Sunday, October 9, 2011

Who Knew?


My sister Alicia who filmed this video approximately a year ago showed me this video today... and now I can't help but laugh and think how unpredictable life is and how I'm so happy that this idea that was "a silly idea and I don't know how it would work but would be cool" is really happening! I could never have imagined what would happen in the year ahead of me, and it's nice to  be reminded of how lucky I am to have this opportunity to be in Sweden for a year!

This year instead of driving to PPHS every morning I am taking online classes like I have said in previous blogs, and I have finally started going to Swedish classes! The course that I am taking is SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) and I am taking night classes, every Monday and Wednesday from 5pm to 8pm. I've only been to one class so far, but I have already learned quite a bit! I'm taking this class with my fellow American friend Caylie, and other fellow students in the class are mostly Middle Eastern, which is interesting. This SFI class is taught from Swedish to Swedish, which is an interesting concept for me. two main reasons; One is that because I am not thinking "okay.. so my name is Cori.. hmm what is that in Swedish.. oh yeah! I...Jag..my name is... I call myself.. heter? yes.." and so on. We are learning what to say in situations in Swedish, without having to translate it through our heads first. I believe this is much more of a natural way to learn a language therefore I should be fluent in no time! (HA!) The second reason is because I feel like I just have to figure it out when I can't understand the teacher, there's no cheating, and it always helps just to listen to the language and try to understand the most of what you are hearing. The first two hours of class are focused on studying by ourselves, making our way through a book that we are supposed to buy and learning things on our own.. and then the teachers are there if we have questions. The third hour is spent working as a group talking about different situations... last class was focused on stores... reading the signs saying what time the store is open, how long it is open, if something is on sale, do you have this in my size.. etc.

Never thought a year ago that I would be taking Swedish for Immigrants.. or even be considered as an immigrant... who knew?

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