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.

Svenska B, Conquering Mordor.

Well, it only took 2 years and 11 months. Only, he says. But I am now officially a graduate of the Swedish language programme. Svenska B is the final stage of the official language programme offered by the government for immigrants into Sweden. Supposedly it's at the same level as a graduating Swedish high school student. Must be some pretty dumb kids in Swedish high schools if their language skill is at the same level as mine. But, hey, I passed.

It was a real crash course this time. I completed Svenska A one week before the summer holidays and was given all the written assignment information for Svenska B prior to the holidays. The course had 6 written assignments to complete, 3 oral presentations, and one final written essay exam. The plan was that we would see how much work was able to be completed before the course shut down 3 weeks into the new term due to the teacher heading back to university. Then I could pick up the remaining work when the course started back up again in the new year.

The written assignments were pretty tough, I have to say. It was the same format as for Svenska A, but the marking criteria was much tougher, and I was forced to re-write every assignment after marking. I spent my holiday break doing all the research, reading frantically, and writing like the wind. Then I spent the first week back at school correcting all my mistakes. Luckily I had a wonderful teacher who was very proactive in marking work and getting them back to students.

The second week consisted of the oral exams. These involved 2 interview style discussions of around 15 minutes each about Swedish language history and about the development of language in people during various stages of their lives. Which was really interesting, but a lot to remember. Then there was a formal oral presentation to the class on a language topic which had to be submitted and approved in advance. That took quite a lot of time to sort out and rehearse.

The third and final week, with all my written assignments finally ticked off as being correct (or as good as they were likely to get), I sat the final external exam. Like SFI, there is one exam for all students throughout Sweden. For some reason it's not a requirement for students at adult schools, but my school had decided that they wanted all students to complete the same tasks as regular Swedish kids. Damn them and their mis-guided principles.

For the written exam we (there were 2 of us) were each given a reference book containing about 30 short articles on various language and cultural topics. There was more than one article covering a common theme, but they were from different angles. Then we were given a question booklet where we could choose from one of about 6 or 8 assignments. Each assignment gave a specific situation, such as writing for a teenage magazine, and a topic to be addressed. We had 5 hours to complete the assignment using the classromm computers.

As well as showing language skills (obviously), the main point of the exercise was to use language which was appropriate to the audience and the subject. That's a huge portion of the Svenska B content, learning alternative phrases and styles to describe the same things. Probably 50% of the marks went to having the appropriate approach to the situation.

With a lot of sweat I got through the formalities. It's then been a bit of a nervous wait to hear the final verdict on the combination of the assignments, vocal assessments, and written exam. But yesterday I got the call to say that I had officially passed with a VG grade. I think they were just as relieved to see the back of me as I was.

So that's that. Am I suddenly a native speaking Swede ? I wish. I guess that now the work starts. But it's kind of cool to know that I did achieve something Swedish. That doesn't happen very often for me.

Speech Therapy

Last night at my language class we had to give an oral presentation. I hate these things. Mainly because my Swedish speaking skill level is by far my weakest point. As I guess it's always the last thing to master for most immigrants. I get so frustrated at not being about to get the message out in the way it exists inside my head. It's like having one arm permanently encased in plaster. Yeah, you can still do stuff, but you know that you used to be able to do it much better. Anyway, that's how it feels to me.

The theme was language and communication. Which was no great surprise given that it is a language class. We were free to take any approach we wanted, with the only requirement being that we had to include a couple of published works from a series of articles (about 30) in a book that we had been given. A few weeks ago one of my classmates gave a really good presentation on how the ability to communicate determines much of your personality and that, once that ability is compromised, your personality can alter. I hadn't thought about that before, but it rang true to me.

There were two of us who presented our topics last night. One guy spoke about the perceived importance of a name and how that importance can vary, depending on cultural or historical traditions. I found it to be really interesting and, like any good presentation, it opened the topic up for discussion at the end of the presentation.

