I want to talk about studying Swedish today. Let's be honest, sooner or later a nerdy Ode to Joy of Studying had to be sung.
It's been roughly two months now since I opened the door of the SFI language school and smaller hickups (short sickness, pastors meeting, some extra days in Ekebyholm) set aside, I have been faithfully attending my daily classes.
I absolutely thrive in school! This is less of a statement about my objective progress and much more a statement about my (subjecive) feelings about the school. I really do go gladly, every morning. This does not diminish the frustration of getting up early or the frustration about the lenght of my school day (together with the commute, it takes me 5,5-6 h every day - it almost feels like a full-time job by itself) or the frustration of not finding enough energy for my dissertation and sometimes even for my job. But setting all these things aside and just concentrating on studying itselt - I love it.
I started the school at the beginners level (C level). After the initial shock of everything happening in Swedish, I found my feet rather quickly. But after a couple of weeks, frustration started to well up - the tempo in the classroom was very slow. For example, after the third day of learning what personal pronouns were and doing a million excercises on I-you-he/she/it I started to get ants in my pants. So when the teacher told me I should go to the next class (C+ level, whatever that means) after a month or so, I went both with joy and fear. This time, the initial shock of everything being more difficult took me more time to get over. But now, after one month there, I really enjoy it. I like it that we are together with a group of D level students, some of whom are really good. It is so inspiring to see people who have walked the walk and who are so fluent already. I enjoy the tempo, I am very happy with our two teachers, I feel more and more confident which means that I dare to ask more questions and say things out loud. Right now, I'm exactly where I need to be - and that's such a great feeling.
There are so many layers to this experience of learning. First, naturally, is the layer or the perspective of a student. Some things are hard, some are easier. Reading (both understanding a text and pronounciation) is the easiest for me. Then comes listening. Then writing. And speaking is oh so difficult! The pool of active vocabulary where I can fish my words from for a conversation is still very small, and it is so frustrating not to be able to say what I want to say. Just yesterday I was taken out of the classroom for a quick oral test (they do these random check-ups every now and then) - the teacher asked me a couple of simple questions ("Tell me about a trip you have been to, and tell me what I could do/see as a tourist in your home town") and I just went blank. There is some sort of desperation about splashing around in your tiny pool of words, trying to find and catch some little fish that fit together and make sense. Gaah!
Then there is the layer of a teacher. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Which means that unconsciously I keep my eyes open to what and how our teachers do. They are both excellent teachers, really. Much better than I ever was as a language teacher (in Tartu university, that's where I taught Estonian for beginners). They keep a very healthy balance between different skills - reading, writing, pronounciation, speaking, grammar tables - and they do it with apparent ease. They push us but not too hard. They joke but not too often. They are strict but also very friendly. And mostly they just keep speaking and speaking and speaking in Swedish to and at us.
And then the layer of a linguist. The experience of language acquisition creates a fireworks in my linguist's mind. Right now, what I find most interesting is the difference between knowing/conscious and unknowing/unconscious learning. Some words enter my mind and my vocabulary knowingly - I have looked up that same word 5 times on Google Translate, and finally it sticks. But then there is this almost mystical process of just catching words from conversations, texts, posters etc, and suddenly I recognise words that I have not knowingly learnt. How does this happen? How does a mind operate and flex? How are new connections formed in our brain?
Here are two picture from a language learner's daily life. The first one I like especially - a still life at our home. Someone is fixing PowerPoint for the next Sabbath's worship service, someone is reading a children's book. [With greetings to S. K. - your taste of literature is, of course, impeccable! :D Thank you for this book, it is much appreciated!]
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| An evening with Pettson the farmer and Findus the cat :) |
And if anyone is interested, here's a writing test we just got back from our teacher today. This is the kind of text I am able to produce right now without any help from Google or my husband haha. The teacher thought I might be ready for Level D in a month or so. We shall see.
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| Is it a good balance between blue and red ink? |
