SwedenInTouch - Blogs http://www.swedenintouch.se/Blogs/ http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ I found a wiki page for explaining the work precess of studera.nu,since many students are asking the question about the messgae released from studera.nu,they dont understand the items or short Mark like SG means, and as the new applicants who dont really know the admission procedures behind studera.nu at the very beginning, this webpage will help you so much, after you read this page, you will have a deep view of the Swedish national admission system nowadays. For me, the tough application work in last year already gone, but I remember when I was applying the current programme I also concerned the studera.nu nearly everyday for expecting the status alter. Good luck with you guys! Any questions, be free to ask here before my memory on it hasnt gone! http://wiki.andreineculau.com/Studera.nu_National_Admissions_to_Higher_Studies_in_Sweden pic source from the wiki page http://www.swedenintouch.se/Charles-Lau/Blog/?entryid=1960 Charles Lau Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:55:52 GMT Before I flew to this Nordic land, I always imagined everything I would live with here, everything in your imagination seemed to be wonderful, the green grass and colorful flowers along with the clean and endless trail; the buildings, not so high, but modest and unsophisticated; the sky, always blue and closed; sunshine, warm and natural… After you really first set foot on this land, you may find the differences as your image before, grass isfairly green,even yellow, winter is long and full of darkness, limited sunshine and cold corner...... You may also feel homesick soon or lonely when you have nothing to do in the slient nights. fortunately,my girlfriend always be with me, but sometimes you two people still feel empty in heart, 24 hrs is really long time, you shuld try to find some funy things to do, like watching movie, for example, we students can get a very good discount in the fim station like SF, We went there and enjoyed an amazing movie by Meryl Streep,we like this lady very much, wa watched many of her moives before, now she is back again. And her excellent performance in this film "Julie & Julia" surperised us! And the nice dish made by her also attracts my girlfriend, and after the movie, we went to the city library and borrow the book "Mastering the Art of French cooking" and we cooked the BOEUF BOURGUISNON (Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions and Mushrooms) accroding to the recipe, that was an amazing attempt. Although Streep didnt get the Best actress in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards yesrterday, but the role she played in the movie makes our life abroad colorful just like Julia Child alone in Paris.....She never gave up and grew her own career.... http://www.swedenintouch.se/Charles-Lau/Blog/?entryid=1959 Charles Lau Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:32:20 GMT One thing that I love with beeing a student in Sweden are the fantastic libraries! I have finally found the students library in Malmö and it's amazing! You can see the harbour and the sea when you are up there -it's on the 5th floor. (p.s: the image is not from this library;) The city library is nice too, I have been going there so far because it's closer;) But from now on I will take my bycicle and ride all the way to the harbour! I think it's much easier to focus when I am not sitting in my own home trying to write or read.Because I always find things to do and get distracted easily. Also, I get very tired of beeing home all day long when I don't have class. So my advice is; Use the brilliant libraries and take breakes with a cup of the! This way writing a masters thesis feels less painful- it can even be kind of fun because you're in a nice environment with other people around you doing the same;) http://www.swedenintouch.se/Malin-Fluri/Blog/?entryid=1958 Malin Fluri Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:48:27 GMT Do u knw who was vinci?? http://www.swedenintouch.se/Noor-Mohammad/Blog/?entryid=1957 Noor Mohammad Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:49:41 GMT Though Swedish, you could still check your choice with the course number! KTH: http://intra.itm.kth.se/polopoly_fs/1.31498!100125_ans%C3%B6kningar_online.pdf CTH: https://document.chalmers.se/workspaces/chalmers/administration-och/studieadministration/statistik-ladok/masterht10 Good luck! I applied CTH, GU, (Complex Systems) , UU (Computational Sci) and BTH (Math Mods). Hope see you guys in Sweden! http://www.swedenintouch.se/Chris-He/Blog/?entryid=1955 Chris He Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:10 GMT So my next stop was Kalmar, Högalids Folkhögskola. After I studied swedish for 3 years at home university, passed the exam, I applied for a scholarship from SI (Svenska Institutet), the courses were administrated by this organization and actually this site was started by this organization. So I was granted a scholarship, that included a semester study at Folkhögskola. Folkhögskola is not a usual school, it is a school that have very different courses, for example my school had very strong music program. Högalids Folkhögskola also has such