At that point, they largely leave you alone for a while. Letting you listen and try to figure out what's going on, without calling on you to contribute. Active participation is voluntary, but the teachers are pretty good at spotting those who are trying to avoid answering questions. I learnt a good trick early on with regard to group question times. If it was a topic I wasn't very comfortable with, I'd make a point of volunteering to answer one of the very first questions. Even if I got it wrong, I was not going to get called upon to answer any more of the questions. Talk a lot, and they soon get tired of you. They'll then start calling on the people who have been sitting back saying nothing. Worked a treat. A typical school day started at 8:30am. Some days they went through to about 2 or 2:30pm. Another day was only a half day. And it was only a 4 day per week course. But my school might have been really slack. I found the teachers to be quite sociable, and genuinely interested in us. One day each week, 4 of us used to head out for lunch with 2 of our teachers. Although I suspect that was largely due to the fact that they wanted to practice their English. One of my evening class teachers was a chronic chain smoker. I used to sit outside with her on a regular basis before class started. Solving the problems of the world while she puffed another nail in the coffin. So there's a typical SFI beginning. I'm sure that it differs somewhat, from school to school. But the basics will be the same. Pretty scarey walking through the door on the first day, but you start feeling better very quickly. Nothing like the company of fellow idiots to give you confidence and peace of mind.