this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Sweden

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I've been accepted to university, I'm going to move to Sweden! (lemmy.zip)
submitted 2 weeks ago by ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip to c/sweden@lemmy.world
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(My Swedish is currently limited to things like crudely ordering generic items at a restaurant, apologies. I'm not the best at learning new languages but I'm slowly figuring it out!)

I'm so excited :3 I worked so hard to get into my first choice of university and they accepted me! There's still a lot of logistics that need done but I think I'm on track. I'm going back to school to be a game level designer and hopefully find work in Sweden after I graduate

This last Christmas/New Years I toured various towns I'd possibly go to for school. There's so much I was able to see and I loved all of it. From Stockholm to Luleå everywhere felt special <3

I want to explore and learn everything I can. I want to learn Swedish it's such a beautiful sounding language. I'm going to be living pretty far north and I'm legitimately thrilled about the winters there. I think I'm going to be really happy

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[–] Dojan@pawb.social 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

This is amazing, I hope you'll be really happy here! When it comes to learning the language, everyone here already speaks English (as you're definitely already aware) so you might have to push really hard to get some immersion learning going because people will switch to English to make things go smoother. Make some friends and insist on using Swedish when you feel comfortable doing so.

For the winter, you might want to make sure you get sufficient vitamin D. Sweden's southernmost point is further north than most of the populated areas in Canada. The cold isn't as big a problem here as people might think (particularly thanks to global warming), but the day lengths shift dramatically and even as someone who's lived his entire life here I still struggle with it. I get miserable and cranky in the winter, and then euphoric come spring, only to slip back to cranky when the sun goes up at 2AM in the summer. Not even exaggerating, I took this photo of my dog around 2AM back in June 2023.

I hope that this will be an amazing stage of your life! Make the most of it! :)

Edit: fix words.

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm a bit worried about the summer ngl. Winters are going to be great for me though I love the cold and dark. Maybe the fact my sleep schedule is always a disaster and doesn't have anything to do with normal daylight hours will help me 😅

On the making friends part I'm also worried about that. I haven't been in a small town in like 6 years, plus being in a new culture, and my understanding is finding friends in Sweden is generally difficult. I'll have other students I could potentially be friends with but also I'm in my thirties now I worry there's going to be an age gap boundary there. I know I'll get there eventually it might be hard for me though

I'm so excited regardless of what does it doesn't work out though! I've always dreamt of being in another country and I've only ever wanted to be a game dev

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago

I get this, haha. I am really photosensitive so summers tend to be rough. Some nice blackout curtains is the way to go. There are ones that you can essentially velcro directly to the window. It involves a bit of work putting them on and taking them off all the time, but it is the most effective. I admit I'm too lazy to do that so I have double sets of blackout curtains and it does the job most of the time.

My (German) roomie had the same general attitude towards winters here when he first moved, but after a year or two he's now firmly in the "I'm going to retire somewhere far south" camp. I'm curious how you'll hold up!

Finding friends here is... well it depends a bit on where you are and what you do, I suppose. We are really into clubs and unions here, so if you find some sort of activity you enjoy doing (board game clubs, choirs, dancing, pottery classes, what have you) I'm sure you can make plenty of friends. One has to kind of put oneself out there and be open to it, then I think most people reciprocate in kind. Swedes have a bit of a rep for being cold and distant, but I think it has to do with our general mentality of not wanting to stick out and take up too much space. It makes us seem more distant than we actually are.

My hometown had a weekly developer meetup that advertised on meetup.com. My roomie found plenty of furries in the area via BARQ. I found a local board game club via facebook, and there will generally be fliers and information available at the local library. If the town you're going to has a Folkhögskola I'd recommend checking that out as well. They usually have smaller courses and classes that can be a lot of fun, and a great opportunity to meet people at, and in addition to that they often host events.

Then of course there'll be a notice board at the university that'll likely have lots of current events listed. The world is your oyster! :)

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Jag är så lyckas för dig!

Jag också vill att böra i Sverige in framtid, så detta är trevligt att läsa det!

Jag är ledsen om min svenska, jag lära också språket

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

I always find it super cool when people want to learn Swedish. It's not the most useful language to learn on account of Swedish speakers being a fairly small portion of the world's population, and most everyone here speaks English anyway. So the drive to learn Swedish is usually rooted in a genuine interest in some cultural or linguistic aspect, and that's amazing to me.

I've some notes for you.

Jag är så ~~lyckas~~ lycklig för ~~dig~~ din skull!

"Att lyckas" means "to succeed."

Lycklig means happy and shares roots with the word "lycka" meaning luck. A more common word for happy would be "glad" though in this context it doesn't make much sense. Lycklig to me has a much stronger feel to it. Like genuine joie de vivre.

While "dig" absolutely means "you", the phrase "happy for you" needs some tweaking to sound good in Swedish. "Din skull" is essentially "your sake", which I think could be interpreted as a bit passive-aggressive in English but that doesn't really translate to Swedish, unless you were to say it in a passive-aggressive manner.

~~Jag också vill att böra i Sverige in framtid, så detta är trevligt att läsa det!~~
Jag vill också bo i Sverige i framtiden, så det är trevligt att läsa detta!

"Böra" actually threw me for a loop because it sounds like a word, and it is, but it's archaic and seems to have a lot of meanings. The dictionary list is hella long, I definitely learned some new things here. In general though it seems to mean should/ought or "require."

