Linköpings Universitet (LIU)

In my first semester, I chose a course about Sweden, its society and language (which was naturally instructed in Swedish) to improve my Swedish and the quality of the course helped me to quickly proceed. I also chose to live with Swedish students which made my Sweden experience and my language learning much more complete. In the beginning it is a bit difficult to get the Swedes to talk Swedish to you, but if you are persistent they will start to appreciate that you are learning their language. Generally, everyone is very helpful in terms of language learning. And if you really cannot understand them, every Swedish person has a more than reasonable knowledge of English and often another foreign language. Communication is hence not a problem at all.

If you really want to acquire knowledge in Swedish, you should know that it is really possible even in just 5 months...it is up to you! The 30 hour course of introduction are very worthwhile. But for going on you should try to speak as much as possible even if you feel it annoying not to be able to express anything; it is the only way for your success. Grammar is easy, just focus on vocabulary.

in Sweden, everyone, even the lady in the supermarket, speak a pretty good english. so from the beginning, there was no problem to be in contact with people. they also appreciated if someone spoke the local language, so it was worth an effort to study it. I took classes both in English and Swedish, which was also a good way to learn the language

English is not the mother tongue here but every inhabitant can speak english...so it is easy to understand and make ourselves understood! The teachers do not always speak very good so the improvement could have been better for us...but we couldn't expect more, otherwise we had to go to England or America!!!

It is no problem not to speak Swedish if English is known. Most of the Swedes speak fairly good English, in every case better than in Germany. To learn Swedish was a great experience because I couldn't speak it at all and now after almost one year the communication with the Swedes is no problem at all. The ability to speak Swedish allowed me a faster integration in the Swedish society. It is always good to show the will to speak in the native language.

At first I was really keen as I had the time. As University started, unfortunately the time I could spend learning the language suffered. I found most people wanted to speak english to me when they found out that I was native speaker.