Category: Free Inquiry

Hello everyone! Today I bring you very sad news. Because of COVID-19, our international practicum to Sweden has been canceled. All of us are extremely heartbroken at the idea of not being able to go get hands-on experience as educators in a foreign country. We have spent so many hours planning our journey, booking accommodation, doing UVic travel modules, writing scholarship applications, and signing contracts/doing paperwork. I am not sure where this inquiry will go next as I am very sad and don’t know when I will ever make it to Sweden.

My phone stopped working two days ago. After 50 days of practicing Swedish in a row, my streak has died. Here is the final list of words I got up to know.

My ever-growing list of Swedish words/phrases that I have learned on Duolingo:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• One book, several books = En bok, flera böcker
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En and Ett
• Newspaper(s) = Tidning(ar)
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser
• She = Hon
• He = Han
• Are/Is = är
• We = Vi
• You = Du
• Sandwich = smörgås
• They = De
• Rice = Ris
• Good morning = God morgon!
• Yes = Ja
• Please = Snälla
• So = så
• Then = då
• You are welcome = Varsågod
• Hello = Hej or Hållo
• Everyone = Alla
• Welcome = Välkommen
• I am sorry = Ursäkta
• Food = mat
• Pasta = Pasta
• Breakfast = Frukost
• Fruit = Frukt
• Sugar = Socker
• Cheese = Ost
• Coffee = Kaffe
• Lunch = lunch
• Good bye = Hej då
• Dog(s) = hund(ar)
• Moose = älg
• Cat(s) = Katt(er)
• Meat = Kott
• Horse(s) = Häst(er)
• It = det
• several = flera
• does not = inte (for example, hon läser inte brev = she does not read letters)
• has = har
• apple(s) = äpple(n)
• Our tomato = Vår tomat
• Lemon = citron
• Her (possessive) = hennes
• Their = deras
• soup = soppa
• my = min
• your = din
• his = hans
• dairy = mejeri, mjölkaffär and mjölkkammare

Hej! I have some exciting news today! Last Friday, my partner and I learned that we will be teaching grades 4-6 during our practicum in Sweden (this is equivalent to grades 5-7 in Canada). We are all buzzing with excitement as the countdown begins: I leave for Sweden in one month and one day! Today my blog post will be talking about Swedish public transportation. I am writing this post so I am prepared to get myself from the airport to the house where we are all staying. I also need to know how to get from the house to the school.

Photo by Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash

How to get from the airport to the house:

I will be arriving at the Stockholm Arlanda Airport in terminal 5.

I will then need to pop down to the SL Station in the underground at the airport and buy two tickets (according to this website):

• A train ticket between the Arlanda aiport and the Stockholm Central Station for 157 SEK ($16.25)
• A 30 day transit pass that covers trains, boats, buses, and trams for 930 SEK ($96.35)

I will then follow this google map plan:

How to get from the house to the school and vice versa

Once we have our 30 day transit pass, we can use it whenever we want in those 30 days. So, we will walk 14 minutes to the bus stop every morning  and then ride for 6 minutes followed by 1 more minute of walking to get us to the school. Here is the google maps navigation that we will follow.

On the way back it is the exact same just flipped in reverse. It is even faster to get home because it will be downhill.

My ever-growing list of Swedish words/phrases that I have learned on Duolingo:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• One book, several books = En bok, flera böcker
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En and Ett
• Newspaper(s) = Tidning(ar)
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser
• She = Hon
• He = Han
• Are/Is = är
• We = Vi
• You = Du
• Sandwich = smörgås
• They = De
• Rice = Ris
• Good morning = God morgon!
• Yes = Ja
• Please = Snälla
• So = så
• Then = då
• You are welcome = Varsågod
• Hello = Hej or Hållo
• Everyone = Alla
• Welcome = Välkommen
• I am sorry = Ursäkta
• Food = mat
• Pasta = Pasta
• Breakfast = Frukost
• Fruit = Frukt
• Sugar = Socker
• Cheese = Ost
• Coffee = Kaffe
• Lunch = lunch
• Good bye = Hej då
• Dog(s) = hund(ar)
• Moose = älg
• Cat(s) = Katt(er)
• Meat = Kott
• Horse(s) = Häst(er)
• It = det
• several = flera
• does not = inte (for example, hon läser inte brev = she does not read letters)
• has = har
• apple(s) = äpple(n)
• Our tomato = Vår tomat
• Lemon = citron
• Her (possessive) = hennes
• Their = deras
• soup = soppa
• my = min
• your = din
• his = hans
• dairy = mejeri, mjölkaffär and mjölkkammare

Photo by Laurent Gence on Unsplash

Hello everyone! Today, in addition to my Duolingo learning, I will be showing you what some of the most useful Swedish phrases and words are.

