Last Friday we had a part wake, part celebration on our SFI course. During our normal break at 0930 tea, coffee and cakes, key ingredients for a good fika, were consumed. Many, many pictures were also taken. We also presented our teacher, who has made a major difference to our language skills in the short time she's taught us, with a number of gifts. During my time here so far, I have often reflected on how people working in education and medicine have such worthwhile and meaningful jobs and the difference they make to other people's lives. It also makes me think about how irrelevant and unfulfilling my chosen occupation can be. Perhaps I'll rant about that another day though.
The Rektor decided that due to the sheer number of people waiting for a place on a course at Komvux Södervarn he had to reassign our teacher. For us it meant that we'd be placed into the Spåkverket system.
This system comprises of three classes, somewhat like a home room, where you have a teacher who monitors your learning and is your guide. Each Monday you pick the lessons you want to attend for the week. The idea is you take responsibility for your own study, and with your teacher's advice construct a syllabus to take you onwards to the next exam.
The student population is mixed, some are studying for the C course, others the D. This week has been a bit of a false start, as I've only been able to attend one day (I had an interview on Tuesday), Wednesday is our day off, and today our home group teacher is off on holiday. Luckily next week the newly transferred students are on holiday too, as the existing students will individually meet with their home room teacher and discuss their progress. This is very convenient for me as we're off to Las Vegas for nine days tomorrow evening (via London first), for my Brother's wedding.
It should be an interesting trip, both my girlfriend and I are curious to see quite how tacky it really is. We're staying at the golden nugget hotel:
I'm particularly intrigued by the swimming pool which has a shark tank and a water slide tube that passes through the middle of it. Needless to say I've packed my trunks, and hope the weather is warm enough (it is March there after all, estimates are around 20c) or the pool is heated at this time of year.
We're staying overnight in London at my apartment both on the way out and on the homeward leg, mainly because I couldn't find an american airline which wasn't either ridiculously expensive or involved many changes. It'll also give me the opportunity to pick up my post from my apartment in London and catch up with a few friends too.
Wednesday 24 March 2010
Monday 15 March 2010
Onwards to D
So the results are in and it seems the C course exam went pretty well for me, and I scored a VG mark overall. According to the breakdown of scoring I only dropped two marks on the first three papers. My submission on written section was also apparently good, despite my fears after the exam.
So now it's on to the D course, although we're still not sure if that will involve breaking up our current class or continuing with the same teacher. I'll learn my fate tomorrow when class resumes as our teacher met with the head of department on Friday to discuss exactly how they're going to restructure things.
So now it's on to the D course, although we're still not sure if that will involve breaking up our current class or continuing with the same teacher. I'll learn my fate tomorrow when class resumes as our teacher met with the head of department on Friday to discuss exactly how they're going to restructure things.
Sunday 7 March 2010
C Course exam, D course shake up?
On friday morning I sat my SFI C course exam. It took three hours and was divided up into four parts:
The first reading paper was pretty straight forward, an article about a girl who did her pratik (swedish work experience) at a shop where she could practice her Swedish. The questions were pretty straight forward, and were multiple choice. Other questions involved reading a letter to an employer and reading menus for restaurants and answering questions based on them. It was a pretty gentle start to the exam.
I wasn't really looking forward to the listening paper as the sound on most of the recordings we'd heard in class was dire, and it made distinguishing words tricky. Luckily most of the questions weren't too hard, and each section was played twice. The second recording, was a telephone message recording for council services sounded like it had been recorded on low quality tape back in the 1950s by someone who'd had a serious head injury, but the answers seemed obvious.
The third paper, another rcomprehension exercise, and had questions about charts, a train time table and a section about a camping site and didn't present any problems.
I wasn't really happy with the written paper, which asked us to choose between one of employers and to write a short letter to them asking them if they would offer you a pratik. The choices were:
I chose the supermarket, as years ago as a teenager I'd worked in waitrose, a british supermarket. I took my time and planned out the sections of the letter:
1. Opening
2. About me
3. Why I'm interested
4. Why I would be suitable
5. Salutations
I then began to flesh out the paragraphs on some scrap paper. I got through planning the first sections but really began to struggle for why I'd be interested. Perhaps it's pride or a lack of imagination, but I really couldn't suggest any reason I'd want to go on a this imagined placement.
In the end the predicitable happened, I realised I'd spent way too much time planning and had to rush writing the letter and wasn't really satisfied with what I submitted. The letter seemed very basic, and I didn't feel I gave myself a chance to either use my vocabularly or show I understood how to use the past / future tense.
Discussing it later with my better half (a swedish native) we concluded that perhaps I was setting my standards too high, and that all the exam would really expect is that you could string a reasonably coherent sentence together and understand the past and present tense. Given that all academic backgrounds and abilities have to pass the exam, perhaps the demands I set myself were a bit too high. I noticed that the exam also featured the usual thinly disguised propaganda for the 'Swedish Way of doing things', and possibly the numerous references to work experience are actually subtly implanting the suggestion into your brain.
