Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
I wanted to learn Swedish. BUT people speak english perfectly and if you tried to speak swedish they lose patience very fast. After if you spoke Swedish people started to see you not as a respectful EU citizen but as a dangerous possible emigrant. They dont appreciate very much the fact you want to learn their language. They see that as a threat, "another foreigner to support within our welfare state" they don t realize you can be very profitable for their economy and society. Unfortunately If you despise swedish as an useless language (only spoken by 9 milion people) they respect you more, In my opinon swedish society is fed up of receiving emigrants from the most distant countries as Iran, chile, Bosnia. Swedish are good people and very open and inocent, they always believe whatever you tell them, they never lie, I like very much this facet of Sweish. Just because this culture and behaviour Swedish had deceived by emigrants and in one way I understand why they look suspiciously to foreingers, they are good but not stupid. Now I m learning swedish for my own, because in spite of everything I like Sweden, Swedish and Swedish language. I regret not to have taken advantage of my situation when I was there. BUT IT WAS TERRIBLY DIFFICULT, and by the way at this time I was not very proficient not even in English so taking 2 languages at the same time was crazy. Anyway it is a shame for the swedish language but my overall communication was OK. Though I would have liked to speak in Swedish with some people I met I could not. But I m sure I WILL

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Basic phrases
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
The worst thing was that my Swedish did not improve very dramatically, which I was hoping for it to do. Everyone there speaks amazing English and it was more frustrating for them to listen to me try to formulate a sentence in Swedish than it was for them to just speak in my own language. Anything to do with the university was no problem where language was concerned, but dealing with banks and other institutional organisations sometimes proved to be a little difficult.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Basic phrases
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
This was an excellent experience for me, but bear in mind that Swedish was one of my majors at my home University. I believe other Exchange Students might not have enjoyed the social scene as much as I did, due to the language factor. But Swedes in general have an excellent ability to speak English. They are open and friendly to people from other cultures (especially Australia and New Zealand), and I struggle to believe anyone from anywhere couldn't live, cope and enjoy themselves there.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
Very positive comment! I had the opportunity to speal avery day English with people coming from all around the world and to study a new language (Swedish). The lessons, the study and the groupwork allowed me to get confindent with lots of Business words and phrases. Furthermore, the presentations: each group had to present each own work and results to the class and it was a very challenging experience ('cause it was the first time I've done it..and I've done it in English).

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
I would highly recommend that people make the effort to learn Swedish, it can seriously improve your experience and Swedish people will really appreciate it. For non native English speakers, I would suggest that you read a few books in English before the beginning of the courses. You will be surprised to see that it's really hard to memorize things in another language so don't be mislead by your understanding ability, assimilation requires another language level.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
English is the course of instruction. It was already my native language so I did not choose Uppsala for that purpose. I did take a Swedish language course, and if you know English and have even basic notions of German, it is a fairly simple language to pick up. The good thing is that once you pick up Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are very similar. Do not count on locals to speak Swedish with you, everyone speaks English including the bus drivers.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Swedish people know there languages and speak English very well. That is why I did not have many problems with communicating. I did follow a course in Swedish and was enthousiastic in the beginning, but the course went too slow and I llost interest. Better said my interest shifted to other more interesting things to do.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
Almost all the Swedes can speak without problem in english, so even if i hav learned just a few words in swedish, i have had no problem in the every day life, neither in the academic life. the presence of many international students that are native englissh speakers helped me to improve this language. The same happened with the large spanish "community" that forced me to speak in spanish and to improve also this language.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

Personal comments:
As the courses as well as my interactions with other foreign students were mostly in English, my knowledge of this language improved. Obviously I also had a lot of opportunities to speak Swedish (which is a language I grew up with) and I got a lot of practice in speaking it.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
It was quite easy to get along with people there because lmost everybody spoke english fluenetly so I could improve my english quickly to reach a really good level after 5 months spent there.Nonetheless, I have one regret because I didn t learn much abouty swedish.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

Personal comments:
I studied Swedish in Australia before going to Uppsala. I wanted to improve my social Swedish during my time there, but found it difficult because it was easier to speak English with Swedes. I needed to make a better effort to speak Swedish from the outset.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
I went to Sweden and I learnt mostly english because it was my instruction language.The native people in general was nice because even if I was in Sweden they spoke to me in english. I felt sorry for them and for me because I didnt learn the local language

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Did not speak it

Personal comments:
I had studied English for many years in San Sebastian but it was the first time I had to cope with speaking English in everyday situations including studies. It was nice seeing that I was able to manage and improve in vocabulary and other things.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
I have improved my English as I have planned to and learn the basis of the Swedish. All the Swedes speak so perfectly English that is hard to learn Swedish as they always switch to English if they realise that you are not fluent in Swedish.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
I had the opportunity to learn Swedish, a language which is basically foreign to me while I was in Uppsala. But, I must say that the Swedes have incredible communication skills in English as I don't have to speak Swedish at all during my stay there except in my language class for everybody understands English perfectly!

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: At ease in most situations

Personal comments:
There are many language course for international students to learn the local language, this is really good for international students.In this way, I have more chances to commuicate with local people , know more about local culture.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
As far as I already spoke english and german, it was quite easy to learn swedish, and especially because the hos university provided free swedish lessons. Thus it enabled me to work in pubs and to improve my swedish even more.

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)
My level after: At ease in most situations

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Everyday knowledge (shopping, directions, etc.)

Personal comments:
Although the official language of Sweden is, well, swedish, impressingly everybody speaks english. But if I were to go back, I would try to get more contact with Swedes, as we international students tended to keep together

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning English a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my English

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your English?
My level before: At ease in most situations
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
the most used language by student and teacher was english to ease the integration of international students in the university but i feel a little disappointed with the fact that i couldn t learn more swedish

Local language was: Different than language of instruction.

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

Was learning Swedish a key decision factor?
Yes, I wanted to improve my Swedish

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: No problems in any areas (including slang)
My level after: No problems in any areas (including slang)

How much did you improve your Swedish?
My level before: Did not speak it
My level after: Basic phrases

Personal comments:
I lived with a host family for a year when I was 16 and I learned Swedish through that experience. It is difficult for English speaking exchange students to learn Swedish since all the Swedes speak English, but there are Swedish courses available.