The first ‘proper’ day was Tuesday 12th – I chose to sit near the two people with whom I had shared a class with the previous term and tried to blend in as best as I could. The teacher, who seems nice enough, then immediately split us up from our groups and sat us with new people. We played a basic game where you roll a die then move a token and answer a question depending on which space you land on. At this stage it didn’t seem too difficult. It was a noticeable step up in ability but there were only a few thing that I was unable to understand. The people in my group, one girl in particular, seemed to be very competent at speaking Swedish and the beginning of the feeling that I was out of my depth began.

After stumbling through the game, we were given a piece of text on the recent snowy weather across Europe. It was at this point that I felt REALLY out of place. I could barely read a single sentence without wondering what it meant. After I came home that evening I tried as best I could to interpret the text and, in the process, annoyed my girlfriend… She has lots of work (even more than me) and yet she still helps when I ask – When I’m finally able to speak Swedish I’ll have to get her a big thank you present for putting up with me. Anyway, I was having serious doubts about whether I was in the right class and whether I should ask to be moved down to something a little easier.

Over the next few days I asked the two people that had moved to this class with me from the beginners whether they found it difficult. Thankfully they agreed that this was a VERY big step up. I think my choice quote would be: “Before term we spent two weeks learning the words ‘banana’ and ‘apple’ and now the expect us to do this?”. I decided to persevere and hope for the best…

As it happens, that was pretty much it. Not particularly exciting but there was some news in the fact I have skipped a class as suspected. It seems the other two that had taken the test with me before Christmas will also be present in the higher group. We had a quick look around to find our room for tomorrow and then said our goodbyes. It will be a little strange being in a group of mostly new faces after getting to know the people in the group, but I suppose we’ll just have to do that all over again. Still, we can talk to each other even if we don’t know anyone else.

The timetable for this term is not as nice as the previous one. As nasty as it was getting up for a 08:30 start every day, it did mean that I could enjoy the rest of the day off when I was finished. Now I have 12:30-15:30 each day except for Friday when it is 08:30-11:30 as before. Another noticeable change will be that I am now in every day of the week. I suppose it wont be a big change but it was nice before – Does that sound lazy?

So, what can be expected from this new term? Well, I don’t really know… But if last term is anything to go by, it will be a lot of fun finding out.

Going back to an earlier post I made about finding out the results of my test – It turns out that I got all of the answers right! Needless to say I am indeed very pleased. When we are split into groups after the holiday I’ll be put into a higher group, apparently. As I’ve alluded to in a past post I’m not too confident about being in the faster groups, but hopefully I should be able to cope. I think that over the Christmas break I need to really keep at the Swedish and, in particular, focus on my listening and speaking. More pestering my girlfriend on the horizon, then…

The term has been a fun one, and not really what I expected. For the first time in quite a while I’m actually enjoying learning – Maybe that has to do with studying accounting for 4 years? Maybe it’s because I can get a real sense of my improvement every time I’m able to comprehend something I see or something I overhear. Whichever, I really do feel happy here.

I may update over the holidays but it will most likely be in the ‘mistakes’ section of my blog as there will obviously be no classes. If I don’t then, have a great holiday, I’ll see you in January.

The course seems to be going well and I feel I’m slowly understanding a little more each day. I’m even starting to pick out the occasional word from conversations which is a vast improvement from before. All in all, quite proud with my progress.

About two weeks ago we were given a test to do. This was to determine which groups we will be put into next term. After feeling quietly confident about it all this time we finally got the results back today. Out of a total of 75 I managed to get 74! Yay me. The only point I messed up on was a spelling mistake in the word sjuttonde. Having a quick look around to judge how the rest of my classmates had performed, there seemed to be a vast difference in ability. I was never really aware of this before, but maybe that’s just because some people are better at being quiet and going unnoticed than others. I glanced over to another table to notice someone managed to score 4… Maybe I shouldnt judge too harshly, as some students wont even have Roman characters in their first languages, but still… 4…?

Whilst looking around on WordPress for others in a similar situation, I came across a few people mentioning individuals that feign how bad their Swedish is, just so they can stay on the course longer, keep receiving their benefits and avoid working. I would like to think people like this are not commonplace, so  for now I’ll put this down to other reasons. Anyway…

As the teacher handed out the tests she mentioned to me and two others that we were to take another test in the second half of the lesson to determine how much Swedish we know. Maybe she is thinking of putting us into a higher group…? I’ll find out in January I suppose.

The test itself was a lot more difficult than anything we’ve done previously. I did manage to understand the majority of it, which I was pleased with, but I don’t think I’ll be getting anywhere near as good a grade for this one. From what I could work out, one of the questions asked how the fire brigade could tell that a dog which had alerted a family to a fire in their house, was a competent dog… Not what it was asking, methinks… Or would they ask such a strange question? Ah well.

