Yep, 6 years today since we stepped off the plane in Luleå. 6 years in Sweden. I've made the mistake of asking the people around me if they could have believed that I would have managed 6 years living here. Rather insultingly, none of them thought that I would. Ok, possibly a slight reflection on my possible less-than-positive attitude towards my new life at various times over the past 6 years. But even so, have a little faith, people.
It's also 3 years to the day since I applied for Swedish citizenship. So, if we wait another 4 weeks, I would have lived in Sweden longer as a Swedish citizen than as a non-citizen. That's pretty cool. Attaining a Swedish driving license has been the high point, but citizenship is definitely number two.
A few more months to go before I reach the same amount of time that my wife spent living in New Zealand. Then we're all square. Of course it doesn't change anything but her willingness to give up her home country for me has been a huge influencing factor in me sticking it out here in Sweden when I may otherwise have packed it all in. If she was prepared to make the effort then so should I be. Small self reminders like that helped during the darker times. I wouldn't have had a lot of respect for myself if I had run back to NZ because life in Sweden was a little tougher, and then expected my wife to follow with me. Of course she would have done so, but it would have been an unfair relationship from that point onwards.
So have I noticed any real changes in the past year ? Nothing significant. The language is still a daily battle, but I think less about it. I do think though, that there are fewer people who become instantly confused when I start talking, compared with 12 months ago. Now I find that people are generally quite happy to talk with me and to help continue the conversation. That's an improvement over previous times when it was obvious that they were looking for any opportunity to end the conversation. That's got to be viewed as positive. From my perspective, I don't think that I sound any different, but clearly I do. I've probably got a bit more self-confidence with regard to the language as well. I remember from my Swedish language classes that, towards the end, they starting hitting us hard about body laguage and, especially, about maintaining eye contact when speaking. I know that I have been really bad for that and had become used to staring into space or at the table when speaking. Looking back now I have stopped doing that. Maybe that more engaging approach has helped in encouraging longer conversations with others. I would probably lose interest pretty quickly in someone who didn't look at me while they were talking.
English is still my mother tongue, but it is not as crisp as what it once was. That's due to a lack of use, coupled with the daily use of a langauge which has it's own grammatical way of doing things. So I'm having to think more about English now when I'm using it. If I don't think about it, then I find myself throwing in Swedish words into an English conversation. A lot more frequently than I use English words in a Swedish conversation. Swedish grammar feels far more natural to me now. I'm not sure how I would cope in a full time English world as, like most native English speakers, I have little formal education in the basics of the language. You know English because you've always known English (or Swedish if you're a Swede). If you lose that basic inbred knowledge then I'm not sure how you are supposed to regain it again to the same automatic level. I do watch mostly English tv programmes. That's mainly because I don't think that Swedish produced programmes are really of a great quality. Movies, yes, but not television. I think they try a bit too hard at times. Watching an English language tv programme is also a good way for me to relax at the end of the day. I can doze off in front of something mildly interesting without it taxing me too much. That being said, I do watch the news in Swedish and I enjoy the live debate/documentary shows. Swedes seem to love live discussion shows, far more so than their NZ counterparts. It's a good way to keep your language skills active and growing when there are a number of different sounding people to listen to.
Workwise I have had some victories this year. I have been promoted which was comforting. You often never kow exactly what your employer thinks of you. To be fair, nothing probably would have happened if it were not for the reitrement of 2 of our most senior staff forcing my employer's hand. But, hey, they could have chosen someone else. So I'll take that as a win. I'm not sure that the quite knew how to react when I pointed out to them that they had just made the only immigrant in our Swedish office the most senior person in the group. I forget sometimes that meaningless throw-away lines are not part of the standard Swedish psyche. Fortunately my younger colleagues saw the humour in the situation.
I almost forgot to add that I ran Lidingöloppet during my 6th year. I'm going to have to rearrange my achievements list again, with Swedish citizenship slipping down to number 3. Lidingöloppet is a right of passage in Sweden and merely completing the race has been enough to lift me half a rung higher on the Swedish status ladder. You take whatever you can get. Anyway, that's the 6th year done and dusted. Any regrets over my decision 6 years ago ? Today, absolute none. I can't imagine living anywhere else. Lots of places that I enjoy visiting, but there's really only one home. Just a shame that it took me 45 years to find where it was.
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