D day beckons

The språkverket course I'm studying on is organised into separate thematic sections. This is, I believe for two reasons: firstly to allow your base group teacher to gauge your progress and secondly to assess the relative strengths and weakness of your Swedish. At the end of each theme, you submit the folder which contains your work for the past four or five weeks. This work typically covers grammar, written assignments, reading comprehension and listening exercises.

The following week you meet with your base group teacher and discuss: your folder, your perception of how the course is going for you, and agree upon a plan for the next theme.

When I'd initially spoken to my teacher informally during a self study period, we agreed that I'd sit the final SFI D exam in September. Last week she changed her mind having reviewed what I'd submitted. She suggested that I sit the exam on the 9th of June, as I had nothing to lose, and as is always the case, everything to gain. This is because if you don't pass an SFI exam you have to wait a month before you are able to resit the exam. Given that my course will break up for the Swedish holidays (typically the country runs at half to quarter capacity during July), I'd have to wait another three months before I could sit the exam.

So I've decided to have a try, and I hope I can cram some grammar and in particular master the tricky art of bistatser (clauses) and plurals before the 9th. I feel confident that my reading comprehension is more than up to the task, and I'm pretty sure I can muddle through the listening exercise too. This just leaves the hopefully trivial diagrams and tables part (bizarrely easy on the C test) and the written exercise.

It would be great to finish the SFI experience as I've definitely hit a learning plateau, but I also feel somewhat concerned at how I'll fill my time if I do. I am by profession a software developer and project manager and have been looking for work over here since I arrived in seven months ago.

Despite every Swedish person I knew (including at least three who work in the IT industry) assuring me language wouldn't be a problem, unsurprisingly it has proved a major stumbling block. I've fired off my CV and covering letter to apply for around thirty jobs. I've had one interview in that time, which I didn't get. Of course it seems blindingly obvious in hindsight, but the majority of offices and companies speak Swedish, and not unreasonably, expect you to do so too. If you're thinking of moving here, I'd offer this advice: don't expect to walk into a job just because you speak English, or consider that being a native English speaker will make you an attractive or sought after labour market commodity. After all, most Swedish university graduates speak fluent English, probably spent longer at university, and have had the benefit of a more rigorous education than you did. So with that in mind, really you'll have to be good at what you do, or seek out a international company.

So before the tone of this post gets too maudlin, as you can imagine I'll certainly miss having somewhere to go, to be able to socialize with people in a similar situation, and using my brain again. There is also the overwhelming fear that without a purpose and structure (read full time employment / education) perhaps I'll turn feral and end up mired in my own filth shouting obscenities at poor unfortunate people who walk past my apartment.