I wonder if we’ll find out how we did. I’m planning on doing another post after term had ended to summarise things so I’ll write about it then if I am told. Until then, I might have a little rest. After all, it is nearly Christmas.

More of her strange decisions regarding capital letters were on display again today with “APelsin” a prime example. To add to this little quirk she’s also decided that persika (peach) begins with a B and that pineapple is spelled wrong. Who are we to argue?

Moving on from moaning, there’s due to be a big test tomorrow, which I feel quietly confident about. I do keep making silly little mistakes, mostly with spelling, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

To end on a positive note, I must say I am quite enjoying the course, even through it strange moments. Everyone seems to get along very well, which always helps. We all say hej to each other and stumble through our conversations complete with our best miming. It brought a smile to my lips the other day as I caught myself miming the word “hungrig” (hungry) – rubbing my stomach and licking my lips. Where else could I get away with acting like such a fool and for it to be accepted with appreciation!

To begin with she tends to speak a bit fast – I know this is just realistic and I’ll have to get used to it sooner or later, but we’re still beginners… Maybe just a little slower…? Secondly and somewhat ironically her lessons are taught at a very slow pace. She spent what seemed like ages slowly, carefully and more importantly slowly writing up things on the whiteboard. Lastly her use of capital letters was generous to say the least, with no discernable pattern to when or where they might appear. I was quite surprised to see one pop up in the middle of mAj (the month of May in English) and two of the cheeky little fellows found their way into apeLsIn (orange in English). Maybe it was just her handwriting… I thought her 2 was a 9 to begin with…

Aside from the above confusion, the lesson was pretty basic with her taking quite a lazy teaching role – Requiring us to work out of dictionaries to fill in picture puzzles. Fun? Well… Meh.

The title of this post refers to my previous post concerning whether or not there was a sinister motive to the departure of the previous teacher. I made fun of this at the time, but it seems there may have been more to it than I had first suspected… After speaking with a few of my classmates during a break I happened to gain a little insight into the views others held of her. The word “witch” was one of the few English words I understood… While this was perhaps a little unfair, it turns out she had been making comments about people’s smell during the lessons – While it may not be pleasant to put up with other people’s bodily odour, to make fun of it in front of others when in a position such as hers is perhaps a little irresponsible. For this reason and perhaps more, some people revealed that they had complained to the college about her behaviour. Was this the reason for her departure? Who knows, but it would tie in with the glossing over of her sudden disappearance…

So, the bottom line: Are we better or worse for the change? I find it strange to say it, but I think perhaps worse. The old-style teachers do tend to have a way of making you remember the content of their lessons however unpleasant they, themselves may be. Whereas, the replacement, is perhaps remembered for all the wrong reAsoNs.

Monday lessons are split into 2. The first hour and a half is spent in the classroom as usual and the second one and a haf hour is spent on the computers learning from language programs. Interesting side note; all the computers are iMacs yet come installed with Windows… Meh.

I had been having trouble with a few Swedish nouns and their plurals so I was not looking forward to going back to be tested on them. As it turned out, this was not the subject of todays lesson (I get that pleasure delayed until Wednesday), today was about food. As I’ve been in Sweden for a few months now and several occasions in the past, I’ve been food shopping a good few times and most of the words I knew already. As well as this little win ( if you can call it that), the best came after the break.

As there are only 18 iMacs and over 20 students, some of us have to sit on a table working from a book until people finish. When they’re done we switch tasks and those that were on the iMacs work from a book and vice versa. Today I ended up being part of the group that didn’t manage to negotiate the rush to get on an iMac first, and ended up sitting at the table ready to write. The tasks we get are never particularly taxing but more time filling. I managed to complete this fairly swiftly and changed with someone who had finished with their software questions. After doing this for the remainder of the lesson (I really need to work on my listening) the teacher approached me and asked if I would like to join another group – A faster working group – the more intelligent group!

Aside from the initial disappointment that a bachelor’s degree and several past visits to Sweden amount to a place in the lowest beginner group, I was quite pleased. I told my teacher I think on it and left with a spring in my step.

Will I change group? Should I? I feel as though I would like to learn faster, but then I’m worried I wont be able to keep up. Maybe it’s best to take the compliment and say, thanks but no thanks…

Lastly, the teacher mentioned in one of my previous posts (the scary one) has mysteriously quit/left. This was quickly glossed over during discussion with no mention of why. A cover up? Of course not, but strange nonetheless. I’m relieved in a way, although now there’s a new teacher to adapt to. What’s she like? I’ll find out Wednesday.

Our class seems to be settling in to a nice routine. We have four different teachers (or lärare), of which I can only say I like one of. It could be said I’m not there to like them, I’m there to learn, but it never hurts, does it? One of them, I’m borderline scared of – She’s pretty much the quintessential old-style teacher. By that I mean, she requires that you get it right or she’ll make you look like a fool – and have fun doing it. Luckily I’ve yet to experience this wrath first hand – Still, plenty of time yet. Of the other two I dislike there’s the token ‘cool’ teacher that teaches us the slang and sports the sort of hair you can’t help but question, and lastly a quiet, mild woman who smiles just that bit too much.

