On the face of it, this is a great idea and a huge opportunity to learn and hone our spoken language skills. Unfortunately for us, the reality has been somewhat different for six of my classmates and I. The root cause is, regrettably, our volunteer, let's call him Mr.K. Mr.K is a likeable chap, who's lived an interesting life: he's visited many countries, changed careers a couple of times, has a variety of interests and is still active in local politics. The trouble is, well,Mr.K really, really likes talking about himself, to the extend that you have to fight to get a word into the monologues.
During the first week, after he'd asked us to present ourselves (the sfi conversational gambit of disclosing your nation of origin, how long you've lived in Sweden, what work you do or did in your homeland) and once we'd been around the table he began to talk. Whether it was nerves or another reason, he seldom allowed anyone else to get a word in edgeways.
I checked with my classmates, had they found it as one sided as I had? Everyone agreed, we'd been treated to a monologue: Mr.K, great man of Malmö, artist, politician, businessman. Hoping this may be just the first week and things would be different next week, we suggested we select a theme for the second session, an easy subject that everyone could talk about. I proposed we chat about holidays and countries we have visited. Everyone's been on holiday, and I thought it was a suitable subject for a group with a basic language vocabulary.
On the day, I started. I mentioned that the previous summer we had travelled to gotland, an island of the west coast of gotland in the baltic sea. As soon as those words left my mouth Mr.K lept into the conversation. Had I stayed in Visby he asked? No, I replied, we stayed on a farm in a small village called Roma. I expected a follow up conversation asking me what places or sights I had visited whilst there (gotland is a popular Swedish tourist location, all sandy beaches and historic medieval main town), and a chance to talk about what I liked. Nope, that was enough for Mr.K, he moved on the next person, and in about ten minutes felt he had exhausted the topic of conversation. Each person was asked the bare minimum, where they had been, if Mr.K had been there, it was a chance for him to talk about himself, otherwise he moved on.
A pattern began to emerge, we quickly noted. Mr.K didn't like to listen much, and doesn't seem to understand the dynamics of a conversation: namely one party talks, the other listens and then asks questions or perhaps comments on what the first party has related. He also seemed to largely ignore the linguistic ability of the group, and when talking about himself would launch into complicated explanations of what his business does or his political interests. I think I understood some of what he was talking about through guess work and the context, but others clearly didn't. We, as a group, were also too polite, we didn't tell him we didn't understand (often you couldn't get a word in edgeways anyway) and suffered in silence.
After the second session I was pretty frustrated as we headed back to class, what was the point? We our teacher asked us how the sessions went this week, I spoke up for our group and let rip. I mentioned Mr.K didn't listen, skirted around our chosen subject, seemed to ignore various group members and at one point suggested a theme (for the ladies apparently) of giving them 500 kr to buy some pretty clothes (I winced when he asked them). It was, I asserted, not satisfactory. Our teacher promised to speak to Mr.K and help him understand the necessity of allowing us to speak and to give the entire group the opportunity to practise.
As the day of the third session arrived I promised myself it would hopefully be better, surely our teacher has spoken to Mr.K and explained what we wanted to get out of the session? My hopes were cruelly dashed, Mr.K explained he wanted us to talk about politics in Malmö during the session. I was amazed at the lack of awareness, how could people working on the SFI C course possibly have the vocabulary to talk about politics? Coupled with the fact that politics is a very personal matter anyway, I thought it was fairly inappropriate. Mr.K pressed on nonetheless, and asked the first person. Luckily for Mr.K he asked one of our more able group members, who had lived in sweden for three years. She was able to state that she didn't really follow politics and wasn't really aware of what the local issues were she could at least name the major parties. The second person, to her credit simply stated she wasn't interested in politics, but this didn't deter Mr.K.
By the time he reached me I was getting annoyed. I spoke my mind, or as best I could in Swedish. I told him I didn't have either the knowledge or vocabulary to effectively contribute and that I felt it was too complicated a subject for our group and that I felt it would be more appropriate for us to talk about a different subject. Mr.K reacted by telling me that I spoke good Swedish, and we should persevere, when I disagreed and reiterated my point, he asked what subject we should switch too. before waiting for an answer, he pressed on. During this exchange I didn't bother to hide my irritation and anger. This seemed to do the trick and he stared asking us if we wanted to ask him questions, and finally we were being offered the chance to set our own topics.
This finally seemed to work and we actually got to talk about suitable subjects, we discussed:
- the war between Sweden and Russian in 1802 (Sweden's last major war) as it had been mentioned in conjuction with the two Swedish soliders killed in Afghanistan last week.
- Migration to Malmö
- Simple world events
This post probably seems very negative, and yes, in parts it is, but I do appreciate Mr.K is a volunteer, giving his time freely to help new arrivals learn a new language. I also appreciate that he isn't a trained professional, but what he's doing is incredibly worthwhile and I am grateful for the opportunity. Perhaps this is the first time he's taken part in this programme, and I am aware that it is important for us to have things we want to discuss with him too as well as the importance of listening rather than trying to shout others down.
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