Sweden - would we be mad?
 

Hi there

Has anyone any experience of moving to Sweden with non-Swedish speaking teenagers? Particuarly the education aspect - I understand there are a number of schools and unis which teach in English? We would be looking to take our 18-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son. Neither of us speak a word of Swedish either. My husband would be able to teach post compulsory English. Are we mad to consider this move?

Re: Sweden - would we be mad?
 

no.
do it.
sounds great.
city or countryside?

Re: Sweden - would we be mad?
 

Hi,
I don't think you would be mad at all.
My son works there and lives in Malmo. When we visit we are embarrassed that everyone can speak English, and we are accepted there.
If you have time see for yourself.
It's also not as cold as you might think it is.

Jimbo

Re: Sweden - would we be mad?
 

No not at all I lived in Sweden for 3 years and loved it, still trying to get back there but we've only got to Brussels so far! You can learn Swedish for free under the "Swedish for immigrants" system, 3 hours a day run and paid for by the government.

But everyone speaks English so not so much of a problem anyhow, lots of Unis teach in English as well.

You need to get a personal number as soon as you arrive but things operate quite well there from a government point of view, unlike the UK and Belgium. The personal number is central to everything you do, its your birthday followed by 4 digits, its like a millitary service number you'll need it for eveything.

Go to the local commune offices to register, getting bank accounts etc is also easier than if you are a foreigner in the UK (my German partner knows this quite well!)

Email me if you have any questions

Bridgers

Re: Sweden - would we be mad?
 

My family and I are currently living here in Sweden, just outside Stockholm. My children are younger and do speak Swedish fluently but my sister-in-law and her family moved here just over a year ago and none of them could speak Swedish.

She has a teenage son and a 10 year old daughter and both are doing well in an English speaking school in Stockholm. There are several English speaking schools in Sweden, mostly in the big cities. Where were you thinking of moving to?

As Bridgers said, free Swedish lessons are available to adults under the SFI programme and if the kids are still in school, they should get Swedish lessons, plus Extra Swedish lessons to help them learn.

In a big city like Stockholm it is not essential to speak Swedish but it does help. It's always that little bit more tricky when trying to organise anything, especially over the phone, if you don't speak Swedish. Being English you are lucky in that MOST people speak passable English here, but not everyone by any means. Also bear in mind that there are many immigrants from Iraq and the other war torn countries arriving here every day and most of them don't speak English. So many people who work in shops, restaurants, drive buses, etc. have Swedish as their second language and don't have any English at all.

That said, it is perfectly possible to live here without any Swedish but it can be difficult at times.

Here are a couple of forums that may be more useful to you if you are thinking of coming to Sweden:

www.lostinsewden.com (this site is down right now but should be up again in a few days)

www.amerikanska.com (this site is mainly American but is very useful for asking 'how to' questions)

This page on the British Embassy site is useful for English speaking schools:

http://www.britishembassy.se/consular/schools.php

I don't post on here very often but you may well see me on lost in Sweden.

Good luck.

Britbitch

Re: Sweden - would we be mad?
 

Not sure what your bumping rule is here...sorry if it's too long...

I'm currently studying at Uppsala University albeit on an exchange program. However, there's lots of postgrad students here from foreign countries anyway.
The big perk - univeristy here is FREE. The only loans are for living expenses. Quite how they manage to spend as much as I do in London I don't know, unless it's on alcohol.
Most courses will teach a few modules in English, but hopefully your son's Swedish would be good enough by that point, they might have some issues in the earlier years otherwise as I know for my course their electives are only in their 3rd year plus. Oh yes, people study here for 5...6...7 years. Actually, that would explain their student debts.

Of course, being the EU they could just go back to a British university with no problems.