I like the idea of the språkcafé. It’s an excellent opportunity for people learning Swedish to sit down and chat to native Swedish speakers, strengthening their ability to actually use the language rather than just sit in a classroom with a teacher. It is also a lovely idea given the speakers are usually volunteers from the local community.
Today at SFI we had a språkcafé and I hated it. Not only was I not ready for it in terms of my language level, I was also completely unprepared for it to happen at all. Okay, that’s my fault because I only go to SFI twice a week and the announcement could easily have been on a day I wasn’t there.
Of course, had the conversation been simple, I may have stumbled through however, the list of questions were quite high level queries about how we go about treating others with respect and what we think of as a perfect world. It’s quite difficult to answer big esoteric questions when you don’t understand them.
It wasn’t helped that all the classes were combined, so our class was split up and a smattering of more advanced students were scattered among us. It was obvious from the start that these students were way more capable of answering the questions.
And it wasn’t just me. Only a couple of my classmates joined in. Most of the chatting was being done by the students from the next levels and our teacher, Medra. All credit to her, she did slip into English and Arabic sporadically in order to somehow attempt to assuage our confusion. Sadly, it didn’t work.
Looking back, I should have just said I didn’t understand the questions because I can say that in Swedish. Or even that I don’t speak Swedish…in Swedish. But I was way too uncomfortable and, frankly, pissed off.
It marked my worst day at SFI and one I never want to replicate.
After class, Mirinda picked me up and suggested we go to Tre Små Rum for lunch. She didn’t need to ask twice.
A beer was welcomed with open arms. And mouth.
