Week 5- Cultural

Within one week we have gone from Växjö being a white winter wonderland to experiencing the first signs of spring. The snow has been replaced by sunshine and the ice on the lakes is starting to melt. The improved weather and the fact that it is not so cold now means that being outdoors has become appealing. We have spent the last few days exploring the campus a bit more, visiting Teleborg Castle and walking around one of the nearby lakes. It is nice to see more of the natural environment this city has to offer and of which the Swedes are so proud. At home we do have beautiful surroundings but because it is familiar to us I think we tend to forget it is there; spending more time outdoors here is convincing me that I should continue this when we return to Belfast in June. This week we also became aware that Swedes learn the name of plants and flowers from an early age, walking around the lake today with the kids asking ‘what’s this?’ every five minutes about many of the plants I wished that I had a little of this knowledge. The fact that they learn names and that there is a policy in Sweden which allows the public to walk anywhere and enjoy all nature the country has to offer backs up my expectations that Swedes are outdoor loving people who care for and value their natural environment.

In class this week we have talked a lot about the school system in our home countries, it has been interesting to hear how each country is similar or different to our own. The most amazing thing for me was to be in a group with a Japanese student who was discussing how it is important to learn through doing and having personal experiences; I expected Japan to have a very strict education system that would be based on learning by listening to the teacher and was surprised to hear her placing this emphasis on learning through actions, as we do in Stranmillis.

It has also been pancake Tuesday at home and here it is known as ‘fat Tuesday’ or ‘fett tisdag’. On this day the traditional Swedish food is Semla, a bread roll filled with almond paste and cream, I did feel that I should try one and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it tasted.

It is hard to believe that the weeks are going so fast, sometimes it feels like we only arrived yesterday and others it feels like we have always been here. I love getting to know more about this country and the people who live here and plan to find out much more before I leave.

Week 4- Personal

Week 4 has arrived and along with it a lot more snow; the weather and temperatures I was expecting and looking forward to is upon us.

As time goes on I find myself becoming more confident with the Swedish language. I have had one very short conversation and have also managed to loosely translate and reply to a message left in the laundry room. Although I don’t know a lot of words and mostly need to use English it is nice to be able to say a little in the language of my host country. After using the language successfully it also raises confidence to try it again and I hope I can learn more and have longer conversations by the time I leave here.

I can also understand most of the words on the food packages now as well so I can cook things according to the instructions and also buy the foods that I want with greater ease. The food here is expensive, as I expected, I have found that I shop more often than at home but buy smaller amounts. This helps to reduce the amount of food wastage that I am guilty of at home and I have become a bit more inventive with my cooking skills in order to use all the food I have bought. I have also convinced myself to try a traditional Swedish pastry which I discovered is actually very nice and this has encouraged me to try more Swedish foods if/when I get the chance.

Eating the pastries has convinced me that I need to be a bit more ‘Swedish’ and get active. I am enjoying walking to school and daycare when I have the time and when the weather is a little warmer we plan to buy bikes and get out in the fresh air more often. I am looking forward to this because although we have bikes at home we live in an area where I would not feel safe using them and so they are rarely out of the garage; here there are better cycle paths and because bikes are so common they are treated with more respect than at home.

So far Sweden is living up to my expectations of being a family-friendly country, where children are valued and listened to. Many of the adults you speak to think that perhaps the child is too much in charge in Sweden at the moment but I am enjoying the change from home. During next weeks school vacation there are a lot of free activities planned for children to take part in and the afterschool opens all day every day so parents do not need to use their holidays from work for childcare reasons. I think this is really good as when I worked I often heard parents worrying over who would mind their children because they had no leave left. Also they would ask what they were going to do with all the kids at home for the week that would be cheap and prevent boredom, next week I will find out if Sweden has the answer to these questions.

Week 3 Professional

We are getting well settled in now; the kids are enjoying school and forskola (this reminds me of a mix between a daycare setting and a school nursery unit) and I have attended, and am enjoying my classes too. Linnaeus University is situated on a large campus and is comprised of several large buildings, it is much easier to get lost here than at Stranmillis where most of our classes take place in one building.

The class groups are similar in size to Stranmillis and I spend a similar amount of hours in class. The assignments, however, are very different both in amount and expectations. We are expected to hand in a paper every week but the guidelines are that two pages should be written and a lot is based on personal opinion rather than information from other authors. We were also informed that while there is a deadline it is not rigid; this is in contrast to essays at Stranmillis where late submission results in reduced grades. I think it is harder to get motivated when the deadline is flexible but enjoy voicing my own opinion as it is something I don’t think we get to do often enough in Stranmillis.

This week we discovered that until recently Swedish children did not receive school grades until around age 14. Now they get their first grades at around age 12. All grades are mainly based on the teachers opinion and not on test results. This is very different from home where children are regularly tested and the results often used by teachers; I am not sure what I think about this system as the benefit of no exam pressure is balanced by the reliance on an opinion which may be subjective and partly based on the relationship between teacher and pupil.

This week I also attended a parents meeting in the forskola that Sarah attends. While it was conducted in Swedish one of the leaders made every effort to translate the main points of the information and to include me in the conversation. It was relaxed and informal and the parents were provided with information on: the forskola curriculum; how the activities develop the child; and how this particular forskola implements the curriculum. They do have many of the resources seen in our nursery units but the kids play with more freedom; toys can be mixed, dens are built using sofa cushions, tables and blankets, and if the play is good the clock does not dictate a change of activity. Prior to attending Stranmillis I had never been told why it was important to do particular activities or how this was done I was just told it had happened. I also realised that we focus a lot on the well-being of new comer children but don’t really discuss the new-comer parents. Being in a country where I don’t understand the language I have appreciated the consideration shown by the teachers and have also relied on them for e.g. when translating notes. This experience will definitely help me to show empathy toward and to further consider how parents are coping with their childs attendance at a new school.

I have rambled on a little so I will leave it there for this week and tell you more about Swedish schools sometime soon.