#evsblog

Perfect sunset on Gotland

Varberg

Yoga pose in Southern part of Gotland

Hej from me, Nata :) 

It has been 6 weeks since i came here to Borås to do my EVS. What can I say? All different feelings were there from the beginning. I felt both happy and sad to leave my family and friends, of course goodbye at the airport was overwhelming and hard to handle.

It was even harder because my first day in Borås was my birthday, so I was spending it with random people who should become my friends in the following year, at least some of them will.

The days were passing and I felt excited, excluded, exhausted and everything else you can think that starts with E ::)

I will try to write about something different every time, cause it will be hard to squeeze all of the things which are happening into one post.

This is just my introduction.

My expectations: to become fluent in Swedish and learn how to trust people and learn to be alone My fears: being excluded, homesickness, boredom

Visited places so far: Gotheburg, Varberg, Stockholm, Gotland, Fårö and many more to come.

Until next time, here are some photos of Swedish nature by which I am fascinated.

After some time into their project, every EVS volunteer finds some favourite words or expressions in the language of the country where they are working: for example, Stefano’s favourite Swedish word is lagom and mine are fika and loppis. As a lover of languages and as a translator, I have noticed some interesting things about how Swedes communicate, both in their own language and in English.

One of the best – and funniest – features of Swedish communication is, weirdly enough, not a word but a sound: it is when people quickly inhale a little amount of air to say ‘yes’, express agreement or simply indicate that they are following you. As in my language (and I think in the rest of the world) you make this sound when you are surprised, shocked or just got scared, at first I always looked around to see if something was wrong when a Swede made that sound! And it is hilarious to see them sitting around a table (for example, at work meetings or in a café) and sighing as if they have no air left in their lungs!

Another thing I have noticed is the way they tell the time. For example, they say 'halv tio’ (meaning ‘half an hour before 10’) for 9:30, whereas in English you say ‘half past 9’. It is like they think half an hour ahead! You have to be very careful when a Swede speaks English and does not pay too much attention at what they are saying. It happened to me more than once that a Swede told me to meet them at 4:30 (they said ‘half four’ and I thought they meant ‘half past four’) but they actually meant 3:30 (‘halv fyra’ in Swedish)!

Last but not least is the phrase that I find most annoying and also in this case it is when Swedes speak English: ‘do that’. It is the literal translation of ‘gör det’, which they basically use ALL THE TIME to acknowledge a fact that someone has just said. Let me give you an example: if Gustav and Mia are having a chat and Gustav is so nice to prepare some fika and said ‘Jag ska koka kaffe’ (= I’m going to make some coffee), Mia would reply ‘Gör det’. Mia actually means ‘Ok, I heard what you just said’ or ‘Go ahead with it’ and that would be the end of the conversation. HOWEVER, the first times someone told me to ‘do that’ I found it a bit bossy and I always thought to reply ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve just said’. But you can’t be mad at them, they are just trying to be kind!

That’s all folks! I leave you with a funny video about how Swedes say ‘yes’ in Umeå – enjoy it!

Puss,

Chiara

x

Hello guys! Here you have Danutė ’s video! As all of you can see, she comes prepared for the weather and she’s not scared of it! 

Everyone is looking forward to meet you, Danutė. I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time here in Borås!

Dear people of the world, 

Here you have the best of the best in Europe: Victor’s Video!! I am sorry to say I get confused and don’t know how to call you, Anastasios, Victor...

I had to make the video shorter so it fit, but there is more to come, here we go!

Hope you all enjoy!

Lidia

PS: We had some technical difficulties with the videos but they are fixed now. Enjoy!

Great news for everyone! We have yet another great video! This time is Cristian, who will join Chiara in Norrby from may and for a whole year, WOW! Lucky them. I don’t have to say much because everything that can be said it’s already on tape, so ENJOY and SEE YOU REALLY SOON!