marshtide: (Parkvakten)
OMG! I have just been talking to party representatives, because it was my homework from school this week. It's all terribly exciting, you know.

I can now inform you that Folkpartiet's chosen representative does not believe discrimination exists, the lady from Moderaterna thought that I was making up the laws about trans people to fuck with her because they sounded so weird, and that Kristdemokraterna's motto is totally "We Don't Discriminate But [offensive statement]" and also "we have gay people in our party too!" - I suddenly understand the appeal of bingo cards that much better, and believe KD are nearing full house. (They also denied that they had ever voted against LGBT rights. It's always FOR someone else's rights. Usually for the right of straight rich white men to be bastards to everyone else. Or for the rights of THE CHILDREN. Cute, anyway.)

Centerpartiet's dude was vague and confused on any question that wasn't to do with the environment and I was interrupted in my talk with him by a woman who came by to tell him that he was evil because a farmer refused to give her milk when she was a child. I do not even know. Vänsterpartiet were absent with an apologetic little note on their door about understaffing and a phone number, Miljöpartiet were present and probably the most competent, volunteering a lot of information for each question (am admittedly biased), and Socialdemokraterna at least had an answer on hand for every question I asked (Miljöpartiet are the only other one who gave an answer which really was an answer in every case) - particularly, their lady had a lot to say about the education and work placement systems for immigrants.

Everyone agrees that the schools in this kommun are crap.

I spoke with Kristdemokraterna last out of a certainty that my conversation with them would end in speachless rage, which naturally it did. (A child needs one mother and one father! Because men and women are SO inherently different that a child without both will be warped forever, I guess. OK, they only said the part about being so different, not the part about warping forever, but you know. It was really quite heavily implied.)

Other highlights: Moderaterna's answer to my question as to what the most important environmental issues in the kommun are? "Traffic should go outside town. We're building a road."

...

O really.

& Kristdemokraterna's answer? "I'm afraid I can't talk about kommunal issues. But we're very good on the environment. A poll said so. We're as good as miljöpartiet!" ...I see. Uh... I am... feeling so convinced.

I must have earnt chocolate by now, right?

Mina öar

Sep. 14th, 2010 06:29 pm
marshtide: (Default)
1. I've just finished Mina öar. Other than me, one person on LibraryThing has read it. And I live with that person.

Aren't we just such special fucking snowflakes. ♥

Anyway, Birgitta Stenberg. She's pretty cool, I think. If people have read her books even in Swedish they're probably the ones about her earlier life - which I haven't read about yet but I gather involved lots of sex and drugs in various parts of Europe. This book is about her later life on an island off the west coast of Sweden, Åstol. Mostly there's local in-fighting and fishermen who talk about god a lot, but I was thoroughly engaged. (I also recognised quite a bit of it. Different small community, some of the same things...)

Random:

Några år senare hade vi hittat en annan båt, R-yachten, som gjorde oss yra av gladje. Lholo sålde vi till en tändläkare som berättade att han tänkte kalla den Dentina. Vi nickade bifall, mycket nöjda med att han inte var gynekolog.


...indeed. (They got a new boat, so they sold the old one. To a dentist! Who said he thought he would call it Dentina! They are very glad that he isn't a gynecologist. As I think we all should be.)



2. My exam is Probably Almost Definitely next Wednesday. I did practice tests last week and got them back today: almost perfect on everything but the writing, which was... you know, OK for SFI. I would say you have no idea how much it pains me to write those words, but I believe many of you have a comprehensive understanding, actually. I can definitely write better but then again I'd never written a formal letter before. Or been told how to write one.

I would really like to be done with SFI now so I can move on to being stressed over the next stage, possibly in a new locale!

I keep thinking that I should post in Swedish sometimes.

Then I get scared and run away from the idea.
marshtide: (Snufkin - The traveller)
I'm really enjoying Birgitta Stenberg, although the book in question contains a lot of sailing and weather related words which are thoroughly specialised and need looking up, because seriously, I have not yet learnt the Swedish words west-coast fishermen use to talk about different types of wind. (Obviously a great failing of Sfi.) But she's both really interesting and really funny, and I recognise the sort of community she describes.