For me, I took a less personal approach and chose a couple of articles that discussed the value and appropriate use of cliques. I enjoyed researching the subject and coming up with my own theories on the future direction of language evolution. It was fun.

The presentation itself wasn't so much fun. We have an "approximate" time limit, and I've always struggled with that in the past. So I spent a lot of time trimming as much fat out of my speech as I could, without losing too much structure. Which wasn't easy. On the other side, I know that I tend to talk fast when I'm nervous, and the clarity of my language starts to suffer. There's a fine line between Swenglish and just plain gibberish. As that's the entire point of the exercise, I was a bit worried about it, and kept forcing myself to slow down my speech the whole time. Which meant that I got pinged a couple of points for running over time. But I got through it.

With any luck that's the last time I'll have to give an oral presentation in class. There's a lot of things hanging up in the air at the moment as to whether or not the class is going to continue. I hope they find a solution because, as much as I hate it, I need the structured class too keep me focused solely on my new language. As a first time language student it's been a real battle. More than I could ever have imagined. And will be for a few years more. I know I've said it before but I'll always be grateful to the Swedish education system. This is not something I could ever have just "picked up" on my own. Without SFI classes to give me that base language grounding, I'm almost certain that I would be back in NZ today. I must send them a Thank You card some time.

Svenska B

Having finally, and with a great deal of perseverance on the part of my teacher, signed of on Svenska A, I'm now embarking down the road of Svenska B. The final stage of the immigrant language programme. Why am I continuing to subject myself to this torture ? I'm not exactly sure. Maybe it's because I've been doing it so long now that I don't know anything else to do. I started with SFI a few weeks after arriving in Sweden, so I guess it's just part of my life now. But there is a little method to the madness. I've spent so much of my life having the freedom to choose what I want to do. Now, I don't have that same freedom. Not to the same extent. So I'm trying to level the playing field as much as possible between myself and the native Swede. Note, I did say as much as "possible". Have to keep realism in there as well. And it's free. I still can't believe that. Go Sweden.

Having Svenska B will allow me to attend any class held at a Swedish university. I probably will never want to do that. But, the fact is that I could if I wanted. And that's important for me. Being able to choose, rather than have it chosen for me. The other side is that it feels like a job half done. Knowing that there was more to the process would eat away at me. Completing SFI was a condition of my employment. The rest, well that's just a condition for me.

First impressions of Svenska B is that it's quite a jump from Svenska A. In both level and direction. Svenska A was an introduction to extended Swedish writing, while raising the bar with regard to grammatical knowledge. Svenska B is almost entirely focused on extended writing. Lots of indepth reports to write, and opinions to express. A stronger emphasis on Swedish history and culture. Which I guess is fair enough.

Svenska B is a formal recognised qualification. There is a national exam at the end of it. As there is with SFI. Interestingly, for some unknown reason, the national exam is not compulsary for students studying through adult education centres. Such as Komvux. From a national point of view. But many learning centres, my own included, have decided that they will include the national exam as part of their course requirements. Damn them.

This might all come to nothing. Our teacher is taking a one term break from us, to find religion. Technically she's sudying a teaching religion course, but we all suspect that we know what has driven her to this. It's a bit late to apologise now, I guess. So, while I'm toiling my way through the coursework over the summer, there may not be a class for me to return to. We discussed this at some length, and I opted to continue. Regardless of whether or not there is a new class next term, my level of Swedish will have improved. And that's the whole point of the exercise, right ?

