I know enough not to say, "Bork bork bork!"

July 6, 2009 7:43 AM

I am going to be studying in Sweden for five months! What do I need to know to make it as beneficial an experience as possible?

I am a 21 year-old female third-year student who will be studying sociology and geography at Mid-Sweden University for five months come August, on the Sundsvall campus. Needless to say, I am extremely excited and want to make this as awesome as possible. What do I need to know to survive and have a great time? What is the big thing you wish someone had told you before you went to Sweden? General Sweden-related advice and Sundsvall-specific recommendations are both more than welcome!

posted by WidgetAlley to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

The blackflies own the rural outdoors but you must not complain about them.

Slimy room temperature crayfish are not very like shrimp.

The sun sits and sets lower in the sky than you think.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:47 AM on July 6

Do you already know Swedish? If not, learn! It's closely related to English, and will not be particularly difficult for you. Even though most Swedes speak English pretty well, in my experience, this isn't true for the older generations or for young children.

Even if you're not there to study the language, I would seriously consider taking a class alongside your other work. Lots of fun.
posted by Maximian at 7:56 AM on July 6

Bring an open mind with you and don't worry about the crayfish, they're in Season only in August (and they shouldn't be slimy in any case).
If you're there for five months, you'll see some darkness. Consider buying a daylight-spectrum lamp in order to keep functioning. It helps me enormously, and I'm only in the Gothenburg area. Sundsvall will be way darker in the winter.
posted by Namlit at 8:18 AM on July 6

If you're American and you feel some gustatory homesickness, the supermarket Konsum has a wicked "USA!" section consisting entirely of marshmallows, salsa, and Skippy.
posted by Beardman at 8:24 AM on July 6

I suggest checking out Swedish music. My favorite singer is Jens Lekman and he makes such beautiful music and can even offer some insight into Sweden. This is from his song "The Cold Swedish Winter"...

When people think of Sweden
I think they have the wrong idea
like Cliff Richards who thought it was just
porn and gonorrhea

And Lou Reed said in the film
"Blue in the face"
that compared to New York City
Sweden was a scary place

Makes me giggle.
posted by avex at 8:36 AM on July 6

buy a bike as soon as you get there.
posted by molecicco at 8:42 AM on July 6

Sweden is a wonderful country, filled with delicious food and an incredible culture steeped in music, dance and nature. Swedes are incredibly warm and generous people, and I think you will have a wonderful time while abroad. Just be adventurous, travel around the country as much as you can (especially Skane! And Stockholm!) and enjoy yourself.
posted by nonmerci at 10:37 AM on July 6

I have no Swedish-related experience, but I do teach English as a foreign language...so here's some language-learning advice for now, and for when you're already there.

You don't necessarily need to buy a phrasebook per se; you could copy the relevant "language" pages of an old edition of a Sweden-specific guidebook (the language isn't going to change that much between editions) at the library before you go just to get the essentials. It's also pretty achievable this way, because you'll be using lots of the same language every day, so it's easy to set goals - "know the numbers from 1-100 by day five", "practice using "Can I...?" this week".

Your best friend for learning to "decipher" written language like labels, signs, and other things is reading. Get a newspaper, a real paper newspaper, every day when you're there; before you go, you can use the Newseum's "Today's Front Pages" section to view images of Swedish front pages. It's a really small investment of time to make, and there's probably a lot of Swedish you can already figure out because we've got the same types of language samples in English. Pick four or five new words a day, flash-card them, and practice. Look for patterns: days of the week, words for traveling, advertisements for things in your house: food at the supermarket, furniture. And don't be surprised if your first few trips to the supermarket will take an hour, just because there's so much language to absorb!

Here, for example, is the front page of "Dagens Nyheter". What day is it today? Monday 6 July 2009? Well, they agree - it's Måntag, 6 Juli 2009! And it looks like there's some polis action in the photo on the front page. And here's Sundsvalls' paper! Look at the bottom right corner in tiny print: what's the pris of the paper Monday to Saturday? And on Söntag?

The rest of the web is amazing as well. You have so much source material you can already sort of navigate. Check out this airline's front page. Can you work out how to look for a ticket? The place you're leaving from is usually on the top or left on these sorts of sites, right? Well, now you've figured out "from" and "to" (at least in a geographical sense). What might "adult" or "child" or "baby" be? One word, sök, appears twice, both times after places where you enter information, like a word or a flight you'd like: what could it be? At the bottom right, under "Välkommen till Skyways", can you guess what the red hyperlinked words might be? Click and see if you were right.

Final tip: pick a relatively small subject you know a lot about through life experience (your hometown/county/state/university in the US? a favorite movie/book/celebrity/musician?), go to its English Wikipedia page, and on the left, scroll down through the available languages and choose the "Svenska" version. Here's California's page: how much can you sort of figure out based on what you already know?

Good luck with your semester abroad!
posted by mdonley at 12:27 PM on July 6

Brace yourself for some Swenglish, just in case. :p
Most of us are more used to listening to english than speaking it.
posted by Ingenting at 1:43 PM on July 6

Hi! I'm an American who's moved to Sweden.

Adjusting to living in Sweden will be very easy. You'll be in a university context with goals and schedules set out for you and some kind of support network for finding housing, etc. You won't have much culture shock, unless maybe you're extremely politically conservative, or a fundamentalist christian.

Swedes (even many old ones) speak excellent English. I have never had a swede of any age tell me they couldn't speak English at all. Swedish isn't particularly difficult, but like all languages it takes time. If you know some German it'll be much easier. Universities here usually offer a Swedish course for students, which you should take if you have any interest in returning. Swedes are generally rather impressed with anybody who bothers to learn the language.

I second the suggestion to get a bike. Swedish towns are generally very bike friendly, and usually small enough to navigate easily by cycle. Also, although the public transit is good in Sweden, all your friends will be cycling and will get sick of having you ride on the back of their bikes.

You'll be here in to the winter, so make sure you're prepared for some snow, and get used to being out even when it gets dark early.

Feel free to mail me if you have any specific questions.
posted by beerbajay at 6:19 PM on July 6

Swedes are not as emotive as most Americans - this does not mean they are unfeeling, or unfriendly, just that they don't express their feelings as openly as Americans do. In practice this means you have to initiate conversations most of the time, but they are quite friendly. There's more hardcore drinking than most places in the U.S., so don't be surprised to see people get quite smashed at parties (incidentally, Swedes get very talkative once they drink - the function of alcohol as a social lubricant is very important in Sweden). Swedish is very easy to learn. Winter can be depressing (relative lack of sunlight). Mostly, have fun!
posted by VikingSword at 6:56 PM on July 6