Swedish School

     On Tuesday, we went to the school, Astradskolan, where our coach, Daniel, and teammate, Johanna, teach. The school is grades kindergarten through 9^th grade. Meghan and I were special guests in the English classes. The teacher was Swedish, but she lived in England for a while so she has an English accent. She and the students were very excited that we had American accents. My response was we don’t have accents!? We introduced ourselves by saying we were here to play volleyball and pointing out on a map where we were from. The students were nervous to speak out loud in English to us. Instead, the teacher passed out slips of paper to have the students write questions that they wanted to ask us. We did this same thing in 3 different English classes. Some of the common questions were:

How long have you played volleyball?

How old are you?

Do you have brothers and sisters?

What is your favorite food?

Do you watch South Park?

Do you watch Family Guy?

Do you have a boyfriend?

Do you know any celebrities? (This is a very common European misconception. Many Europeans, not just Swedes, have asked me this question. They think since there are so many celebrities that we see them often. I thought about lying and telling them that Jason Segel is my boyfriend or that Blake Lively is my best friend, but I told them the truth that I have never really met any celebrities.)

     There were quite a few immediate differences between this Swedish school compared to American schools. First, Swedish education is free! This includes school lunch being free. School lunch is also very different than American school lunches. They NEVER have hamburgers or pizza or hotdogs. The normal meals are soup or fish or rice. I also noticed during lunch that there were students wearing aprons cleaning the tables. In America, this normally only happens if the students are in trouble. In Swedish schools, when you are in grades 7-9, you help out at school either helping the lunch room ladies clean the cafeteria or helping the janitors clean and maintain the school building. There are also some passing periods that are 20 minutes long!!! This is normally in the morning so that students can eat breakfast at school if they don’t get breakfast at home. In America, this would more than likely cause chaos and loud hallways. I was amazed that the hallways were always quiet. Also during these long breaks, the teachers all went to the teachers’ lounge for coffee and breakfast; they were not on hall duty. The last difference is one of the things that I really hate about teaching in America. I hate being called Miss Bangert! In Sweden, all of the students call their teachers by their first names.

Oh, I forgot! Saying “skit” in school (and all of Sweden) is very ok! Google translate it…