På Svenska

It's tough to prepare for a move to Sweden, and especially, the transition to Swedish. I wish that I had spent more time beforehand. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We had bought a few study books in the 12 months leading up to our move. But I never really opened them in anger. Big mistake if I may say so. There are lots of "Study Guide" books out there, but these worked for me: The first we bought was called "Colloquial Swedish", and is pretty popular. It's an English language book, split into about 20 chapters. Every chapter begins with a short story in Swedish. About 10 or so lines. After the story will be a glossary of new words from that story, and their English meaning. The rest of the chapter will focus on a particular part of Swedish grammar. Each chapter gets progressively more complicated. The book came with a cassette tape, which I have to confess I lost. So never got to find out how effective that was. It's a good book, and explains things well. But can become a little heavy going and, well, boring. While still in NZ, we bought (well, my wife bought, truth be known) a set of 3 books called "På Svenska". The author's name was Ulla Görransson, from memory. Anyway, there was an English book called "studiehäfte", a blue book called "lärobok" and a green book called "övningsbok". The green book was a book full of examples on grammar and sentence structure, while the other two books took you through Swedish by way of normal daily events and situations. Like little stories. They are really good books. But, the best part of the whole thing is that they come also with 3 CDs. Two CDs followed the study books, word for word. So you can follow along quite happily, and get a feel for the spoken word as related to the written word. The third CD contained a lot more examples of the things found in the books. Like, for example, telephone conversations. There are 2 or 3 in the book, which you can listen to while reading the text. But then, there are more (maybe 10) on the CD just to listen to. They mix them up a bit too, so there will be a child speaking first, followed by a teenager, followed by an adult, followed by an older person. Unlike most language tapes, I could actually hear what these people were saying. Personally, I found the "På Svenska" book and CD series to be really good. It is light to read, with lots of pictures, and is rather informal. A good series for kids to read also. They publish the series for many languages, so you need to specify that you want the English version when ordering. I saw that quite a few of my classmates had also bought the series. Once I got here, and particularly once I started with language school, a good "Swedish/English" dictionary (lexikon) was a "must have". The schools have them for use, but you have to leave them at the school, and you have to fight the really tough kids for the use of them. So, best to get your own. The other book I bought was a straight Swedish language dictionary, called "Svensk skolordlista". That was probably one of the best books I have bought. It will give you all the different forms for verbs and nouns, which most of the translation Swedish/English dictionaries don't have. As well as opposites and synonoms. Obviously, being only in Swedish, the definitions of the words are also in Swedish. But that's good also, as a learning tool. REALLY helpful if you get asked to write the definition of a word in class. I ended up using that book instead of the translation dictionary after a couple of months. Definitely recommend investing in that book.

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.

Nu är det slut.

