It usually takes students nine months to go through SFI. It took me five.
But in case it sounds like a walk in the park, it wasn't. The toughest thing about intense language study is that on a day-to-day basis, you see no progress. It may sound contradictory to the last paragraph but these two realities can coexist without cancelling each other out - the objective speed of progress, and the early morning despair of having to leave the apartment at 7.12 every day without feeling any different from the last day or last week. The process of language acquisition is slow and deep, and it often feels like there is no development at all. Only in the long run, after having fought and won the battle of self-discipline and having sat in the classroom for 3,5 hours every day for months can you see how far you have actually come.
But, I admit, compared to an average student at SFI, I also had huge advantages. First, I have studied linguistics for five years. I know how a language functions, I am familiar with all the grammatical categories, I like grammar. Sometimes one of my teachers would play a game of raising hands in the class, and often his last question would be, "Raise your hand if you love grammar", and among shaking heads and laughter, we two would be the only ones raising our hand.
I also hear a lot more Swedish than most of my classmates. I have the luxury of going to church every Sabbath, sitting in a Swedish Bible study class (the only time I attented the English class since moving here was when my little brother was visiting me), listening to sermons, sitting at meetings, reading emails, visiting people... Most of what happens around me happens in Swedish. Just two days ago we had a lovely evening - we visited an old couple, A. and L., long-time friends of my parents. They had given us a beautiful painting as a wedding gift and we still had not delivered our thank-you card. So we had a fika (the most important Swedish word!) together and had a conversation that lasted more than three hours. At least 80% of the conversation happened in Swedish. For a language learner like me, this is a dream come true!
I had outstanding teachers. I have heard a couple of horror stories about teachers in SFI but my experience has been only positive. They were very systematic ank knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. Both of them used the method of only speaking in Swedish - even if you asked what this or that word meant. During the first weeks, it was very tiring to get used to the constant flow of foreign language, but later it became so normal I didn't even think about it any more.
Now I enjoy the luxury of sleeping longer and concentrating more on my work. I have time to read more books (right now, some gruesome and brilliantly written Nazi stuff by Philippe Sands). The last comments on my dissertation from the official "second reader" should arrive tomorrow - that process is hopefully coming closer to the finish line, too. And then, once the defence is over, I will take a deep breath and go to the next school for the next level of Swedish. Phew!