First, here are the letters from the Swedish alphabet (29 letters) and their pronunciations from this website:

The following is a table from the same website that shows a useful phrase in English, followed by it in Swedish, and finally it shows how to pronounce it.

Photo by Peter Ivey-Hansen on Unsplash

My ever-growing list of Swedish words/phrases that I have learned on Duolingo:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• One book, several books = En bok, flera böcker
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En and Ett
• Newspaper(s) = Tidning(ar)
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser
• She = Hon
• He = Han
• Are/Is = är
• We = Vi
• You = Du
• Sandwich = smörgås
• They = De
• Rice = Ris
• Good morning = God morgon!
• Yes = Ja
• Please = Snälla
• So = så
• Then = då
• You are welcome = Varsågod
• Hello = Hej or Hållo
• Everyone = Alla
• Welcome = Välkommen
• I am sorry = Ursäkta
• Food = mat
• Pasta = Pasta
• Breakfast = Frukost
• Fruit = Frukt
• Sugar = Socker
• Cheese = Ost
• Coffee = Kaffe
• Lunch = lunch
• Good bye = Hej då
• Dog(s) = hund(ar)
• Moose = älg
• Cat(s) = Katt(er)
• Meat = Kott
• Horse(s) = Häst(er)
• It = det
• several = flera
• does not = inte (for example, hon läser inte brev = she does not read letters)
• has = har
• apple(s) = äpple(n)
• Our tomato = Vår tomat
• Lemon = citron
• Her (possessive) = hennes
• Their = deras
• soup = soppa
• my = min
• your = din
• his = hans

Hello everyone! It has been a great week for my Swedish inquiry. On Thursday, I and the other teacher candidates that are headed to Sweden for our practicum learned that we will soon be receiving our grade level where we will be teaching and some contacts for our mentor teachers. It is getting exciting because, in less than two months, we will be in Stockholm, wow! Today’s post will be continuing on from last week’s, get ready to learn more about the Swedish Educational System.

More About Education in Sweden

• Over the past two decades, Swedish students have apparently been poorly performing on international comparisons. Because of this, a complete revamp of the Swedish curriculum and an improvement to the status of the teaching profession has occurred.
• These reforms have resulted in a “positive trend for Sweden’s educational quality, with Sweden’s 15-year-olds scoring above the OECD average in mathematics, reading, and science” through the 2019 PISA assessment.
• While reforming their educational system, the Swedish Government was inspired by Finland, South Korea (where teachers are paid a high salary) and the Netherlands (class sizes are smaller than most other countries).
• The new education act, the 2011 Swedish Education Act, promotes “greater oversight, freedom of choice, and student safety and security.”
• New Curriculum: The curricula contain new general goals, guide­lines, and syllabi. The pre-school curriculum includes “clearer goals for children’s linguistic and communicative develop­ment and for science and technology.” There are nation-wide tests on each subject for students in years 3, 6, and 9. Also, there are “new qualification requirements for areas including upper secondary school studies.”
• New Grading System: as my final piece for this week, I am going to bring up something that really caught my eye in the Swedish Educational system. Their grading system has moved away from a way that is similar to our current system in the new BC curriculum towards their new style which looks like our old grading style. Pretty interesting how curriculums and grading systems differ across the world! “The old Swedish system [had] four grades from Pass with Special Distinction (MVG) down to Did Not Pass (IG) was replaced by a new grading scale with six grades from A to F in 2011. A to E are passing grades, with F as a failing grade. Grades are assigned starting in year 6.”