courses as sports, general education, adult education, swedish for immigrants and education for people with disabilities. I think Folhögskola is one of those advantages that Sweden posseses when talking about education and thinking about people with different abilities, swedes are very considered of others and one should admit that. I studied general education or behörighet. I lived at the dormitory, although you can't actually call it a dormitory, it was those famous swedish red houses where i lived with 7 other swedes, it was an awesome and unforgetable experience and I was lucky to get to know those people. The conditions we lived in were very good, we had a kitchen with all the supplies, we had a living room with tv, dvd and mantelpiece...it was a very nice house. I took a lot of classes so not to waste my stay. I took history, english, svenska A and svenska B, samhälle/society and religion. I tried to read a lot, but , actually, language improvement came from the communication with swedes, as they helped with my pronounciation and all the slang. It was challenging in the beginning because my swedish wasn't that good, especially an oral part but everyone was very understandable to me and after a certain period of time I became more comfortable and confident, I wasn't anymore afraid to be misunderstood and didn't think it was bad to reask if I didn't catch something. I made a lot of friends and communicate with many of them still, and I think it was the most important part from stay there, Jag utvecklades som en person och inte bara förbättrade min svenska. I grew as a person and not just spent my time on improving my swedish. The biggest discovery this time was fika/coffee pause. I had never even thought that there is a certain part of a day, during which one can rest and socialize with a help of good coffee. I always was a fan of coffee, but after my stayings in Sweden, I became an addict..although it is not a bad point but a very pleasant one, haha.. Here I started to understand and absorb swedish mentality. I watched how they communicate, what is appropriate and what is not, I noticed how I changed during my stay, I started to buy cloth than is more reserved but practical, in more patient colors and all these scarfs..what was also interesting is that my name is Lina, which is quite common name in Sweden. In Russia, Lina is a very rare name, I don't know where my parents took this name from but...sometimes I eve think there is kind of a destiny in my name - name brought me to sweden and I fell in love with this country and its people. I was lucky to spend my time in Kalmar, as Kalmar is considered to be important historical city. Kalmar Slott was one of my favourite places, there you could feel the history and breathe with a fresh air of the sea. I actually had a chance to get into the Slott itself and was told all the scary stories about people that were tortured there, but this fearful part doesn't neglect the power of swedish kingdom in the medieaval time. Unfortunately, time went by fast and time for me to go home came soon, I was very upset, got a lot of presents from schools and those people that I became friends with, was hugged a lot and a lot of tears watered my eyes. But I learned a lot and those people and that place that introduced Sweden to me will always be in my heart. http://www.swedenintouch.se/Lina-Azarova/Blog/?entryid=1954 Lina Azarova Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:45:46 GMT Friends, let's share our views concerning the topic. Where did you give your documents? Which universities? Which faculties? Spasibo bolshoe! Thank you for participating) http://www.swedenintouch.se/Oksana-Dorofeeva/Blog/?entryid=1953 Oksana Dorofeeva Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:46:16 GMT I have realized that they start to sell stuff for eastern in all the shops; It's the time! All the chocolate in different colored wrappings and all the nice candy...and paskmust (the same you get for Christmas but with a different lable;)! I think this year I will make my own egg and fill it with candy and hide somewhere...you can buy them too but it's fun to color them! Also, I went to an exhibition where they showed hand painted real eastern eggs- soooo much work behind these patterns! I have booked a train ticket to Uppsala since my little sister is coming to Sweden to visit my grandma. It's going to be so nice to come back to Uppsala. I miss this town in a way becaude it's where I started my journey:) And also because I have a lot of my friends there...It's nice to keep in touch and get the chance to meet eachother! What are your plans for eastern this year? http://www.swedenintouch.se/Malin-Fluri/Blog/?entryid=1952 Malin Fluri Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:36:46 GMT Since I referred to the evening Swedish course at school in the previous entry, I have been asked about the information about studying Swedish course in Stockholm as an international student, actually, I really don’t have more information on it, so I only can share my experiences in the courses I have studied before, there are the courses separately by KTH (Kungliga Tekniska högskolan), SU (Stockholm Universitet), and SFI (Svenska för invandrare)in Solna. I think my limited