Svenska

As promised, a post about what has been going on with me concerning my Swedish classes.

When I joined my class in February, my teacher made me take test and then read a text for her out loud. She then told me based on my result that she thinks I would be better of in a higher level group. As there are at least 4 people in my class that speak really well, I thought “No, I will stay here. I am sure I will learn stuff.” But as it turns out as the weeks went by, I was more and more discouraged by how slow we moved, the teachers teaching style, and the horrid computer class. We reviewed basic grammar which is a good thing, but not if that is all the grammar you cover. I was reviewing adjectives, pronouns, verbs and nouns and was bored out of my mind. We were going through chapters of the textbook I had already done for my summer class in 2012. The only class I liked and was getting anything from was the discussion group every second Friday.

So my teacher pulled me aside one day and told me that 10 new students would be joining our class, since they passed  SFI D nationella provet. She told me it would be better for me in a higher level but as I thought I was in SAS grundläggande semester 2, I thought the next possible level was high school level Swedish, something which I am not comfortable with. I took out the texbook Språkporten from the library which is used in SAS 1,2,3 and was totally out of my element. I went from understanding 85% of the words in the texts to about 50-60%(passively, no way in hell I would actually call upon them from memory and say them). Also, they study less hours a week, and I want as much listening practice as possible and really didn’t fancy jumping into a History or Science class over half way through the semester.

A day or two after, while talking to a classmate I asked why our class was getting 10 new students while the class who usually has lessons in the room next to us wasn’t getting any( I assumed that there were too many students for one class, so they broke the group into two). It seemed fair to me that they split the new students – 5 in one class, and 5 in the other so we wouldn’t have 26 in one and 12 in the other. She looked at me like I was from mars and then said “Well, they are in the second semester. These new students can’t just skip upp to semester 2” and it dawned on me that though we were in the second semester of the school year, that we were actually semester 1. So the day that we got the new students and our teacher was running around with her head cut off(poor thing, can you imagine so many students and the group split in two basically three levels. Those with decent level Swedish, those with slightly stronger level, and those who just came from SFI (Which is pretty horrible in my kommun. Some people can still hardly write simple texts about themselves)). I talked with the most fluent speaker in our class. I asked him why he didn’t move up since he has basically no problems expressing himself at all, has a huge vocabulary, and uses complex grammatical structures. His answer is what made me move. “I want to make education last as long as possible” – he is collecting CSN money and wants to drag it out as long as possible. He already has a side job as well so it is in his best interest to say in a lower level. That is why he even was in our class. That was enough for me to realize that I shouldn’t gauge my level of Swedish on his, and judge the group by him and the few other students in the same boat as him.

I talked with my teacher after class and she was so happy for me. She took me next door and I told the new teacher about myself and why I wanted to change levels. She told me the homework for the next day and that we were reading the book “En ö i havet” so I just swapped out the book we were reading with the old course, “Tsatsiki och morsan” for the new one. She gave me a schedule and the next day I joined the new group. It is so much better. We are working through chapter 14 of the text book, not the easy stuff in chapter 5 like before. The grammar is either new to me, or something I need to work on because I can’t use it actively. The writing assignments are more complex, almost like essays. We also have have a sort of acting class/street Swedish class and will put on a performance next month(eiii!) so I have some Swedish to memorize!

The best part is that the teacher is much better. We don’t check all the homework and waste 2/3 of the class time doing so. She takes one of the 4/5 pieces of homework we have and we go through it as a class and if anyone has questions about the other stuff, she will stay after class to help, or during her office hours. She gives us a variety of excercieses. Today we played a form of Taboo for example, yesterday we watched the movie adaptation of the book we read and discussed the differences. We also have a lot of group work where we discuss things or solve problems. This is so much more useful than what my previous teacher did. We did the same thing in principle,  but with the whole class so it was only ever 3-4 people answering questions all the time. Here we all get time to speak and she walks around, listens and helps.

All in all, I am much happier I switched. It is a bit scarier, and most everyone speaks much, much better than me, but I actually feel like I am not wasting my time. And that has done wonders for my mood. I feel like I was starting to get into a funk where I didn’t even want to do the homework since I could just do it in class while we went over the answers, and was feeling even more scared to speak Swedish since I wasn’t really learning any new words or getting to actually speak at all during class.

In other news, I also have applied for the program “Svenska som främmande språk” at Stockholms University this fall. I sent in my transcripts from high school and university and am waiting to receive a message with details about the entrance exam. There are two courses, the förberedande kurs, and behörighetsgivande kurs, both of which prepare you to go to university in Sweden and study programs in the Swedish language with Swedes. They don’t take beginners, the level you need to be at to be selected is B1, and from what I understand, the entrance exam is just reading and writing, no oral portion so I think I should make it in, assuming all goes well with my transcripts.