Yesterday our main teacher took me aside and said that she thought I should take the national test soon. I sort of freaked out at that point and my brain just went into a loop of "me! test! now? me? test! test?? now??? me?!" so I am actually not entirely clear on when. Possibly next week, or in a couple of weeks, or something like that. I'll seek clarification today. It is, in any case, soon enough that I've been shifted to doing test papers in class instead of the regular stuff, which means I am spared further political debate for the moment.

There is an up-side to this, which is basically that Sfi is too easy for me, and I'd been resigned to being vaguely bored and getting as much listening and speaking practice in as possible over the next few months until I could take the test; the next level should be more appropriate.

There is a possible downside to this too though: I'd hoped to get a work placement with the library via Sfi, and there obviously isn't time now. I'm going to have to ask if I can still get that sort of placement with the next level of education (SAS, svenska som andra språk, swedish as a second language), because otherwise, the only other way to get any such thing is via the jobcentre.

And jumping through the jobcentre's hoops is a whole world of OH GOD NO.

I really want that placement though!
marshtide: (Lake)
At school, they're determined that we must talk Swedish with people who we don't know, which is a fair point. The chosen method of making this happen is to have us write questions to go and ask the party representatives who're hanging out in booths in the centre of town right now and trying to convince people to vote for them. We're doing this next Thursday, apparently.

I don't suppose "why are you such bastards?" is quite the sort of question they have in mind, is it.

...oh well.

Actually, though, I am having the most terrible difficulty with the question-writing side of things, because my mind wants to make it into some kind of complex political assignment as opposed to a test of our ability to ask a simple question to a stranger and hopefully understand the answer. Somehow it feels as though this right here sums up many of the problems I tend to experience with education.

And life.



Non-election news: my brain is a slightly terrible place right now; I'm reading a book by a Swedish author called Birgitta Stenberg and would share her gleefully with all of you if her books existed in English; yesterday I used hair-clippers for the first time and everyone involved still has the same number of limbs etc. that they started with; putting pressure on myself while I know damn well I'm sick doesn't go well and only I am surprised by this.

But!

Sep. 1st, 2010 06:00 pm
marshtide: (Snufkin - The traveller)
You'll be pleased to know, though, that today I sat between a woman who is an active supporter of socialdemokraterna (social democrats) and a woman who is not sure if she will vote for miljöpartiet (greens) or vänsterpartiet (the left party). This made me feel considerably better, after various run-ins with kristdemokraterna (creepy "family values" bastards christian democrats) supporters and such over the last few days in school. We had a conversation about social justice! In terrible, terrible Swedish! On the other hand, in election terms, I do wish the polls were looking better for the red-green bunch...

In queer feminism news I also have to say that I'm finding Maud Lindström wildly theraputic at the moment. I'm almost tempted to make a project out of translating her lyrics, because man, does she ever get it. How certain experiences feel, really. And she's hilarious. I do like it when people are both right and hilarious. ♥
marshtide: (Default)
Today we began with the politics thing. The extremely erratic discussion ended with a guy from Congo defending Sverigedemokraterna, aka the Thieving Immigrant Bastards Go Home party, while the teacher stared in some kind of fascinated disbelief.

Then we had adverb practice! We were divided into two groups - men and women. "Write down adverbs that describe what you would like in a partner! In groups!" said the teacher hopefully. "So what would your ideal husband be like?" I was asked. "A lesbian," I said, rather sulkily, I admit, because this is a point I have now been trying to make for some time. Apparently a hilarious joke! Ha ha how she kids us. Like any nice girl would actually be with a woman! Ha ha. So anyway, they got on with a list while I wished for tea (preferably with booze in, by that stage); they would like their husbands to be rich, strong, brave, manly, handsome, etc. Then we switched lists to see what the two different groups had written! Do you want to guess what the first two things on the list the guys had written were? Do you?

"Modest" and "patient".

It continued in much the same vein. "Shy" and "young" also made appearances.

Now I am home, and still feeling vaguely traumatised. Can I please have that tea with booze in? Or maybe just booze?

Um.

Aug. 26th, 2010 09:19 pm
marshtide: (Default)
SFI is currently using themes which run for three weeks each. Our last one was, uncontroversially, "study techniques".

Our next one is "the 2010 election".

...

We're going to have debates.

...

One guy has already announced that his sister works for Folkpartiet ("The People's Party", right-wing) so we should all vote for them.

...

This is going to go so well. And I am totally not going to get angry at all.

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