On a more serious note:

Progress seems to be slow but steady – With no discernable ability structured groups, this may be hindered to a greater extent.

Content has mainly been basic, with a recent introduction to some grammar. Tonight’s läxa (homework): the topic of plurals! With 5 different ways to perform the equivalent of sticking the letter s on the end of an English noun (I know there’s more than 1 in English, too), it may be a long night.

I feel sympathy for my girlfriend already, whom I’ll undoubtedly pester in a strained Swedish/clearing my throat accent. We had a little go at a conversation earlier, which didn’t go too badly (aside from the moment I thought she suggested we buy some poo at the shop instead of sweetcorn – sometimes learning the curse words in another language has its disadvantages).

On a final note, I received my confirmation from immigration yesterday that I’m allowed to stay here for two years. A little daunting to acknowledge written down like that, but I’m sure it’ll be great. To end on a cliché: Time will tell…

The students in my class are a good mix of nationalities with a wide representation of countries. In a little class excercise there were only 2 that would call their first language English. Myself and one other – an American.

I hadn’t really spoken with her until my third day when we were on a break and I had gone outside to take a walk and get some air. During the walk I ran into another student from my class who struck up a conversion (in English) with me as I walked past. During this, the American girl approaches us and joins in. From the lessons she knows I’m English and immediately comments on the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon I was wearing. My girlfriend had given me the ribbon a few weeks earlier – admittedly a good cause so I had no objection. I proceed to tell her this, and either through my mistake or hers she interprets it as me saying that my girlfriend has breast cancer! Before I can correct her, she mentions that she is a breast cancer survivor and jumps in with a question concerning how her treatment is going… Before it got wildly out of control I had to point out the error, which I think made all three of us cringe. To break the silence I then attempt to explain that my girlfriend supports the breast cancer awareness cause. A simple enough statement you would imagine. Reply: “You support breast cancer?!”. Now at this point I’m hoping the conversation will end pretty soon so we can move on so I say something along the lines of “yes, it’s a good cause”. It took only a moment after I had finished that short sentence for me to wonder whether she had thought that I meant I support cancer, i.e. the death of people from it, rather than the pink ribbon campaign. Her reply of “Oh, OK I respect that…” only added to the confusion. I hadn’t the nerve to clarify what I had meant, but I’m hoping she knew…

It seems strange that the one person I should have been able to have a fully understandable conversation with, found it that difficult to understand me. Maybe it was my accent or inflection or something… I’m going to take it as a sign that I should stick to the Swedish.

The first day was pretty nerve-wracking. My girlfriend who had come along to support me, and whom I usually force to get me out of any Swedish directed my way, had very kindly accompanied me to the door. This made things easier as it always does to have someone to support you. Although this does tend to fade once you’ve parted at the door and left to fend for yourself.

The feeling was very much like being back at school, college, uni, work whatever and it being the first day all over again. We’ve all gone through it at some stage and we’ll probably all go through it again. This time, however it was a little different. Instead of being able to settle in and make polite chit-chat with everyone, we all spoke different languages, with the only “permitted” spoken language being Swedish. Since we’ve all beginners this left something of a strange silence…

From what little Swedish I understood during the course introduction, again fully in Swedish, the first day was not a lesson as such, merely a sign-up. They then proceed to call out everyone’s names and give them a folder and course material (as well as, interestingly enough, a notepad. Something I’d never experienced during my English education – A nice touch). My surname is pretty far along alphabetically so I wasn’t too worried by the fact everyone else except for me seemed to be getting a course pack. This was of course until the course leader finished the list without reading my name out.

After everyone else had left I had to stay behind to try to explain my situation. Luckily speaking in English was permitted as I might as well have walked out the door with everyone else had it not been. The course leader was thankfully very understanding and reassured me that everything would be fine, and for the time being to just fill out my details on a slip of paper.

The details needed were:

• Name – Simple enough
• Personal number – Eurgh….

For anyone that is unaware a personal number in Sweden is a unique 10 digit number consisting of your date of birth and four other (random?) numbers which in total seem to confirm your very existence in Sweden. “Without it, you do not exist here” I believe was the exact phrase used when I explained that I couldn’t recall my number. I rather sheepishly wrote down as much as I could (date of birth…) and that was it.

Aside from feeling slightly embarrassed and awkward about the whole  affair, it was sorted. My lessons were scheduled for mornings every week day except for Friday. A mixed result – Fridays free? Great! Mornings? Meh…

As touched upon above, my name did turn up on the register the next day, so all was fine. Although if you asked me now, I still can’t recall my personal number…