My evergrowing list of Swedish words/phrases that I have learned on Duolingo:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• One book, several books = En bok, flera böcker
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En and Ett
• Newspaper(s) = Tidning(ar)
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser
• She = Hon
• He = Han
• Are/Is = är
• We = Vi
• You = Du
• Sandwich = smörgås
• They = De
• Rice = Ris
• Good morning = God morgon!
• Yes = Ja
• Please = Snälla
• So = så
• Then = då
• You are welcome = Varsågod
• Hello = Hej or Hållo
• Everyone = Alla
• Welcome = Välkommen
• I am sorry = Ursäkta
• Food = mat
• Pasta = Pasta
• Breakfast = Frukost
• Fruit = Frukt
• Sugar = Socker
• Cheese = Ost
• Coffee = Kaffe
• Lunch = lunch
• Good bye = Hej då
• Dog(s) = hund(ar)
• Moose = älg
• Cat(s) = Katt(er)
• Meat = Kott
• Horse(s) = Häst(er)
• It = det
• several = flera
• inte = does not (for example, hon läser inte brev = she does not read letters)
• has = har
• apple(s) = äpple(n)

Hej alla och välkommen! Hope everyone has had a fantastic week! I know I have, especially after learning more about Sweden! My inquiry has led me to find out a lot about the Swedish Educational System and also continue my Swedish language journey. I hope you find this week’s post to be informative!

Education in Sweden

• Schooling can start at age 1 in Sweden in the form of förskola, or preschool. Förskola can be attended until a child reaches age 5 and is subsidized through municipal funding that depends on the family’s employment and education.
• Swedish Förskola’s are based around play-based learning and they emphasize equality. Children are taught that they can grow up and become anything they want to be, regardless of their gender.
• Mandatory schooling begins for all children at age 6. There are four stages of this mandatory schooling: Förskoleklass (“preschool year” or Kindergarten), Lågstadiet (years 1–3), Mellanstadiet (years 4–6) and Högstadiet (years 7–9). Before and after school care is also offered for all children.
• There is also something called Sameskolor which is schooling for children of the indigenous Sami peoples. I hope to do a future blog post that focuses on the Sami peoples.
• Upper secondary school is called Gymnasium (years 10-12). It is optional and students can decide between national programs (which prepare the students for higher education) and vocational programs. If students do not pass the entrance exams to get into national programs, they can take “introductory programs” that will help them eventually get into the university preparatory programs.
• There are also gymnasiums that are specifically for special education, sports, and fine arts.
• In 2017, approximately 90 percent of Gymnasium students received their diploma.

Next week I will research more about the educational system and the country’s new advances in their curriculum.

Photo by Drahomír Posteby-Mach on Unsplash

Today I have reached a 15-day streak on Duolingo. I am having a great time learning new words and phrases. I have even taught some words to my friends who are also going to Sweden. For the past week, I have been learning how to connect the words that I already know into phrases and sentences.

My evergrowing list of Swedish words/phrases that I have learned on Duolingo:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• A book = En bok
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En and Ett
• Newspaper = Tidning
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser
• She = Hon
• He = Han
• Are/Is = är
• We = Vi
• You = Du
• Sandwich = smörgås
• They = De
• Rice = Ris
• Good morning = God morgon!
• Yes = Ja
• Please = Snälla
• So = så
• Then = då
• You are welcome = Varsågod
• Hello = Hej or Hållo
• Everyone = Alla
• Welcome = Välkommen
• I am sorry = Ursäkta
• Food = mat
• Pasta = Pasta
• Breakfast = Frukost
• Fruit = Frukt
• Sugar = Socker
• Cheese = Ost
• Coffee = Kaffe
• Lunch = lunch
• Good bye = Hej då
• Dog = hund
• Moose = älg
• Cat = Katt

Hej alla! Today’s blog post will feature some research on Swedish celebrities, Swedish music, and the country’s environmental stance.

Swedish Celebrities and Music

• ABBA, a very iconic Swedish music group, is notable across the world and it has influenced movies, musicals, and the lives of many popular music fans. Upon doing some research I found out that Sweden is the world’s biggest exporter of pop music in relation to GDP.
• Other famous Swedish music artists include Avicii, Roxette, Ace of Bass, and Swedish House Mafia.
• Sweden may be a small country (population-wise), but it has produced many influential people:

Alfred Nobel, Creator of the Nobel Peace Prize

Ann-Margret, Actress 

PewDiePie, YouTuber

Greta Thunberg, Environmental Activist

Environment

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

• Sweden is renowned as a progressive country with its stance on environmental issues.
• Only 1% of the country’s solid waste ends up in landfills while the other 99% is recycled or turned into biogas (a biofuel that is created by the decomposition of organic waste).
• Sweden has decreased its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% since 1990. The country has also set the goal of producing zero net GHG emissions by the year 2050. They want to have a fossil fuel-free “vehicle fleet” by the year 2030.
• Sweden’s energy production is created by 48% renewable energy sources. These include bio-energy, wind power, and solar power.
• Sweden does have its own environmental issues however, they have over-logged areas of the country and still experience many unsustainable logging practices. The country also faces pollution of the Baltic Sea due to agriculture runoff and waste treatment issues. Finally, due to the country’s rapid and prolonged industrialization and urbanization, acidic lakes have affected the survival of native plants and animals. Despite these issues, Sweden is a leader in tackling climate change and in a future blog post, I will outline this by studying Greta Thunberg.