experiences may just help a little to the new students in Stockholm, I really hope the friends who know more about it can add useful information after my writing. Before I decided to study Swedish, I thought a lot, when I was in Finland, I spent 3 yrs in a small city named Vaasa, I took two basic Finnish language courses as my optional, but the limited knowledge of Finnish didn’t help me so much to my stay in Finland, when I found the local language was very important, I was ready to leave Finland, so after I came to Sweden, I have always been positive to ask the Swedish courses for new international students, finally I got the fast and friendly replies from schools or organization which offer the Swedish language education, during the past months from last September, I attended some lectures by different organizations, now I think I can give some feedback and the right and proper way to apply for them. http://www.nordiska.su.se/pub/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=9441 titled: Swedish for International Students (@SU) Go to the page, follow the instruction to apply, no need to teach here, only some tips I wanna remind you; 1. The strict deadline: before 15 May (Autumn Semester) or before 15 October (Spring Semester) 2. The fixed target group: only the student admitted by Stockholm University 3. The serious and strict office lady: Eva, hope you find a right time to meet her. Yes, you may ask why you a KTH student can take the course at SU, yes, that’s the tricky part, actually my girl friend is the student @ SU, for the beginner level, that’s a huge lecture hall including more than hundred students, of course, my gf is the formal student inside the class,me, the relative of formal student, silently sit among the people, nobody care who you are…..my purpose is just to learn the basic of Swedish, I don’t care about the credit. Information on the courses: http://www.nordiska.su.se/content/1/c6/03/60/47/swedish_for_international_students_spring10.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://language.lib.kth.se/first_en.asp titled: Swedish level 1 ~ 5 One of my current evenings Swedish courses, held in KTH main campus, still some things to remind: 1. Priority to the exchange students 2. Earlier credits points needed: first year international students must fulfill the requirement of at least 30 ECTs studies in your own programme, second year students need to present 60ECTs. 3. Online placement test provided. As the student of KTH, I actually failed to apply for this course twice, so this is a really popular and good course that attracts so many foreign students at KTH. When my third time application, I took the online placement test, and 40points directly sent me to the advanced beginner courses, before the third time application, I spent 4 months in SFI (twice a week) and got my basic knowledge in Swedish. But be very careful with the online placement test, you must complete all 100 questions to submit your exam, the uncompleted exam will not be accepted. I made this mistake and finally got zero. Information on the courses: http://language.lib.kth.se/assets/files/SwedishCoursesTimeTable.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://international.stockholm.se/Business-and-statistics/Live-work-or-study/SFI---Swedish-for-immigrants/ titled: Swedish for Immigrates Before I succeeded in applying for the Swedish course @KTH, I took a basic Swedish evening lecture by SFI for several months; it really helped me in the very beginning of studying in Swedish. Tips: 1. Personal ID needed, a number like 880620-5xxx, not T or A number from your school. 2. Strict and sensitive region division: your registered address @ Tax office decides which SFI you should go in the fixed area. The students who move out from the current area will be immediately kicked out of the SFI in this area. 3. A long absence without the proper reasons will cause qualification exemption of study. I am always taking the evening Swedish course in Solna SFI every Monday and Thursday. I started from a kind of introduction course which gave you an overview of all the grammar points that would be taught in the formal lectures in the future. I am in C level class, and there are three different study paths to follow at SFI. These are called (A & B), (B & C) and (C & D), A grammar course will be given both on Monday and Thursday, the Reading course and vocabulary&Writing course will be mixed between Monday and Thursday. And teaching quality really depends on which area you are living in, because SFI got a big problem for matching different students' educational backgrounds with an appropriate study program, but now it seems to be better than before, they even introduce the “SFI bonus” to the graduates for encouraging them to study harder and faster, and to pass the final exam on time. If you’d like to challenge your own ability in Swedish outside school, you can also download the previous exam papers with different levels and test yourself at home, its all free of charge! 1. Go to page http://www.skolverket.se/ 2. Click the “Prov & bedömning” in the navigation bar 3. Choose “nationella prov” in the left list and “sfi” in the middle of the window 4. Choose “Tidigare prov” as you can see in the page and download. