Life in Sweden

Since I have moved to Sweden I have experience that some Swedes have a certain attitude that sometimes make you to feel less valued and important than them. The way I have experienced it is by their action, words and their eyes expression as they think they are better than me just because I'm foreign. It is difficult for new immigrants to come here and try to start their new life in a new country, where hardly any of their past lives and experiences are valued as precious. In Sweden, people thinks of  himself first and this is a completely new way of living for me and also I get the feeling that I am worth less just because I was not born Swedish.

Noone is perfect and will never be it neither. But here people try to show perfection but is not how they really are. They don’t want to have contact with other people just because they are Swedish.

Almost directly when I arrived to Sweden I sent my school certificates for judgment, so I would be able to continue my studies at the university here. But the process would take up to 6 months to get the result, so I decided to start to learn Swedish during the time I waited for the result and also the chance to be create a social life in Sweden.

So I went to register at sfi which means; Swedish tuition for immigrant’s forms part of the public adult education system in Sweden. The purpose of the scheme is to provide basic Swedish language skills to learners. It also aims to give adult immigrants who can't read or write the chance to acquire their skills. Immigrants must be given the opportunity to develop their ability to communicate in Swedish - orally and in writing - in everyday situations, social settings and working life.

I started with a very positive attitude and good willing to learn Swedish, even if i hadn't been so positive before to study Swedish at all. I had realized that I really need to speak Swedish as soon as possible both for myself and my family. When I started I was in very good willing and really need to speak Swedish as soon as possible and I learn a lot at home. But when I started to the class I felt like is not my place to be, and felt very down. But already in the beginning when I started the class, it felt like the wrong place for me and I felt very down.The system of their teaching felt like a nursery school and that the people that are trying to learn Swedish at the school are stupid. They teach us by cutting newspaper and pictures and put on the walls. This way of teaching really offended and embarrassed me, because these things I did when I was study in nursery school.  And every day they ask what have we done and the answers are always the same: play football, watch TV, cooking food and so on. So you can understand that they think we have nothing to do, just like kids.

And what was making me even more emotional and actually really upset is that they put instructions. There is many "rules" but one rule is: Wash your hands after visiting the toilet (Tvätta händerna efter du har besökt toaletten). What the hell?

Most of the people all over the world learn in young ages about hygiene and cleanness and the importance to keep clean. We don’t have to be reminded of that, especially when SFI is for adult people and not children. Many in our class are Muslims and you don’t have to learn Muslims about cleanness and or write it because hygiene is probably more important than it is for Swedish. 

 I have graduated from high school in Tanzania and also studied at university there. This felt like a big insult against me as a person, since my goal of studying Swedish was to learn Swedish quickly and get out into the workplace and be able to continue my studies at university. Not cut and glue paper as they do in kindergarten.

I can only imagine what the older people who study Swedish there felt, as many have actually studied in their home countries. Then there are of course those who have not studied much earlier in their lives and then maybe this way to teach is good, but it feels like SFI are not adapted to that many actually have been studying before and just want to learn Swedish quickly and to get out and manage on their own.