I think the term "nice to read" being translated as "trevligt" sounds a bit strange in Swedish. I think I'd say "roligt att läsa/höra" (fun to read/hear). You could alternatively also replace "roligt" with "kul" and retain the meaning but sound a bit more casual.

~~Jag är ledsen om min svenska, jag lära också språket~~
Jag ber om ursäkt för min svenska, jag håller också på att lära mig språket.

"Jag är ledsen" would be interpreted very literally in Swedish as "I am sad", though because of the influence anglicisms has on Swedish I think this could potentially shift in the future. I've heard people use the expression "I'm afraid I can't..." in Swedish before, which is really funny when it's expressed to a person who isn't very enmeshed in the English language because they just go "??? What are you afraid of?"

"Hålla på att X" in this context means that you're actively doing something.

Jag håller på att laga middag.
I'm making dinner at the moment.

Jag håller på att göra klart för dagen.
I'm wrapping things up for the day.

Vad håller du på med? (I say this to my dog all the time) What are you up to?

Finally. Never apologise for your proficiency! Making mistakes is a natural part of learning, I'm sure I've made so many mistakes in this comment myself, and a bit of it is just my personal opinion/thoughts and I'm sure that people will disagree. Be proud of your progress instead! I think you're doing great, and the fact that you're even interested in learning our niche little language thrills me.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Jag vet inte var jag hört 'böra', jag tror att det menar 'to live' as in, 'to reside' från Duolingo, jag vet inte varför. (Också, past tense)

Och tack så mycket för din hjälp som allt min misstagen, jag tror det finns mer i detta text också

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Duolingo är ju lite speciellt i sättet man lär sig språk via den, så det finns ofta utrymme för misstag. Fast det är ju förstås också fullt möjligt att det finns fel i Duolingo. Verbet "to live smw." på svenska är "att bo någonstans."

  • Bo, to reside
  • Bor, residing
  • Bodde, resided
  • Bott, resided

Bodde is past tense (preteritum), and bott is supine (supinum).

  • Jag bodde i Spanien i två år (I lived in Spain for two years)
  • Jag har bott här sedan 2020 (I have lived here since 2020)

One way to think of it is preteritum is something in the past that has ended. Supinum is also in the past, but it might still be happening.

Och tack så mycket för din hjälp som allt min misstagen, jag tror det finns mer i detta text också

Ah, grammatical gender! Times past Swedish - like German - had masculine, feminine, and neutral words, but we merged masculine and feminine together, and so now we have utrum (en words) and neutrum (ett words). There's no strict rule you can follow to truly know whether a word is en or ett, but in general roughly a third of all nouns are en words. There are however rules for declension based on whether the word is en or ett, and it also affects your personal possessive pronoun.

Misstag is an ett word, so the definite singular for it is "misstaget" (the mistake). Because it's an ett word (ett misstag, a mistake) you need to use the possessive pronoun "mitt", thus "mitt misstag."

Similarly, because it's an et word, if you were to say "this mistake" you'd say "detta misstag."

Thus

  • Mitt misstag (my mistake)
  • Misstaget (the mistake)
  • Detta misstag (this mistake)

Conversely, text is an en word, so...

  • Min text (my text)
  • Texten (the text)
  • Denna text (this text)

Back when I was learning German, whenever we got der/das/die wrong my teacher would say "Oooh no! Now the German will pee their pants a little!" and the same applies to en/ett in Swedish. I mean, obviously it's an exaggeration, but it throws the flow off when you get it wrong.

Think "a apple" or "an pencil." It's wonky in the same way "en äpple" and "ett penna" is.

If you made it this far; I'm sorry for turning this into a Swedish lesson. I am really passionate about languages (my autism really shines through in linguistic discussions) and I enjoy thinking about these things. When this sort of thing happens I often learn new things myself, and that is always incredibly exciting to me.

I don't know if this comment will at all be helpful to you, but I hope that my ramblings at least don't end up making your day worse.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

Tack så mycket, det är definitivt en hjälp! Har en bra dag

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Jag hade tagit "böra" som borde. Men jag blev också förvirrad!

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah, det är vad SAOB säger också, norrlänska tydligen! :)

[–] Emptiness@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Congrats! And welcome!

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

Tack så mycket! I'm overjoyed to have the opportunity to see everything and meet so many good people ❤️

[–] hanke@feddit.nu 4 points 2 weeks ago

Congrats and welcome!

Duolingo has Swedish lessons, for every day learning at your own pace, and there is also SFI (Swedish For Immigrants) courses where you can learn swedish :)

And also, take the other comments about daytime changes seriously, it messes with your head 😄 But don't worry too much about it. You'll handle it just as well as everyone else 👍

[–] guy@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Glad for your sake! What university did you end up with?

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Tack! I made it into Futuregames! I'm really proud of myself the application process was wild. I'm going to be a level designer :3

[–] guy@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh never heard of! Is it a company offering like internship? Where in Sweden will you go? :)

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's basically like a trade school if you're familiar with US schooling. I'm going to be in Boden. I really wanted to be in Stockholm but since I'm not Swedish or EU I have to pay for everything with savings. Going to be cutting it close as is, the Stockholm campus was too financially risky for me to apply for

[–] MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Buy warm clothes, Boden is no joke.

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

I got to visit Luleå in early January, phone was saying it hit -15f/-25c. I suspect Boden is similar since they're pretty nearby? I loved being in that cold it made me happy. Had to buy better hat and gloves though my face felt like it was going to fall off

[–] Iceblade02@feddit.nu 2 points 1 week ago

Welcome to Sweden :)