Dave and I are both enrolled in Swedish for Immigrants (SFI), a free language learning program for folks like us with a person number. Armed with our social security number equivalent, we walked down to the office where we were to have our examination to determine our level. We took a ticket, waited in the queue, and then followed a Swedish woman into an office down a long corridor; I don’t know about Dave, but with each step we took I kept wondering what was going on, what we were going to be doing next, and what this test would look like. We spoke to this woman in English after it became clear that we didn’t Swedish one bit beyond the “hej”, “hej då”, and “ursäkta” (hello, bye, and excuse me). Dave was enrolled in a five day per week class that accumulated at least 20 hours of course time per week, plus homework and other things. I was enrolled in an evening class that met twice a week for about seven weekly hours. We later found out that “the test” was as simple as speaking to us and realizing that we know nothing. I guess I wouldn’t want to waste the paper either as clearly we were going to fail.
Dave’s course started a few weeks before mine and he was learning so much and so quickly. I was excited to start my class…really genuinely excited. I have to admit that I was a little bit jealous but also saw that he was putting in so much time. He was fearless in his quest to master the language unlike my unexpected timidity with speaking (I know, it was a surprise to us too). I read all sorts of accounts online of SFI being a waste of time, people being placed in bad classes, the wrong level, feeling like they were wasting their time and not making progress. I dismissed many of these things, and conversations we had with other expats, because I could see how well Dave was making out in his class. And then my class started and the first two weeks were just painful. While during his two-week introductory period he learned words, phrases, and useful thing about Swedish grammar, my fellow SFI students and I got a long lecture about the Swedish school system.
The bad honeymoon introductory period passed and classes started showing some promise. And then things just didn’t seem to be going well anymore. For some this might be working great, but for me it has been a frustrating experience. I don’t quite know what the problem is or why I am so resistant to their teaching. Maybe part of it is feeling like there’s little teaching taking place, maybe I have just been missing the good lectures and attending on the days where we fill in crosswords where the instructor just gives us the word in Swedish, that rolling pin or kavel is number 6 across, or watch a video of part of the Nobel ceremony. Sure watching Swedish television can be a great way to learn, but I doubt that watching the operatic performance from that night is really going to lead to any sort of mastery of the language or any A-ha moments. The school that has been contracted to teach my SFI course is new to the program and maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe I kept missing the good lectures and showing up for the bad days. Either way I realized after speaking with a friend about it, that he was quite right when he said that he wanted to learn Swedish to speak it while he lived here, not when he is ready to move (thanks Pierre!).
I am not ready to say that SFI doesn’t work because I think for many people it is great. Dave is learning a ton, as are his classmates I would imagine. Some of my classmates are probably getting much more out of the class than I am. The jury here is still out, but in a few weeks I will be giving the classes elsewhere a try.
