This morning, I waited outside the door to the classroom exactly at 8, together with two other classmates. Before long, more and more classmates showed up but still no sign of the teacher. We, including some women in their late 50s or even 60s and a pregnant lady, waited for half an hour and yet he didn't turn up. People started complaining about having to wait all the time and I have to agree with them. This was not the first time the teacher has been late. Anyway, after 40 minutes, we all decided to leave. It's really not nice of him to make us wait.
But apart from this incident, school has been quite good. After my last post about SFI, things have gotten better in school. The teacher has taught us a lot more and there were more text passages for us to read and understand. I feel like I have made progress in class. I'm also sitting next to a woman from Iraq and we speak Swedish to each other. While our conversations are not at all fluent or in proper Swedish, we do try our best to understand each other.
I started off speaking quite haltingly with her but I am beginning to be more fluent and our conversations are now longer and more detailed. This is very important since it forces me to speak more Swedish. I find that I am quite good at reading. I am an avid reader and I read everything around me, even though I might not understand. I am attracted to words, I guess. So, I am quite confident of my reading skills. However, I am still not good with listening and speaking. And this is very evident when I had to sit for a test a few days ago.
That day, a few of us got called out of the class. The team leader and our teacher explained that we were doing Course C now. Some of the other people in the class are also doing the same course while others are doing the B course. Some are going on to course D after this, while some will stop at the end of course C. This depends on the educational level we have attained back in our countries. For me, I am doing course C and D.
Then, we were given a test to see how far we've gotten. I was quite surprised to be tested so soon, especially when it's supposed to determine if we are at the halfway point of our course. I have only been in school for 11 weeks. Isn't that too early to see if I am halfway through the course? I felt like I still have so much more to learn. But I sat for the test anyway.
The test was so tough! Much, much tougher than what we usually tackle in class. I had to read three different text types - a diagram, an information sheet and a newspaper article. There were so many words I didn't understand and have never seen but I managed to make sense out of what I read. Then, I had to answer some questions based on the texts. I managed to get almost everything correct -I got two questions wrong.
Once done, the teachers looked at my results and we discussed my progress. Actually they were talking to me and each other while I just nod or shook my head. They are satisfied that my reading and writing skills are there but when I was asked to answer some questions, much like the Oral Examinations I used to administer to my students when I was teaching back home (my, how the tables have turned), I wasn't able to speak so fluently. Many times I had to use English to put my thoughts across. Not good, and I knew it myself. So I have been given another date for me to show my progress in speaking - 21 Feb. I guess I have to step up my efforts and make sure I am more fluent and confident when I speak.
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