On reflection, It's a milestone. At the end of March I will have been living in Sweden for six months, I think, I've progressed steadily. Of my class mates who have a similar level of spoken language, all of them have lived in Sweden for at least two years, and in some cases over five.
On wednesday the teachers of all of the c course classes (morning, afternoon, evening) will meet with the department head (Rektor) to discuss how and who will teach the D course. Our teacher explained that there is a possibility that our class will be broken up and we'll move onto a new course, possibly losing classmates. Personally I hope we get to stay with our current teacher and that our course teaches both C and D simulatenously. This apparently does happen frequently according ot the wife of my american class mate, who is currently studying on course pitched at that level. As I mentioned before we've been very lucky so far as we have a really excellent teacher, and I'd like to continue to study with her.
I'm excited to report that Håkan, the lovable everyman bartender featured in swedish docu-soap 'Färjan' has been given his own new spin off series. It's a fair reward for a man who's unique blend obvious charm, bartending philosophies, and occasional quizzical facial expressions carry the show.
The programme is called, somewhat unimaginatively, 'Håkan's Bar'. The curious can see the trailer.
From what I gather our hero has taken a break from the ferry and headed for the Swedish shangri-la,Thailand.
- A reading paper
- A listening paper
- Another reading paper
- A written paper
The first reading paper was pretty straight forward, an article about a girl who did her pratik (swedish work experience) at a shop where she could practice her Swedish. The questions were pretty straight forward, and were multiple choice. Other questions involved reading a letter to an employer and reading menus for restaurants and answering questions based on them. It was a pretty gentle start to the exam.
I wasn't really looking forward to the listening paper as the sound on most of the recordings we'd heard in class was dire, and it made distinguishing words tricky. Luckily most of the questions weren't too hard, and each section was played twice. The second recording, was a telephone message recording for council services sounded like it had been recorded on low quality tape back in the 1950s by someone who'd had a serious head injury, but the answers seemed obvious.
The third paper, another rcomprehension exercise, and had questions about charts, a train time table and a section about a camping site and didn't present any problems.
I wasn't really happy with the written paper, which asked us to choose between one of employers and to write a short letter to them asking them if they would offer you a pratik. The choices were:
- A supermarket
- A kindergarten
- An Auto repair shop
- A restaurant
I chose the supermarket, as years ago as a teenager I'd worked in waitrose, a british supermarket. I took my time and planned out the sections of the letter:
1. Opening
2. About me
3. Why I'm interested
4. Why I would be suitable
5. Salutations
I then began to flesh out the paragraphs on some scrap paper. I got through planning the first sections but really began to struggle for why I'd be interested. Perhaps it's pride or a lack of imagination, but I really couldn't suggest any reason I'd want to go on a this imagined placement.
In the end the predicitable happened, I realised I'd spent way too much time planning and had to rush writing the letter and wasn't really satisfied with what I submitted. The letter seemed very basic, and I didn't feel I gave myself a chance to either use my vocabularly or show I understood how to use the past / future tense.
Discussing it later with my better half (a swedish native) we concluded that perhaps I was setting my standards too high, and that all the exam would really expect is that you could string a reasonably coherent sentence together and understand the past and present tense. Given that all academic backgrounds and abilities have to pass the exam, perhaps the demands I set myself were a bit too high. I noticed that the exam also featured the usual thinly disguised propaganda for the 'Swedish Way of doing things', and possibly the numerous references to work experience are actually subtly implanting the suggestion into your brain.
On reflection, It's a milestone. At the end of March I will have been living in Sweden for six months, I think, I've progressed steadily. Of my class mates who have a similar level of spoken language, all of them have lived in Sweden for at least two years, and in some cases over five.
On wednesday the teachers of all of the c course classes (morning, afternoon, evening) will meet with the department head (Rektor) to discuss how and who will teach the D course. Our teacher explained that there is a possibility that our class will be broken up and we'll move onto a new course, possibly losing classmates. Personally I hope we get to stay with our current teacher and that our course teaches both C and D simulatenously. This apparently does happen frequently according ot the wife of my american class mate, who is currently studying on course pitched at that level. As I mentioned before we've been very lucky so far as we have a really excellent teacher, and I'd like to continue to study with her.
I'm excited to report that Håkan, the lovable everyman bartender featured in swedish docu-soap 'Färjan' has been given his own new spin off series. It's a fair reward for a man who's unique blend obvious charm, bartending philosophies, and occasional quizzical facial expressions carry the show.
The programme is called, somewhat unimaginatively, 'Håkan's Bar'. The curious can see the trailer.
From what I gather our hero has taken a break from the ferry and headed for the Swedish shangri-la,Thailand.
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