I am proud of myself with my Swedish learning – I have an 11 day streak on Duolingo!

Next week, I look forward to finding out more about Swedish cuisine and the country’s educational system.

As a start to my inquiry on Sweden, I have been researching general facts about the country. The following facts were found on this website:

General Facts

• Sweden is a country populated by 10 million people, 2 million of which are under the age of 18.
• Stockholm is both the capital and the largest city in Sweden. 950,000 people live there.
• Sweden is covered by forests – 69% of the land is heavily forested. Less than 3% of the country is built up.
• Swedish is the language spoken in Sweden however, most Swedes speak English at a very high level.
• Sweden is approximately the same size as the state of California.

Economic/Political Facts

• Sweden is a member of the European Union despite having its own currency, the Krona (kr). 100 kr is around $14 Canadian dollars.
• Sweden is a parliamentary democracy and their parliament is called the Riksdag. Members are elected to it every 4 years and the Prime Minister of Sweden is Stefan Löfven from the Social Democratic Party (a left-of-centre party).
• King Carl XVI Gustaf is the “head of state” in Sweden but he has no actual political power. He is a representative figure mainly only present for ceremonial purposes.

The Swedish Lifestyle

• ‘Fika’ is a coffee break that typically also involves a sweet baked good. To ‘Fika’ is apparently a universal activity for Swedes.
• Sweden was the first country in the world that allowed freedom of the press in 1766.
• The country also has a strong emphasis on equality having legalized “same-sex relations” since 1944 and legalizing gay marriage since 2009.
• Sweden is a secular nation but most of the world’s religions can be found and are welcome there.

Next week I look forward to researching Swedish celebrities, music, and their stance on the environment. I also intend to study more Swedish to learn more important vocabulary.  I will try to do 10 minutes a day, 6 days a week of Duolingo

Swedish Words that I have learned on Duolingo this week:

• A boy = En pojke
• A girl = En flicka
• A woman = En Kvinna
• I am a woman = Jag är en kvinna
• A man = En man/ Mannen
• Drinking = Dricker
• Water = Vatten
• Eating = äter
• And = Och
• A = Ett
• Bread = Bröd
• A book = En bok
• A menu = En meny
• You = Du
• Have = Har
• A/one/an = En
• Newspaper = Tidning
• A letter = Ett brev
• The child = Barnet
• Milk = Mjolk
• It = Det
• Read = Läser

I and five other teacher candidates from this cohort are heading to Stockholm, Sweden for our first practicum in April. For my free inquiry project, I am interested in researching about Sweden. I intend to learn general things about the country such as its size, population, politics, and history. I am also particularly interested in the country’s food, educational system, and language.

Photo by Jonathan Brinkhorst on Unsplash

The way I will learn about the country is through general websites such as Wikipedia, Study in Sweden, and the official website of Sweden.

I will also be looking into Swedish traditional foods to see what I have already tried or what I would like to try when I am there.

Part of my practicum preparation will be looking at the Swedish curriculum to lesson plan and acquaint myself with what the school environment will be like. I am interested in seeing the ways it is similar and different from our new BC curriculum.

Another key aspect of my inquiry will be trying to learn useful Swedish phrases. I hope to be able to have some important words for teaching and navigating Swedish society under my belt before April. I will be learning the language through the iPhone App “Duolingo”.

Finally, I will be looking into experiences, museums, restaurants, and places to see in Stockholm. When I arrive in Stockholm in April, it will be very appreciated to already have plans made for things that I want to see. At that time I will most likely be feeling stressed about planning for practicum so having activities already researched will be extremely useful.

Photo by Raphael Andres on Unsplash

With the help of my Trello, which will keep me accountable, I look forward to inquiring about Sweden this semester!