(edit title) Native English speakers in Dalarna Are there any, if so, where do we meet? Options

[Garry Jones]

I am in Mora. Lived here since 1988. We are about 11 English guys living in Mora. I believe all but one has broken up with the women we moved here for. Most of the other lads get together for live football games and the like, but I find little time for that now as I work odd hours.

I am a Londoner, there are two more London lads here, then there are guys from Lancashire, Dorset, Brighton and Middelesboro. Plus a few more I can't place at the moment. There was an English woman who moved here about 11 years ago to a Swedish guy but I don't know what became of her. Another English lass (from Hull) lives outside Borlänge.

I have a fairly large contact network of expats down in Stockholm and often visit to get the feeling of a home from home. (Even I live Mora it's still nice to touch base).

Tomorrow I am off down to Stockholm to watch the England game at the Tudor Arms. www.tudorarms.se - Most of the lads I know will be around. For me that suffices nowadays, just a night or two in the Tudor a few times a year and I'm happy in Dalarna the rest of the year.

[akibobrob]

Hi. I moved to Säter last year and am loving the life here but don't have any contact with other native English speakers.

If anyone local fancies meeting up drop me a mail at akibobrob@gmail.com

[Dodgerman]

I studied SFI in Enköping for 3 months. I learnt a lot in the first two months and very little in the last month so I left. In the end there was only 2 or 3 people that were still there. I know that in Stockholm they have English and Arabic geared glasses where as in the smaller towns it is ALL in swedish. So you are forced to learn quickly and this is great. It has a downfall when it comes to structured sentences and when you are meant to say 'jobbet' instead of 'jobb' etc. I found this really difficult as being explained in Swedish when you already have no clue is extremely hard.

Try and get your partner to explain 'Bestemed Form' and 'Obestemed Form' as well as 'Bisats' and 'Huvuidsats'. My swedish partner and friends couldn't clearly explain this to me in english so it is a difficult thing.

My english friends have now opted for private lessons. In my opinion SFI is great, to a certain point. The majority of the people in my class were also getting paid to be there where I was not. This is an expensive country!

Anyways, I'm in the same boat here. I just moved to Västerås a month ago and it is difficult to make friends but I'm getting there slowly. If anyone is in the Västerås area I'd love to go out for a few beers!

[dgd]

Dear Jennifer (and others)

To answer your question, I am working for most of the year in London and looking for Finance/Auditing work in Sweden. My wife (Swedish) and daughter are living in Hedemora, so I travel a lot between London and Hedemora. I can speak some Swedish (on-line courses via babbel) but I really need to step it up a gear to learn properly. To be honest, if my Swedish was any good, then I think I've had a job in Sweden by now. That said, for most jobs in my field you need to be able to commute to Uppsala, Vasteras, or Stockholm.

I've had a few job interviews and when you get an interview this usually means that you're pretty close to getting the job. Most places, though, don't bother responding to applications written in English. Also recruitment processes literally take months - have applied for some jobs, forgotten about them, and then (months later) been called for an interview.

[Jenniferocious]

@Garry - Will have to check out the Tudor Arms when I'm in Stockholm. The one thing I knew I say gonna miss when I left England was traditional pubs - can't beat a steak pie and a few ales.

@Dodgerman - Yeah, I don't really understand a lot of the Swedish language rules, when I ask my partner why something is the way it is, his usual response is 'I don't know, it just is!'

@dgd - Hope you find something soon, can't be nice having to be away from your family like that. All my applications have been in English so far, only because I don't want to mislead people into thinking I can speak Swedish. However, I'm only applying for jobs like housekeeping/cleaning at the moment. Eventually I want to set up business as a massage therapist as this is what I'm trained in, although I might set up and advertise as English speaking only, I'm predicting that I won't get much business until I speak Swedish to a professional standard.