Big day today. I am officially a graduate of the Svenska För Invandrare kurs, otherwise known as the Swedish For Immigrants course. Mixed feelings, to be honest. As an achievement, it's up there with getting a Swedish driving permit. I've been living in Sweden for 18 months now, and I've spent 15 of those months attending SFI. Leaving the course is leaving a major security blanket for me. I guess that I've been ready for a while. I've been going through the motions in school since Christmas. Waiting for the final exams. It's become more of a social outing, and a bit less of a learning exercise. But I guess that signifies that the school did it's job. To recap the saga, I started out attending day courses, here in Boden. Boy, was that a terrifying first day. I didn't know a word of the language. Well, not enough to be of any use. After 2 months in the class, myself and one of my cellmates were moved to an "advanced" class. While it was a bit trickier than the previous class, it was hampered by an almost complete lack of motivation by the other resident widlife. Still, I was only there for about a month before I started working fulltime in Luleå. My employer required, and rightly so, that I continue my language studies. Commuting back to Boden wasn't really an option, so I switched to evening classes in Luleå. That was a bit of a hassle as the Boden kommun had to pay the Luleå kommun to teach me. That's not a reflection on me, I should point out. At least, I think it wasn't. So I've been attending evening classes two nights a week in Luleå. For almost exactly 12 months. In some ways it was a giant leap backwards. For whatever reason, the Luleå school used a completely different assessment process to that used by the school in Boden. Which meant that my previous work records counted for noting, and I had to start as a nybörjare again. I guess it was only a waste as far as the formalities of the course went. It wasn't as though they were teaching a different language than in Boden. But it meant that, instead of being about 6 months into the official coursework, I now had 12 months of coursework to complete. It was tough some weeks, and I must confess that I was a "no show" several times. But I made the effort to attend at least on evening each week. And I formed some really good friendships, with a class full of very motivated students. Anyway, last week they held the Nationella Provning examinations. There are official exams for people at the C level (which is the second highest in the programme) and at the D level for people finishing. Both sets of exams are virtually identical. For some reason I managed to miss the "C" exams. No one has ever mentioned it. So I sat the D papers. There were two written papers, each lasting about an hour. The first was full of multi choice answers to questions taken from various texts and articles. The highlight of that paper was seeing the word "oförändrad". Didn't have a clue what it meant, but thanks to my wonderful teachers I was able to break it down and end up with "unchanged". Was mighty pleased with myself over that, I was. The second paper involved writing a letter to a newspaper voicing one's opinion. The third part of the exam involved listening to some spoken text, and answering the short questions written on the exam paper. They weren't terribly complicated. Things like "What time will their train leave the station?". The spoken text sections were each no more than about a minute long, and you got to hear each section twice. The final part of the provning was an oral assessment. I was paired up with a West African girl of dubious repute. So I knew we were going to have a fun time. We were given a topic to discuss (read "argue") together in front of three examining teachers. Then we had to front up individually and converse with the teachers on a set topic for about 5 minutes. And then we were done. Overall I have to say that the school prepared me well. The final exams were nowhere near as difficult as the tasks I had to complete as part of my required coursework. Which was very comforting. Although it was also a bit scarey as I was sure I must have been missing something. So that's me done with SFI. 12 assignments and exams in Boden, 14 assignments and exams in Luleå later. It's a huge relief, but I'm REALLY going to miss those guys. I'm only jut starting to realise how much now. I'm going to have to make the effort to keep in touch with them. I'm terrible about doing that, but this is different. I've shared a lot with them, and they with me. I want to continue with my language studies, but that's going to take some figuring out. Luleå doesn't offer the next stage as a part time evening class. So I might see if it can't be done by distance learning. There must be a way, I can't be the first who is both working and studying. A bit more of a debriefing to follow. Once it's all sunken in.

Another night with the U.N.

Couldn't really be bothered going to school last night. Been feeling a bit off colour for a few days now. But, I'm glad that I did. We ended up having a combined class as one of the other teachers was away sick. Or couldn't be arsed turning up. As we were all working at different levels, the lesson plan was quickly chucked out the window. We got split up into groups for an hour of general chat in Swedish. A bit of a time waste, but I got paired up with 4 other people I hadn't met before. Turned out ok though. One of my goals here is to spent some time travelling Russia and the Ukraine. For no particular reason other than that it fascinates me. Ukraine is a bit tricky to get around, from the looks of things. Saint Petersburgh, on the other hand, is just a 90 minute flight from Stockholm. And one can ride a leg of the Trans Siberian railway to Moscow from there. I'm pretty keen on that. So, anyway. We do the standard introductions around our group, and I find out that I'll be spending the next 60 minutes with a guy from Saint Petersburg, 2 girls from Moscow, and a Ukranian grandmother. I couldn't believe my luck. And I couldn't believe that I was considering such a thing to be luck either. To sum up, 60 minutes turned into 2 hours of me quizzing them on their home country. In Swedish, of course. And gettting everything I needed from hotels to bus time tables. I now need to find a group of Egyptian students.

