Swedish For Immigrants (SFI)

As some of you may have read, I have started taking SFI classes, (Swedish For Immigrants). I've only been to six classes now but I have already passed my first test which was over introductory and elementary things, and I am now learning all about shopping, clothes, and food. I go to class every Monday and Wednesday night from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

In class, the first two hours are spent on self-study. I bought a book (the +46) and I spend my time going from page to page, learning words and doing the exercises and practicing by myself... or with my friend Caylie who is also taking these classes with me. If I need help or have a question, my teacher, Mrs. Gunilla, comes over and helps me out. Like I said, I have already learned how to introduce myself, tell where I'm from, how long I've been here, how old I am, I can tell the time, say the alphabet, count to one million, say all kinds of foods,  talk about the weather, talk about family members, colors... and some other things I'm sure but I'm not recalling them at the moment. 

The third hour is spent talking together as a class about something. Today for instance, we talked more about clothes and played BINGO but in the past we looked through newspapers and had small discussions (mostly the teacher talking and we students smiling and nodding), learned about verb congregation, and even how to change a word into it's plural form (there are FIVE different ways in Swedish)

I took Spanish for four years in High School... and I have to say that by comparing this class to my years in Spanish, I have blown through 2 years of studying in just six class periods. I can't help but ask myself how that is but the answer is very simple. The first day in this class, the teacher didn't speak hardly ANY English to me. The class was taught in Swedish, to Swedish. The common language was Swedish and by god that is what we were going to speak. The reason, for me why I am learning so fast is that I am not having to translate in my head from English to Swedish. By just knowing this is the word for that object or this thought, that's what I say and don't worry about translating it in your head.  

My class is mostly composed of Middle Easterners and Asians, but there are also a few Eastern Europeans in the group as well. It's interesting to ponder how and why these people move here for jobs, or to move away from the war.. if I could have a better conversation with some of them I'm sure their stories would be pretty amazing. 

Another benefit from this course besides learning the language is that I can observe how a class like this is taught. My first career goal is to be an ESL teacher (English as a Second Language) so this is almost like practice for me to be in this class. I thought it would be very difficult to teach someone else a language when neither of you have a common language to describe and explain things with... but the common language is the one that you are teaching! Never would have guessed it.