Simple Swedish Podcast - SSP #275 - Svetlana (del 2) - Varför måste lärare kunna svärord?

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Nivå: B1-B2 Gäst idag är Svetlana Svensson från kanalen Svenska För dig. Här i andra delen pratar vi om hur hon fick jobb som lärare i Sverige, och hur det kan vara ett problem att inte kunna svenska svärord i skolan. Vi avslutar med vad som är viktigt för att lära sig svenska till en hög nivå. Svetlana lärde sig svenska så bra att hon nu kan jobba som lärare i svenska. Vilken inspiration! Kolla in hennes Instagram här och YouTube här. Vi talar i normalt tempo, och om du tycker det är svårt att följa med rekommenderar jag att ta hjälp av transkriptet - klicka här. 

Yes, welcome to Simple Swedish Podcast and we're starting part two of my episode together with Svetlana Svensson. Let's go! First, can you maybe just tell us a little bit about how you came to Sweden, why you came to Sweden and how you came to Sweden, just as a background. Yes, as I said, I came here as a couple. Why Sweden? It's a funny story, because it was a bit more that I had to choose between Norway, Denmark and Sweden. When you could speak English, you could go to Scandinavian countries to be up here. If you wanted to go to France, you had to be able to speak French.

There were only Scandinavian countries for those who could speak English. And then I thought, Norway, it's a little too cold there. And then Denmark, no, it's a little, the language is a little tough there. So then I'm ok, but Sweden is good, lies in the middle. It just happened so, I don't know, I just wanted it that way, I must say. So I came here, but then I met my husband after two months in Sweden. Yes, that was a very short time.

Yes, it was a very short time. Yes, and we got married six months later. Six months later! Yes, and we got married so quickly, because I could stay in Sweden without going abroad. I know that it's something that might not work right now, but I had a special situation. I had a visa in a year. When we got married and came to the Migration Agency and said that we wanted another double-hours system, which is called family connection, then we still had four months left on Metriso. And then they said, we had to go to an interview where they asked what kind of toothpaste we used.

What kind of car was he driving, what did his brother do with it and how many people came on a roll and such things. Then I actually spoke Swedish. I mean, through a lot of interviews in Swedish. But it went well, and then I got a permit. Then I didn't have to go to a home country, I stayed in Sweden. Then I continued. We moved to another city, I started to go to... I hope you remember the Swedish language school Grund. They said I could go to the next level of high school after SEFI. I had such a good Swedish. But I don't know if you know SAS, the high school level course? No, I don't have a lot of knowledge about that.

You have to read a lot of literature and do learn words and talk more at an advanced level. I didn't get that much there, we only had to read novels and such. So I thought, no, this is going a bit too slow. Then I took a course that was thesis preparation. Thesis is a test that you can do to prove that you are on C1 level. It is a guest study for a university study. Then I took a course and it was really good. I really liked it. I learned a lot of abstract words, advanced words for speech, and a lot of words that I thought to do. It was my second year in Sweden. It went fast and I started looking for a job. But then I also had some luck. At that time, teachers were needed.

I was a teacher in Sweden. I got a job as a vicar, but only for a year. I was in a low-income school. Did you work with that before? No, I was a trainee at the university and first I started working as a motherhood teacher in Russia. I had several months of experience in Sweden, school work, and then I got my first job already after two years. I got a class with students who had it a bit tough the year before me. They had a lot of vicarious and they had some bad teachers and so on. They were a bit split and they didn't want to go to school and there were problems with that class. But first they were stressed and the parents were worried. I was 23 years old. In Russia, you know, you go out to school,

you go out to the gymnasium when you were 17, when I went out to the gymnasium. And then I was 21 when I was done with university. So when I started working I was only 23. It was pretty early for Sweden. The parents were very worried. They thought it was for girls. 23 years old and just learned Swedish. So they were a bit worried. But it turned out really well.

How old was the child? It was a mixed class. They were both 3 and 4 years old in the class, and they were 9-10 years old. You say that you go in 3rd grade and you go in 4th grade, and then you are in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and then you are 9-10 years old. Yes, exactly. That went really well, it was actually really fun to work with them. But there was one problem that I want to tell you about. The language was also a bit of a problem. Not because I couldn't master a lot of abstract words. I knew that really well. But I couldn't speak Swedish. Why was that a problem? As a teacher,

there was a situation when a child called another child because I don't want to say it now but a very ugly, rude word and I didn't react because I didn't know what it meant.

I didn't know what it meant. So I didn't react and I just stood there. And the whole class just started staring at me and just... Why doesn't she react to that? And then they said, Svetlana, why don't you say anything? And I was like, what did he say? Was it something strange or something? And she's like, that was a very rude word.