Less is More

I read a really good comment on another Swedish blog today. Concerning the government sponsored SFI language course. And the speed of the course. I've also read a lot of people mouthing of about how they "knocked the course off in 3 months". And I wonder how they are faring today. Maybe I'm just a bit slow when it comes to learning languages, this being my first attempt and all. But think about it for a moment: Can you REALLY learn and understand a foreign language in 3 months ? I started off with a hiss and a roar. Ripping through my assignment books and asking to sit a new exam every week. Ticking off each of the 21 levels in my course with a sense of triumph. Then it dawned on me. This isn't about getting an SFI certificate. That wasn't going to help me at all. Finishing the course meant bugger all. I wasn't going to suddenly have implanted in me a Swedish language translation chip on graduation day. The point of the exercise was for me to learn Swedish. Sufficiently well so that I could survive out there in the big cruel world. So my strategy changed. I finished the first 8 of my 21 assignment books in the first 3 months. The final 13 took me a year. And I'm bloody happy about that. A year and a bit of dedicated language study has given me so much more confidence and a much clearer understanding. I'm no Swedish language expert, I figure that's going to take a few years more yet. But what I've learnt, I've retained. And I understand it. And surely that has to be the point. I could have sat every test in 3 months also. Cramming the night before. But how much of it would I really have understood ? How much of it would I have retained after 3 months, with the intensive information overload regime. Sod all, is how much. It's not some state requirement, you don't have to go to school. So why shoot yourself in the foot by trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible ? There are no shortcuts to learning a language. Not in my experience. I needed to pull it apart, start from the ground up. Understanding fully all the whys and hows of language is vital if you intend to be more than a repeating chimp. SFI gets a bad rap around the place. But I'll wager that the negativity comes from people who saw it as a necessary evil to be tick off as quickly as possible, the "3 month" club. Rather than viewing it as a vital tool to building a new life. If you do the bare minimum required to pass a test, it won't be enough. And you'll say that SFI is rubbish. The level of education in an SFI course is limited by your own participation. We had brilliant indepth group discussions that went way beyond the scope of the course. There's no law against that. No teacher jumped in and says "stop talking like that, your Swedish is becoming too good". They loved it. You can only get to that level of confidence if you take the time. Rush it, and you're wasting your time. It's that simple. My advice: So long as you are progressing, make the most of the system and stay as long as you can. It's your life, after all. And there ain't no prizes for finishing first.

Health and Happiness

Had a great night at Swedish language school last night. We had been given an assignment to find a newspaper article during the week, and then to present the article to another group of students for discussion. Now, being from a small town, there's not a lot of newsworthy happenings. So our local paper is usually padded out with stories of the weird and wonderful. Which suited me just fine for this exercise. Anyway, bottom line was that 7 of us sat around for an hour, discussing the news, and life in general. There we were, Lebanese, Polish, Estonian, Chinese, Kiwi, Vietnamese, and French. A veritable gathering of the United Nations ended up having a right royal bitch session about the shortcomings of the state run pharmacutical outlet, Apoteket. For anyone not familiar with the Swedish healthcare system, prescription pharmacies, all called Apoteket, are government owned and operated. Swedes are a bit paranoid when it comes to drugs, so pretty much anything stronger than an asprin requires a trip to the doctor (läkare), and a prescription (recept). There's the odd private doctor around the place, but, for the most part, doctors are employed by the state. They mostly work out of communal medical centres, known as vårdcentral. Which centre you go to is usually determined by your post code, but they are about to loosen up on that a bit so that you can pretty much go where you want. On a bizarre side note, Apoteket is also the outlet for all animal medicine. Feels a bit odd asking the chemist for laxatives for my cat. They look at you like "sure, for the cat. We believe you. You sicko". One thing they have done well, is their electronic system. Once the doctor (or vet) has typed your prescription into the computer, you can pick it up from any Apoteket in the country. No clumsy pieces of paper. Just flash your ID, and the drugs flow like water. If they have the drugs, that is. I've lost count of the number of times that my prescribed medication has been "out of stock". But the theory's good. So that was our evening. Seven of us from the far flung corners, stumbling around with our Swedish. I really enjoy those nights. They are good, intelligent people. There's no pretence at hierarchy. We're all bollocks, and we know it. And that's kind of a nice feeling. Knowing that when you strip away any home country advantage or status, and make life a true level playing field, that we are, all of us, just the same. There's no race, religion, or cultural distractions. It's a very unique experience, quite surreal. And definitely the highlight of my experiences so far.

