LostInTheWoods

OK, after living here for nearly two years, it is now time for me to find gainful employment with a Swedish based firm. I have started this category to document how this pans out... I am optimistic, but finding a job here, where I am going to have to flex my new found foreign language skills, is going to be, well, interesting with a dash of scary.

At school I guess I was considered quite bright, I know this because I recently found some old school reports, but the words of praise were often proceeded with the words “Could do better.”. It seemed as though the teachers had a “Could do better.” ink pad and stamp that they passed amongst themselves for my reports.

Anyway, the one subject that I couldn't understand why I was really poor at was German. At that point Germany was a place far off that I had never visited, and learning it seemed like a academic exercise that I was no good at. I remember being kept behind class one day and being given the finger wagging treatment by a diminutive teacher (just Google-stalked her, she is still working as a foreign languages teacher) for handing in really poor homework. Foreign languages just did not stick... anyway I wanted to pursue a career in Science, so I guess you can see which way my brain was wired.

Spin forward about twelve years. I had a Swedish girlfriend and I was making frequent visits here, and don't believe what you've heard, not everyone speaks perfect English here. In the big cities maybe, but I have found people where I am very reluctant at times to speak English (to me anyway, maybe it's me?). So, at an age when it is not normally recommended, I started to re-wire my brain to accommodate a new language....

And it has not been easy so far.. but for the past nine months or so I have been going to school studying “Swedish for Immigrants”, and it has really helped. But I have seen loads of people who have English as a second language, shoot past me in their proficiency of Swedish. Tortoise and the hare-esque.

I am approaching my biggest test. The whole job thing. I am going to have to speak Swedish everyday, probably all day. With some help, I have translated my CV into Swedish, and I have tried (not quite successful yet) to post it online (yup, still a few issues with the lingo...), and Phase 2 of my integration here is about to start. Gulp.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods