Miranda has really exploded!

Scott and I walked out of our night class today with Djina, our instructor, who was babbling in Swedish while using a variety of gestures and expressions to illustrate a large explosion. I'll admit, I was extremely confused for a few seconds until I realized that no physical explosions were involved. She was actually talking about the improvement in my Swedish. "You have really exploded!" (Jaha!) It was an encouraging, although seemingly strange compliment.

With a few weeks of Tuesday/Thursday night classes under our belts now, plus a full week of morning classes for me, I have a much more favorable impression of the Swedish language. This, of course, is based on the fact that I can now understand at least some of what the teachers are explaining in class. I felt so lost during the first few classes when the instruction was (and still is) all in Swedish, and I have to admit it was a bit disheartening at first. My confusion was obvious in class. Scott has even pointed out that I no longer hesitate or pause when answering questions in Swedish. Before I had to take the time to choose the words, think about the word order, then work my way through the pronunciation. Now the language is starting to flow. Only a few weeks of classes and I'm so much more comfortable, or perhaps simply more confident, that even when I do find myself confused, it's much easier to solve the problem.

Also, we are now the proud owners of two English-Swedish dictionaries, and I don't dare leave home without one of them anymore. The first boasts a hefty 85,000 words, and the second, a pink pocket dictionary, features 32,000 words and phrases specifically for "Amerikanska" translations. (The British English dictionary was blue, but Scott confidently chose language over looks. We're proud to be pink.)

As it turns out, neither Spanish nor English has been very helpful for me as I study Swedish - apparently my Swedish heritage isn't any help. I think Scott's German courses provided a nice basis for his great pronunciation and grammar (which has earned multiple compliments from our instructor). Without going into the details of learning the Swedish language, it will suffice to say that there are a few crazy but consistent rules, and an extensive vocabulary we have yet to memorize, but Swedish is quickly becoming a lot more fun.

My days have quickly filled up with these language classes. Shortly after Scott leaves for work, I head out to my Swedish For Immigrants (SFI) class, held from 10:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. It takes about 45 minutes to commute each way, including a short walk to/from the subway station, the train ride itself, and a short walk to/from the school, located on the ninth floor above a shopping mall. Add in my evening homework and these classes eat up my whole day.

Here's a quick run-down of the countries I can recall that are represented in just my SFI class: Hungary, Iran, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan, Ukraine, Turkey, India, South Africa, Argentina, China, Tanzania, France, Poland, Spain, Russia and USA (both Minnesota and Florida). It was amazing and humbling to find out that nearly everyone in the class speaks English in addition to their native language, and some even speak a third or fourth language as well. It makes so much sense to me that the government would make such a basic investment in the people who live, work and study here. It also makes me think back to when I was a volunteer ESL teacher, and hope that I was able to help.

To wrap up my run-down of the class schedule, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm usually at home for about an hour before heading back out to night class with Scott at Folksuniversitet. Twice now I've spent this hour doing homework for that night's class. A bad idea, that made for two really, really long days. Students at Folksuniversitet pay to attend the school, unlike the government-sponsored SFI, so the class size is quite a bit smaller, but still it was still nice to hear that my extra studies have not gone unnoticed.

As for graduate studies in the fall, I'm told the new publishing date for notification of admission is now officially May 8, 2008. The schools have posted some arbitrary numbers that are used for internal ratings online. Even though each school uses a different scale and provides no information on what the ratings mean, Scott is optimistic and thinks they indicate a very strong position. In the meantime though, I'm pretty happy with being a Swedish student. Heck, I've exploded! Yes, perhaps this Swedish introvert just might become her extroverted self again after all.