You can't call others that. And I'm like, oh, really? So, yeah, okay. Then I had to talk to the child who said it. But, yes, I couldn't do it. And then it was a bit that I missed when the children were looking at each other. They missed a lot there because they could say something that I didn't understand. That's interesting, because you don't think that it would be important to be important to know ugly words because of that. But when you think about it, it's very obvious that you have to understand when the children are mean to each other.

Yes, but when you work with children, you have to know them. You have to know all kinds of ugly words. Jobben med barn måste kunna dem. Man måste kunna dem. Alla sorter fulla ord. Så, hur gjorde du för att lära dig? Ja, men jag frågade också, känner vad de betyder och så där. Jag lärde mig inte barnen. Det är så bra att lära sig språket med barn, för de fördömer inte dig. Du vet, vuxna, de kan liksom, ja, men hon kallar inte det och så där. Men barn, de but she can't do that, and so on. But children, they are so kind, they just say... There were also certain things that I couldn't, I mean, practical things. You know, you study Swedish in courses, then you don't get to know what things are called, like yarn.

I asked the child, what is this called? She said, yarn. Okayj, tack så mycket. Eller hålslagare, bara, vad heter den här reparaten? Bara, hålslagare. Okej, tack så mycket. Perfekt. Jag vet att min kollega Stefan, han lärde sig också svenska mycket med barn. Och det var också bara, He also learned Swedish with children. And it was just... He just stayed there with them and talked, and talked, and talked.

And what you said, that they don't judge that much. They are not judgemental in any way. It's some kind of normality for them to learn new words. Maybe it's because they also learn a lot of new things all the time. Exactly. Maybe that's why, I don't know why. But do you think that's why? Because they also learn a lot all the time. Yes, absolutely. Exactly. that they are also learning a lot all the time. So it's natural.

Exactly. But it's fun to work with kids. But then I chose one day to work with adults in the end. So now I work with adults. As a teacher? As a teacher. There was a time when I had three children who went to school. And then I worked at a school.

I worked with children and every day they said, go here, go there, don't do that, don't say that, now you should be quiet, now we're going to the dining room. And when I got home, you were like, now we're going to brush our teeth and now we're going to eat. And I thought, I have to rest somewhere. Do you have children of your own? Yes, I have four children. And what language do you speak with them?

Russian. It's a bit difficult, but you want to keep Russian as an extra language for them. It's a good language to know. There are many who speak Russian. There are many immigrants in many countries who speak Russian. In practically all countries. There are especially in Germany and even in Sweden, there are not many who speak Russian. So you want to keep your mother tongue. And it is also important, I think it is very important that they also get an extra free language, you can say.

They don't even have to strain themselves late to learn it. extra språk gratis kan man säga, de behöver inte ens dränga sig sen för att liksom lära sig det. Och det är ju en fördel när man ska till exempel skaffa jobb, att man talar flera språk. Men de svarar liksom 70 procent på svenska och kanske 30 på ruska, så det är ju lite tråkigt, men det har bara blivit så. Men de förstår, de kan prata med sin mormor till exempel, de pratar jättebra. It's a bit boring, but it's just been that way. But they understand, they can talk to their grandmother, for example. They speak really well. Then it's a bit harder to write and read and stuff. But one thing I'm thinking about, because you talk a lot of advantages with an extra language, but I think above all, I feel, I don't have children, but when I have children, I want to talk about my mother's goal with them.

I want to give them my mother's goal. Then they can also be a part of my family and relatives and so on. Yes, I thought the same way. My mother doesn't speak English, she doesn't speak Swedish, of course, but it's very important that they can talk to their grandmother. Yes, and even if she could speak English, it's still not the same thing to date a family member in a foreign language. No. And then for me it was a bit difficult not to use my mother's words with my children. I think of all those love words, it's not the same thing. To say, love, cute, in Swedish you say the same thing in my mother's words.

You can't do that. It becomes empty. I don't know if you understand what I mean. But you can express love in another way on your mother's level. Because that's closer to the heart. Yes, exactly. You know all the nuances of all those words and so on. Yes, you have associations that exist since you were a child. Exactly. It sounds so steep when you talk in a foreign language with your child, it feels like. And as I said, they get an extra language for free.