Evening musing

Still on the subject of school, I was back at language school last night. I must confess to having been a little derelict in my formal language study duties of late. But I had a major project to finish off at work, we'd moved house, I'd been sick. Yaddy yaddy yah. I remember one of my school masters telling me that one should never have an excuse, one should always have a "reason for". So, those were my reasons for. Anyway, I must have been away for a bit longer than I had realised. As I discovered last night, 2 of my classmates had gotten married, and 3 more were pregnant. I must have missed one hell of a party. I have missed them all, it should be said. Who would have thought, 18 months ago, that I would yearn for the company of a classroom full of people from every corner of the planet. It's rather surreal at times. The teachers are great, and that helps a lot. They treat you as an adult, and not as an idiot. Even though we all feel like idiots at times. My evening class runs twice a week. Which is obviously long enough for marriages and pregnancies. One night focuses purely on grammar. That can be a bit draining after a full day of work. But essential. The other night is spent practicing listening and spoken (uttal) skills. That's always been the hardest part for me, understanding what people are saying to me. So having 2 hours a week doing just that is invaluable. I read somewhere, that the SFI language school teaches to the equivalent level of a Swedish 6 year old. I have even heard the teaching staff say that. That's a bit of an unfair statement. What they mean is, that the number of words they teach you directly, the vocabulary, is about the same number that a 6 year old Swede knows. But we're not 6 years old. We're adults, and we've been speaking for 20+ years. Some of us more than that. So we know how to use language, how to look for the root of words, how to break apart compound words into their simple forms. I might suck at Playstation games, but I can beat a 6 year old any day at learning and applying grammatical rules. Give me a Swedish verb and I can tell you by looking at it what the other forms of that verb will be. Well, most of them. Being taught just one word, you can create another 5 from that word. So don't be fooled by that "dumbing down" of the course description. it does the staff and pupils a bit of a dis-service. Oh, and it's snowing a shitload right now. How cool is that.

Simple Minds

It's funny how, when facing challenges at every corner, the smallest of victories can take on monumental proportions. Things that we took for granted as part of our every day former lives are now viewed as glittering gold stars to be fought for and won. While sitting with my rag tag band of fugitives in Swedish language school on Monday evening, it was noted that one of our merry band had, in recent days, passed his driving test. Given that we're all in our 30s and 40s, this should not have been worthy of more than a passing comment and an obligatory compliment. And then we should have all moved on. After all, we had all been driving for 20 years. So no big deal. But then the rules of our former lives no longer apply here. What this event signified to us was that one of us, one of our own, had triumphed. One of us had dared to cross that line between old and new, and he had won ! It wasn't just a victory for him, it was a victory for us all. He knew it, we knew it. At that moment, as we gazed in wonderment at his freshly procured körkort, we were one. A true band of brothers. It was a soul defining moment. Those of us left behind in his wake of triumph and euphoria dreamed together of how it would be. Of the day when we too would take that step closer to being who we once were. Amir had driven a few times with the driving school instructor, so he was rolling. I had sat through the compulsary lecture on drugs and alcohol. Although I'm thinking of asking for a refund there, as I'm none the wiser as to where one goes to buy the really good shit. But we're there, we're on our way. And we have the strength of Chong now, to inspire us and give us the strength for the treacherous road ahead.