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are also some universities outside Stockholm can provide the Swedish courses, full-time or part-time, some of the courses can even promise you the extend resident permit with student Visa, for example, at Linköping University and Umeå University, they both provide the full-time Swedish language program for one or 1.5 yrs. Two of my good friends already graduated from that program and now continue with a Swedish Bachelor education. Students can have two chances in a year (April and October) to apply for them, the admission can extend your student Visa to promise you the further study in Sweden. Read more information,click the link: http://www.studyinsweden.se/Learn-Swedish/University-courses-in-Sweden/ At last, I advice all the beginners with studying Swedish like me, can go out your room, talk Swedish to your neighbors, friends or even the strangers who speak Swedish, we are in such a good language environment, why don’t we make good use of it? http://www.swedenintouch.se/Charles-Lau/Blog/?entryid=1951 Charles Lau Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:39:41 GMT Dear friends, I am doing my MSc in Mechanical Engg. at IISC,Bangalore,India. And i am planning to do Phd in combustion engg. in sweden. But for this i need preparation. basically I am needing Kiva-3v source code, which was free previously.Now it is out of reach.Can anybody please provide me this code.This code is avilable to students studying at Chalmers University under Dr. Valeri I. Golovitchev. Please help me out http://www.swedenintouch.se/giridhari-behera/Blog/?entryid=1950 giridhari behera Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:52:48 GMT Dear All, If you want summer jobs in sweden, stockholm. please viist my blog bellow, here we are giving full details of part time and full time jobs and internships in sweden and europe. http://swedenjobs.blogspot.com/ http://www.swedenintouch.se/BaBa-Kroner/Blog/?entryid=1949 BaBa Kroner Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:29:38 GMT Hej again to people here~ I am going to continue to share with you my experience here as a freemover student. After I was admitted to Dalarna University, the 1st thing I needed to do was to apply for a student visa in the Consulate General of Sweden Hong Kong. Things required: 1) a completed application form, 2) passport, 3) 1 or 2 photo(s) and 4) financial statements from my banks showing that I had enough money to support my living in Sweden during the period of my studies, which meant: 7,300 kr x 10 months x number of years of programme/course. In my case, that was: 7,300 kr x 10 x 3 = 210,000 kr, as my programme lasts for 3 years. I submitted the application form by hand on around 26 June and got the visa (valid till September 2010) on 10 August, exactly right before my departure for Europe. As to studying abroad is a totally NEW experience for me, I went through the guidelines for international students in our school website to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything important (e.g. accommodation, free pick-up service, registration deadline, etc.). There was also information about how to get a student apartment/dorm. There were links to property agencies from which we could get a student apartment/dorm. Actually, before I got my student visa, in order to secure accommodation in Falun (where my school is located), I had followed the instructions and paid a deposit (for a student dorm with a monthly rate of 2266 kr) before a specified deadline (which was 30 June, 2009). I also booked online the free pick-up service offered by our university. Moreover, I made sure I knew the usernames and passwords for services of my bank cards so that I can perform money transfer online or money withdrawal at autoteller machines in Sweden. Certainly I needed to pack my luggages as well. That was a REALLY BIG JOB!! I filled 1 large luggage and 1 small luggage full, not to mention I sent a 20kg parcel by ship to my dorm in Sweden. I printed everything I might need (such as bank statement, admission letter, etc.) and headed to the airport. I was to change my plane at the Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam and sooooooo surprisingly, the staff there didn’t ask me any questions after he learned that I was going to Finland. They even didn’t flip over my passport! Haa.. (I was especially feeling happy and surprised coz just months earlier, I had a really sad experience in the Heathrow airport in London where the lady there would like to reject me from entering London even though I would be immediately boarding on another plane for Stockholm. I really felt like I was a beggar at that time!! So, with my 2 heavy luggages & my bag, I arrived Falun for my 1st time, by train. I spotted the school representatives who were to pick us up, together with a few schoolmates. And soon, I met the 1st schoolmate I know, who is also a Chinese girl. The school representatives arranged a guy to drive the Chinese girl and me to the student building in which we are living now. We queued for keys and purchase of internet cards. I even asked the staff in the student office in the building where I could buy internet cable and how I could go to school by