We are so excited to be working alongside Bee Swedish on this new opportunity. For as long as I’ve been working with newbie families arriving in Stockholm, learning a language has been the biggest issue for many “accompanying spouses”. If you’ve read any of my blog posts or op-eds on life abroad, you’ll know that the welfare of women and men accompanying their spouse abroad, or caring for a family abroad is super important to us. Being able to learn a language at the earliest possible stage of the move abroad (whilst caring for a young family) is key to speeding up the process of integration and, eventually, successful entry into the labour market.

 

My personal experience of learning a language whilst caring for a young baby was that it is impossible. Especially, whilst attending SFI (Svensk för invandrare) or Folkuniversitetet. No amount of motivation or perseverance would have helped me learn Swedish whilst being away from my child or trying to sort out childcare during the day.

 

Bee Swedish’s family friendly group training programme is SUCH a revolution… allowing parents to participate in learning Swedish in a baby friendly environment with a proper curriculum. Small groups, measurable progress and experienced teachers. The initial group session is designed for False Beginners, individuals who have some knowledge of Swedish but who need some structure to build a solid foundation to learn the language. The pace of learning will be a little slower to allow for anything and everything that happens when small children are involved. The maximum number of participants will be 6 people.

 

We’re DELIGHTED to offer our readers, 10% off this brilliant course for parents learning Swedish. All you have to do is enter the code “BEARSWEDISH” on the registration page.

 

Format:

Small group of 4 – 6 participants, ensuring personalised feedback, all errors corrected, help with pronunciation, and plenty of opportunity to speak. Focus on all skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing.

Content:

 

  • Introduce yourself, your background, work and family.

  • The alphabet, number, the time, address, phone number, age.

  • Social phrases, introducing yourself, asking about well-being

  • Everyday shopping, food, making orders in cafés and restaurants.

  • Hobbies and interests, making plans.

  • Commenting and expressing interest, empathy, etc.

  • The infinitive, imperative, present and past tenses.

  • Pronouns (subject, object, possessive).

  • Negation, word order in main clauses (questions and statement). Adverbs for frequency.

  • Nouns, singular and plural, indefinite, definite.

  • Demonstrative pronouns.

  • Auxiliary verbs, introduction to phrasal verbs.

 

Course literature:

Rivstart A1A2 (Levy-Scherrer & Lindemalm) 2014. Course literature is not included in the course fee, and can be bought from an independent retailer (please budget 700 SEK for this), or from Bee Swedish (1000 SEK including VAT 6 %).

 

Number of hours: 12

 

Number of sessions: 8

 

Target level: A1

 

Teacher: Sofi Tegsveden Deveaux. Sofi has 9 years of experience teaching Swedish as a foreign language, and she is very popular with her students because of her logical explanations, ability to create communicative exercises relating to theory, and sense of humour.

 

Dates & Times:

Tuesdays at 10.00 – 11.30

Start Tuesday 16:th January, 8 weekly sessions

 

Location:

Bee Swedish AB, at Embassy House, Folkungagatan 44, Stockholm (metro station Medborgarplatsen or Mariatorget).

 

Price: 4500 (including VAT 25 %). Payment per invoice in advance. Minus Littlebearabroad’s 10% discount code.

 

Registration: through the Bee Swedish registration page or email hej@beeswedish.com

 

Please note that the course will not start if we have fewer than 4 participants registered. A full re-fund will be given in that case.