Speaking of språk

Got a letter in the post yesterday from Vuxenutbildning in Luleå. That's the school for grown up kids. Minus the free lunches. Telling me that the SFI ( Swedish for Immigrants ) evening classes were starting back next week. A new teaching staff list this time around. And they all looked like Swedish names too. Which will be a change from being taught Swedish by Danes and Russians. I wonder how many of my comrades in arms will be returning to the front line with me after 2 months of R&R. Such a motley mixture we were, I suspect we must resemble an international cast of Gilligan's Island. Two Eastern European blackmarket barons, a guy from Congo currently in his 11th year of Swedish language study, a Urkrainian grandmother, a Russian doctor ( and potential registered sex offender ), an Indian guy desperate for love, a Chinese couple hell bent on divorce, 2 French guys who I think simply got lost on the way to somewhere else, and a somewhat cynical Kiwi. All being taught Swedish by a divorced Dane. You couldn't invent such a bizarre group. The real sobering part for me in attending language class, is the great leveller that language brings to people. Here we are, people from all corners of the globe. All with different religious and ideological beliefs. All with different educational backgrounds. Farmers, chemical engineers, company executives, housewives. All of us siting in a small room together at night, twice a week. Stripped bare of status. Everyone of us, exactly the same. We share nothing in common, yet are bound together by adversity. Exactly as Ginger, Gillian, Maryanne, the skipper, the professor, and the Howells. Normally our paths would never cross. By choice. But here we embrace each other. There's a warmth and comfort in not being alone in our struggle. One valuable lesson I have learnt from living in a foreign speaking country, is to acquire a unquestioning respect for those immigrants I had watched struggle in my homeland. I think there's a great truth in the notion that everyone should walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Many people criticise the SFI system. And I think they could do better in their methods. But, for me, being in the company of a group who knows EXACTLY for tough and how soul destroying the road to this new life can be at times. Well, it would not be an overstatement to say that it has saved my Swedish life. On a number of occasions. So to that motley mismatched crew who share the lifeboat with me 2 nights a week, I salute you all.

Language: Your number one priority

Under estimate this at your peril !!!! Swedes are highly educated and every local under the age of 60 has pretty fluent English. So you won't die. However, if you want to be treated as anything more than a nuisance or a liability, learn the language. And FAST. Most people arrive eager to dive straight into the workforce. My advice is to hold off as long as you can afford to, until you have the necessary language skills needed to function efficiently in the country. A small time delay now can save a whole lot of heartache later. I've seen a lot of online postings from people looking to come to Sweden and searching for work. I was one of those. It's a great idea when you're sitting safely at home, but the reality of priorities in a foreign speaking country is very different. As in most countries, if you have trouble with language, people often think you have trouble with everything. So the things that you are skilled at tend to be downgraded somewhat. But you can fix that. A lot has been said about the short comings of the SFI ( Swedish For Immigrants ) language programme. It's not perfect. But it's an excellent way to start and I highly recommend it. For starters it's a fulltime classroom based course. So you concentrate on nothing else but language. You'll also find yourself in the company of other people equally as traumatised as yourself. Misery loves company. It's an adults only course, so if you have children they have to go through the international school system. It's also a free course, which helps. SFI gives a good grounding in basic vocabulary and grammar skills. If you understand why sentences are structured the way that they are, it's easy to adapt later on. Expect the SFI course to take about a year to complete, depending on the speed of your classmates. And depending on the motivation of the teaching staff. This can vary a lot from school to school. Don't be afraid to stand up and make a noise if the teacher is consistently unprepared or, as is often the case, simply fails to show up. Swedes are rather frightened of controntation, and tend to move to fix problems quickly when challenged. Remember, this is your future at stake. I've been at the end of my tether at times, taking the time to go to school, only to find there is no teacher that day, and the school hasn't bothered to arange for a substitute. I'm sure they wouldn't treat Swedish adults with the same lack of respect. We don't know the language, but we're not idiots. With SFI you'll be able to live from day to day. But you'll need a more complete language education to be able to work at the level you once enjoyed in your homeland. Remember, why should any Swedish employer hire you when they can hire someone who has a Swedish education and is also a native Swedish speaker ? So you need to stack the deck a bit. A lot. The SAS Grund, Svensk A and B courses follow SFI. They will take you to the level of Swedish high school language. And that's about good enough. These courses are largely self study, with a couple of days in the classroom each week. Recommended. Most large towns offer the SFI and Svensk courses through their Komvux ( adult learning ) centres. The downside to the courses mentioned is that they are a bit light on vocal training. And obviously that is the key to surviving in a foreign land. Here it's of value to seek out private tuition. Specifically targeted at speaking and listening. Swedes are sticklers for paper based qualifications. While there are other language courses on offer, the SFI, Svensk A and Svensk B courses are all government run courses. Employers understand them and know what they mean. By all means take up other courses, but complete the official ones also. Otherwise you'll just confuse people.