UISS was an amazing introduction into living in Sweden, and throughout the program I learned much more than I expected about not only the language, but the culture as well.
My dad grew up in Sweden, so I fell into the ‘utlandssvenka ungdomar’ category. I grew up speaking Swedish at home at least part time, but until UISS I had no formal education in Swedish, and knew very little about grammatical rules and how to compose texts in Swedish. My teachers were fabulous and worked with me to fill in the gaps in my Swedish, all the while allowing me to learn in a natural, organic manner that fit with how I had learned Swedish as a child. The classroom hours were intense, but totally doable thanks to the Fika break! I chose to take afternoon classes in Swedish, and was very impressed with how much of the language I picked up while learning about culture in ‘Det moderna svenska samhället’, and having fun and joking around in ‘Förbättra din svenska med hjälp av drama/musik/gestaltning’.
I made so many friends from all over the world, and some of these friendships I expect to last a lifetime! After the course I elected to stay in Sweden, and am now in my first year studying Biomedicine at the Högskolan i Skövde. It is an international program given in English, but many of the program students and my friends are Swedish, and thanks to UISS I’m comfortable having conversations with them, and because of my Swedish skills, many are very surprised to hear that I just moved here during the past summer. Overall I highly recommend the program, from beginners in the language to those who are more advanced. It is well worth it and so much fun!