I was always very fond of people who have two mother's goals. extra språket gratis. Ja, jag var alltid väldigt avundsjuk på personer som har två modersmål. Mm, ja det är ju fantastiskt. Mina barn lärde sig engelska också väldigt tidigt, eftersom vi bodde utomlands en period och så de pratade ju liksom tre språk, ganska bra. Så nu har de ju tre They have three languages. Their English is not a mother tongue, if you were to say something, or one, two or three things that you feel have been crucial for reaching a high level in Swedish, what would you say? känner vad har varit avgörande för att nå en hög nivå i svenska? Vad skulle du säga då? Disciplin är ett måste. Det går ju inte... Jag tror det är många som tror, nu kan jag bara ha en lektion i svenska en gång i veckan och and then I do some homework at home and that's enough. No, that's not enough. It's enough right at the beginning maybe. Yes, right at the beginning, but you have to train more, so it's at least three, four, five times a week. And it's a memory, there are studies about how people forget things, how quickly they forget things.

And it has been shown that you forget 50% of what you have learned within the first day. So you forget 50%. That means if you interpret the next day, you have forgotten 50% of it. So then it is important that it is better to train in shorter periods every day or often, not every day but at least a few times a week, than to sit for three hours a week and try to learn. So the next day you have lost 50 percent. So discipline is the same thing as if you want to have a nice body. Then you have to train often, right? So the language is, as you said, language gym. You have to train it. You have to train it, yes. You have to train regularly. Yes.

And then, yes, find somewhere where you can practice. It is important that you talk too. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, regular training, a lot of training, and to find people to talk to. Yes, then,, a lot of training and finding people to talk to. Yes, it's good that someone explains for you.

I don't know if there are some who say that they don't need to learn grammar, they can just learn by heart. But I think it's important that someone explains at least some basic things in the grammar. Then it is also much easier to talk and talk in a correct way when you know why you say what you say and why it is so. So a little professional help is not wrong. No, I think that people often put a little too much, study grammar a little too much and think too much about grammar. And I usually say that other things are more important, but at the same time you also need to study grammar and just that you don't need to think about grammar constantly all the time when you talk and so on. But you still have to be able to understand basic things in grammar. Yes, and the better you become, the better you understand and when you get things explained, it often becomes, aha! Yes, exactly.

Yes, and before we finish, can you just tell us about your channels, where you can find yourself and what you do on your channels. Yes, I have an Instagram account called Svenska för dig, but it is without dots, you can't have dots, so it's for you, it's Svenska för dig, and that's what my TikTok account is also called that. On YouTube it is also called Swedish for you. There is also a name for it, Lanna Svensson. If you are looking for Swedish for you, you will find me. As I said, I have many short videos where I show. It might come from that I think I'm a low-level teacher in the bottom.

And when you try to explain things to children, it's important to show as much as possible. You know, children don't know so so many abstract things. When you show them, they understand better. So I do it a little the same way, even for adults. I try to show as much as possible, so that you understand what it's about, and that you learn easier, and you get some associations. That I think sounds very good, because honestly, I think that we learn languages with... To be able to explain things as if you are a child is very helpful, also as an adult. I think people forget that. People forget that when you learn a language, you are like a child in that language. Yes, exactly. I mean, if you just read a word, for example, to jump, you can forget it very easily.

But if you see a video where someone jumps and says, I'm jumping, it will be easier for you. Absolutely, absolutely. Then it became easier for you to vary. I will try to learn that language. Learn it in a language as if you were a child in that language. I think that's good. That was a bit of what you did when you were surrounded by children. Exactly. umgicks med barnen. Ja, precis. Men man, jag tror vi glömmer det, men barn får stone. Oh, what do you have there? A flower. I don't know.

But it's pretty natural for parents. And that's when the child learns. Imagine if you... There are also such children who grew up without being able to talk to adults. You know, have you heard of anyone who was locked up in a room? Have you heard of anyone who has seen children? There are some known cases in a room. Have you heard of such children? There are some well known cases in the USA. A girl who was locked in a room for 13 years

since she was a baby. Shit, that's crazy. Yes, it was in the 70s. So when she came out, she didn't speak anything. She only had a few single words and sounds. She didn't learn the language by the end. That's crazy.

Yes, she had sick parents. Yes, so it's very important for children. för barn. Och då tänker vi om jag som vuxen skulle ha en person som var med mig liksom 24-7 förutom den tiden som jag sov och visade, aha det här är en penna, det här är en bok, det här är någonting. Jag menar, då skulle man ju lära sig svenska bara så här, eller hur? Exakt, absolut. Ja, den lyxen har vi, but we can try to find some of that anyway. Yes, exactly. It's also important to actively try to find someone else to talk to and train with. Not just sit at home and be locked in. It doesn't get that effective. No. But a lot of good tips and interesting topics.

So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. It was exciting to be here. It's the first time I'm in a podcast. Aha, like that. Thank you so much. Thank you for that. Yes, that was it. Hope you found this interesting and helpful

See you soon, I will link everything in the description Take care, see you soon! Bye bye!