Since people in Sweden speak amazingly good English,\u00a0 they love to practice and speak just for fun. This can be really nice if you are on holiday and just want to speak English. But what happens if you go to Sweden to learn or at least practice Swedish? Sweden can be a pretty hard place to gain confidence in, just because people change to English as soon as they hear your accent, however small it is.\u00a0 Swedes will say that they just want to facilitate communication or make the person feel more comfortable, if they see that they are struggling in Swedish.<\/p>\n
Frequently people address you in English just because you look foreign. This has nothing to do with if you can actually speak English or not, English is just associated with all foreigners. It is not uncommon for people who have immigrated to Sweden to not speak very good Swedish at all. They might have lived in Sweden for 15-20 years and still barely speak speak at all in Swedish. Frustration, anger, feeling insulted, total lack of confidence and puzzlement are all very common feelings. \u201cWhy are people speaking to me in English even though they can see that I am trying so hard to try to learn Swedish??\u201d Do not get discouraged by the fact that people might only want to be friends with you because of your English skills or a chance to use their English.<\/p>\n
Earlier on this site I read a couple of stories about people who had, either through first or second hand, experienced this. Every situation is of course different but we can also learn from each other. Getting to know that you are not alone in this sort of situation, that it is definitively NOT anything personal creates better self-confidence. Even better, if you have any advice about how to gain more confidence in your Swedish pronunciation, grammar or just confidence in general, sharing that might prepare or give somebody reinforced strength to keep on trying to improve their Swedish.<\/p>\n
Insisting in the start of a new relationship that you definitively want to use Swedish is also a good starting point.<\/p>\n
Good luck everybody!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since people in Sweden speak amazingly good English,\u00a0 they love to practice and speak just for fun. This can be really nice if you are on holiday and just want to speak English. But what happens if you go to Sweden to learn or at least practice Swedish? Sweden can be a pretty hard place…<\/p>\n