bus. Finally it was time for us to move in to our dorm & settle down!! Hurray~~ :D (Caption for photo: my ferry/cruise from Finland (Turku/Abo) to Stockholm) http://www.swedenintouch.se/Wing-Yan-Mak/Blog/?entryid=1948 Wing Yan Mak Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:26:58 GMT I wish you all a lovely weekend! http://www.swedenintouch.se/Malin-Fluri/Blog/?entryid=1947 Malin Fluri Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:10:47 GMT Every year it's the same question; summer job or vacation?!? Since students are off from University for about three month (june-august)most of us have to work in order to make it through the summer. This year I am not sure if I should be working so much as past years since I will have to start working anyway in september and I would love to have some vacation. I decided to still apply for summerjobs and if I manage to get something I might take it anyway. But at least there is some time left to decide....and it's not easy to get a job since everybody is looking for one!!! So start now if you want to get something;) Summerjobs you can find under www.arbetsförmedlingen.se - sommarjobb. If you don't manage to get one, well there is a lot of fun stuff to do in Sweden furing summertime like music festivals or enjoying the countryside while swimming in the sea and watching out for not beeing eaten up by moscitos;) http://www.swedenintouch.se/Malin-Fluri/Blog/?entryid=1946 Malin Fluri Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:09:29 GMT It is such a coincidence that my activities during this week always related to ‘working environment’, or something like that. First, I have started a new course named Human Motivation in Organizational Behavior. We discussed a lot about what motivate human to work, analyzing this and that theories, and compared it with the realities. We had a nice discussion, I am glad to see that my Swedish classmates are critical and actively involved in it, whereas I heard before that Swedish is usually shy. Second encounter is in my Swedish as Foreign Language class. After learning about the confusing grammar, we read a text about “yrken I Sverige”, meaning job in Sweden. We were amazed with the average amount of wages each profession get…! But I don’t know if what was stated in the book is the amount after the tax implied or before.. In the same class, we came into interesting discussion about which one is more important in pursuing a job: Salary, working environment, opportunity for self-growth, or what else? The answer is varied, and I found something interesting: for those who came from developing country (including me), we considered that salary is more important, even if we compare with the working environment. Like, if we have a nice salary but very bad manager, we will try to keep up with the condition, because it’s not easy to find a new job. While those from developed country believe it is better to leave the job to find another which will satisfy all of their need, not only financial but also the other. Well, there is no right or wrong answer for that kind of question. We answer it based on our own condition I guess. Unfortunately we didn’t have opinion from the Swedish on that discussion (obviously, because we’re in the class only for international student. And our teacher remained neutral back then ^^)… I would love to hear about their opinion also. Then, I had a study visit to Samverk, it’s kind of social organization that work with “children with special need”. As I’m studying psychology, it was interesting to see how they work. Here they are more organized and active in helping those children, and most of all their service is free of charge...! So much different with my country, who cannot manage to give free service for those children. The last one, I attended a job fair held by student union of my university. They named it STARK-dagen. It was held in the campus’s corridor and canteen. More than thirty companies open a booth there. It is said that the student could communicate with the employers and build network there. Well, I wasn’t hoping to get a job from that event actually, since I’m only an exchange student, I still need to go back to my home country to graduate and continue to Master (I wish).. But it still nice to talk with some of them, knowing about their company. I even found some companies that work in the field I’m interested in, such as hospital and NGO. And of course, what I enjoy the most from the job fair was…. Their generosity on giving free candies and chocolates and goodies…! Each booth always have a mountain of candy/chocolates in their table, ready to be grabbed by some opportunist people (pointing to herself *grin*). No, but I was a little bit embarrassed to take the candies too much, so I only took one or two after seeing the booth and reading the information about the companies. So they know the nature of us, student then. Even though we are about to enter the adult world, we’re still a kid who will attracted to anything with candies and chocolates attached in it… ^^ *The picture was taken by me on the STARK-dagen event http://www.swedenintouch.se/Tanti-Kosmiyati-Kostaman/Blog/?entryid=1945 Tanti Kosmiyati Kostaman Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:23:27 GMT