I am a bit unsure about the courses as I have heard different things from different people. A Russian lady I met said she learned to speak much better, and they helped her nearly loose her accent, and another person I heard from said that they learned nearly nothing and it was all about writing, grammar and giving presentations. So, we shall see. If need be, I will take this course as well as gymnasium courses (SAS 1,2,3 and other high school level courses) here in my kommun at the same time and make my decision by December which is more worth my time. I think in any case, studying two courses at once can only be good for my Swedish, just not sure when I’ll find time to do homework!

Riksdagshuset

Something anyone visiting Sweden should know is that to have a guided tour of riksdagshuset is free! (keyword: free!) They have tours in English and Swedish and you will get to see where riksdagen (the parliament) makes their decisions (and works out in a gym, and swimming pool, eats their lunches etc.), and hear about the buildings history and the other government buildings in view from the north window.

I joined in on a group doing the Swedish tour, and it went okay. I always understood the main idea of what the guide was saying, but there were a lot of missing words, but luckily since it was a tour you have a lot of visual things around you to add context(and they have nice brochures full of info(even lättläst!) you can pick up at the end). Luckily, we are going over the government in samhällskunskap (basically like Civics class) right now, and so I knew the words like regering, statschef, val, att rösta, ledamöter, uttskot, statsminister, and grundlagar. I got to add talman and kammare to the brain bank, found out what that urn in riksdagens kammare is for, that they still have stenographers and which office is the prime minister(top floor, to the left of the balcony, under the swedish flag!), got to see the finansutskottets meeting room (so pretty!), found out anyone can come and listen to when riksdagen has their meetings (someday when I actually understand Swedish, I am going to try that!), see some beautiful art they have about the building, find out in a simplified way how a proposal becomes a law, and that in the kammare they don’t sit organized in groups based on party (The guide said that there has never been a fight between members of different parties sitting next to each other – nice to hear that they are professional)

I am not a person who has ever been interested in politics, but it is somehow more interesting when you are learning about a government that is different that yours, and that you may get to take part in by voting in a few years. It is also made a bit more interesting due to the fact that there will be elections this autumn! I look forward to learning about all the parties and follow all the scandals (Sverigedemokraterna, I’m looking at you!). I was pretty politically unaware in Canada, and would like to turn that around with my fresh start here in Sweden.

Grateful(I think the most used word in the post)

Where have I been the last little while? Sadly, not in front of my computer(“sadly”, for the anti-social part of me who is just begging for a nap and some no-people, no studying time).

At the risk of sounding like an ass for complaining about being busy(it works if I call myself an ass first, right?), I will say that I am very grateful to all my friends here for putting up with me, whether you read the blog or not, I am grateful to my Swedish classes – no matter how much I complain about them, and I am grateful to be in Sweden in general. Will have to split this post in two, as I want to talk specifically about studying Swedish in a post, and will do that tomorrow(or, you know, whenever).

So, what have I been up to that means I haven’t written in nearly 2 weeks? First up was Sven’s birthday. It was sort of geek/magic/video game/game themed. We had nearly 30 people in our apartment. There were body parts everywhere! things were tumbling down! people were in bathtubs together! there was fire! It was not that dramatic, as you can see:

Everyone was split into teams and there were various challenges during the night(as you can see, Jenga, Twister, etc). My team came in second place. We will crush them all next year! Next we took off to Stockholm to go to the club Syntax Error. There was nerd music and video games galore, and it was a lot of fun!

Ate at Kungsgatan 25 which is a neat food court type of deal. The design is not like any food court I have seen though. The hall is narrow and long and on either side are the different restaurants, and down the middle is one long table with chairs and then a tiny area in the back with some table and chairs and at the very end, a wall that resembles a lecture theatre in a university. Those are tables for eating too. The food was pretty alright. I had a burger from Vigårda, which came with fries, a sauce and a salad for a very decent price.

Had a lovely brunch at Arizona, with a bunch of “Meet up” ladies. This is the second one I have tried, and it keeps getting better. The food wasn’t as fancy as the last one, nor was the atmosphere, but the food was darn good, and the drinks were delicious(various juices, tea, and smoothies)(and best of all, it was cheaper!). I can’t remember everything but they had toast, jam, olives, sandwich meat, cheese, macaroni salad, caesar salad, coleslaw, bean sprouts, eggs, potatoes, spicy sausages, bacon, ribs, wings, pancakes, whipped cream, berries, pancakes, bread, pineapple.

We have walked a massive amount these last two weeks on account of the amazing weather. Spring has arrived and I hope it is here to stay!

I would say that we are out and about either out here in the park, or in the city about 3 times a week. If I don’t suggest a walk, then Sven does. Often in cute little ways like this by posting things on my computer screen. And as you can see, I have Swedified myself by wearing white converse. I can now walk among the Swedes, undetected. Until I open my mouth, that is. Here are my favourite graffiti pieces.

Went to Liljevalchs konsthall yesterday. This was my kind of museum. It wasn’t huge, but had enough, and enough variety that time passed so quickly. It was easily my favourite museum I have visited thus far in Stockholm. I can’t wait to see what future exhibitions they get. Here are a few of my favourite pieces from the last two weeks!