The vast majority of the Swedes that I have met so far in Uppsala speak english very well if not fluently. This has been quite convinient when I first arrived at Uppsala because I could easily interact with people around me. I have never imagined though that would turn to be a problem although not a serious one. So I am going to describe a sureal situation I face when talking to the Swedes.
I always start the conversation in swedish. Although I am not fluent yet, I know there is no other way to learn how to speak it. I just have to force myself to speak swedish! However this is not always easy. Learning a new language from the scratch comes with certain inconvinience especially when you have to use in real conditions. Therefore the Swedes feel this inconvenience and switch to english. So, I end up in a situation where I speak swedish to the Swedes and they reply back in english! Everytime I think about it, it seems so sureal to me!
Of course this is not the worst case scenario. In few occasions I meet Swedes who assume that as I am foreigner I shouldn't speak swedish because the rule is that most of foreign student don't make any serious effort to learn it (and I don't blame them).
I sit back and compare the above described situation with my experience from my erasmus in Italy. The truth is that in Italy I rarely faced a similar situation. Was it because I got quickly fluent in italian or...?
In any case I never imagined that I would meet this kind of difficulty when learning swedish but I am sure I will go through it!
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου