Svenska timeline

Having recently finally completed the excellent (and FREE) government Swedish language programme (the official certificates arrived yesterday) I thought it might be worthwhile giving a sumamry of the task. As I found it to be.

We arrived here in late August 2008. Like 99% of immigrants I was dead certain that I'd pick up the lingo just like that, and that language classes were for other people who weren't nearly as clever as me. That fantasy lasted all of about 3 weeks and I started full time at SFI school in mid September. I was applying for work at the same time, and was lucky enough to be taken onboard in December by an extremely understanding employer. I guess they knew that I wasn't really in a position to be bargaining with them and that, once I had the language sorted out, I'd already be established with them. Either that or they figured I might be a good source of entertainment. Whatever the reason, they had a requirement that I successfully complete the SFI programme. Naturally I couldn't do that during the days, so I switched to night classes, which went for 2 hours, twice a week.

I started back with SFI in late January of 2009, this time at evening classes, and in the town where I was working. I took that option as I figured it would be easier rather than commuting back to my home town and going to school there. In hindsight it was a mistake, as the second school used a totally different set of course material than was used at my first school. Which essentially meant I had to start from scratch again with the required assignments. One would have thought it would have been standardised throughout the country, but that was not the case. So it slowed me down a lot, as obviously did the reduced classroom hours. It wasn't until February 2010 that I took and passed the final exams for the SFI programme.

All up, SFI took me about 13 months of actual class time. My colleagues who had stayed with the fulltime day classes completed the course in about 6 months.

That satisfied my employment requirements. I could have stopped there. I was tempted to. My co-worker took the SFI exam at the same time as me, and she decided not to go any further. But then, Swedish wasn't the first "extra" language she had learnt and she seemed to have the knack which I didn't. But here's the thing. Knowing that there was an additional path, and knowing I had the choice to take it and didn't, when other people had, just didn't sit right. I would always have felt like I'd taken the soft option. Other immigrants had toughed it out, maybe I wasn't quite as good as I thought I was. It would eat away at me if I didn't at least try.

The other motivating factor was to try and wrestle back some control over my life. Not mastering the language as quickly as I thought I would had hit me hard. I felt like I wasn't in control of where I was. After 40+ years of knowing everything and being able to decide when and how I did things, this was really tough. Now I was limited in what things I could or couldn't do. It was no longer me who was deciding. And that couldn't be acceptable. I needed a higher level of language skill in order to regain the control. For me, personally. So I decided to continue with the programme.

The next phase after SFI was SAS Grund. This is a big jump from SFI. More literature based and a lot more demanding with grammar. Really interesting though and my first exposure to the more well known Swedish authors. I also started learning about different types of Swedish language from different eras. Quite a lot of fun. SAS Grund didn't have a completion exam. Not at my night school at least. At the end of the summer holidays in 2010, after 4 months of SAS Grund, the teaching staff decided that I was ready to move forward into the Svenska A/B programme group.

Svenska A and B are rated as being at Swedish high school level. Supposedly. Seemed a bit short to me. But that's the theory. The course material is pretty much the same for both A and B, with the difference being the level of marking. B was pretty tough for me. With A/B there was no formal grammar lessons or testing. The tasks consisted of completing a number (about 10 for each) of written essay assignments based around Swedish history and literature. Grammatical weaknesses or faults were picked up and addresed during the marking of the assignments.

SFI taught the basics of the language with generally one word to describe an object. A cat was a cat. With Svenska A/B came the introduction of synonyms and the challenge to use alternative words or phrases to suit a particular task or communcation style. At times we had to write formal reports, other times we were to write informal magazine type articles. A large part of the marking was allocated to being about to use the appropriate language and terminology to suit the genre and audience. I found that to be quite tough, but eventually got my head around it.

A pass in Svenska B allows for entry into a Swedish university. I can't see that I would ever want to go to university again, but the point was that I could if I wanted to. All about taking the control back again. Plus, I'd come this far and I'd be really pissed with myself if I'd sweated all for nothing.

Svenska B has external written and oral exams, just like SFI. As well as the assignment requirements. From what I understand, these exams are not compulsary in adult student schools. As luck would have it, my school had decided that they would impose the exams as a requirement. Which meant a bit more stress, but at least we could say that we hadn't taken any shortcuts. Svenska A and B combined took me a full calendar year to complete. Most of the work was self study so, even though I only went one evening a week, it's probably not a lot slower than the day classes. Certainly not like the difference in the SFI timescales.

So, all up, if one is working fulltime, the entire Swedish language programme takes about 3 years to complete. Studying fulltime probably knocks a bit more than a year off that time. But it's worth remembering that the point of the exercise is to learn Swedish. It's not to gain a certificate in the shortest possible amount of time. Language is something that takes as long as it takes. Having a piece of paper isn't suddenly going to give you fluency you never had a week earlier. This is a long term process to set you up for the rest of your life.