Swedish competence
Jun. 16th, 2009 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livVarious experiences speaking Swedish in the last couple of days. I'm sort of annoyed that I'm not going to get a chance to improve more, because I'm just starting to feel comfortable with the language, but hey.
I was getting a bit nervous about my delivery company, because I kept asking for written confirmation of the estimated price and agreed collection time, and getting back either no answer or a very vague answer like "Don't worry, it's all ok". So yesterday I phoned them and spoke to a real human being and nagged him to actually promise me drivers were coming today. And we had a sensible conversation in Swedish, though I messed up expressions of time, which are the bane of my life, but anyway I made myself clear, and my eavesdropping colleagues were impressed how far my Swedish has improved. (Having said that, the collection did in fact happen smoothly this morning, they gave me adequate notice of the lorry showing up, which was just after I'd sealed the final box, and were helpful and efficient. And they sent me a plausible invoice for the agreed amount, which I have now paid. Now all I need is a definite delivery date for next week!)
Then today I had to go and sort things out at the bank. I tried to pay in some money which was paid to me in cash by the Progressive community. This is not in any way a tax dodge, all the taxes are absolutely correct, it's just that my account wasn't playing nicely with the community account, so it had to be an envelope full of 500:- notes (approx £50) which made me feel like a drug dealer. Anyway the machine ate my money and didn't give me a receipt for it or cause the figure to show up on my account. So I panicked at a nice bank lady, which happened in English because I was panicking, and she sorted it out, and they retrieved my multiple £50 notes from the bowels of the machine.
Then I went to do the business I'd actually come for, which was to close the account and get the money transferred to my English bank account, but not yet, because I'm waiting for my final month's salary and a fairly substantial tax rebate. I described the problem in Swedish (having prepared what I was going to say), and we initially discussed in Swedish what I should do. And that was fine except I stupidly said "right" in English to confirm I'd understood. Basically it's more of a grunt than a word, I forgot I needed to translate it, so then the teller switched to English. It turns out that contrary to what I was told at another branch, I can easily and cheaply transfer the money myself, and I can also easily close the account via letter from England, so I don't have to worry about the mismatch between me leaving the country and my final payments coming in.
Then a random Greenpeace campaigner accosted me and asked me what I think about Greenpeace. Because I was so proud of myself for understanding what she said to me, I forgot to actually parse the content and tell the annoying chugger to go away. So I gave her my actual opinion, which was that saving the environment is an admirable goal, but I am not a fan of Greenpeace's anti-science attitude. So we debated this a bit; she obviously had a script she was working from, but I was able to give her sensible responses and express my views meaningfully.
Finally I went to the tax office to hand in a form saying, I'm leaving Sweden, please stop taxing me. There's a section of the form which asks how long you're planning to be abroad for, and I couldn't remember the word for "indefinitely" so I said "eternally" instead. (This is what happens when you go about learning Swedish by reading parallel text prayer books and Bibles!) Anyway the tax office lady laughed at me in a kind of "aren't you cute" way.
To cheer myself up after all this ending stuff, I bought a huge gelato, with chilli-choc and raspberry, which was very yummy. Now I'm waiting for a text from Screwy to let me know he's on his way. Don't expect me around a whole lot before the weekend, between guests and last minute sorting out and travelling I'm not going to have a lot of time.
Thanks so much for all your encouragement when I was feeling defeated by the packing!
I was getting a bit nervous about my delivery company, because I kept asking for written confirmation of the estimated price and agreed collection time, and getting back either no answer or a very vague answer like "Don't worry, it's all ok". So yesterday I phoned them and spoke to a real human being and nagged him to actually promise me drivers were coming today. And we had a sensible conversation in Swedish, though I messed up expressions of time, which are the bane of my life, but anyway I made myself clear, and my eavesdropping colleagues were impressed how far my Swedish has improved. (Having said that, the collection did in fact happen smoothly this morning, they gave me adequate notice of the lorry showing up, which was just after I'd sealed the final box, and were helpful and efficient. And they sent me a plausible invoice for the agreed amount, which I have now paid. Now all I need is a definite delivery date for next week!)
Then today I had to go and sort things out at the bank. I tried to pay in some money which was paid to me in cash by the Progressive community. This is not in any way a tax dodge, all the taxes are absolutely correct, it's just that my account wasn't playing nicely with the community account, so it had to be an envelope full of 500:- notes (approx £50) which made me feel like a drug dealer. Anyway the machine ate my money and didn't give me a receipt for it or cause the figure to show up on my account. So I panicked at a nice bank lady, which happened in English because I was panicking, and she sorted it out, and they retrieved my multiple £50 notes from the bowels of the machine.
Then I went to do the business I'd actually come for, which was to close the account and get the money transferred to my English bank account, but not yet, because I'm waiting for my final month's salary and a fairly substantial tax rebate. I described the problem in Swedish (having prepared what I was going to say), and we initially discussed in Swedish what I should do. And that was fine except I stupidly said "right" in English to confirm I'd understood. Basically it's more of a grunt than a word, I forgot I needed to translate it, so then the teller switched to English. It turns out that contrary to what I was told at another branch, I can easily and cheaply transfer the money myself, and I can also easily close the account via letter from England, so I don't have to worry about the mismatch between me leaving the country and my final payments coming in.
Then a random Greenpeace campaigner accosted me and asked me what I think about Greenpeace. Because I was so proud of myself for understanding what she said to me, I forgot to actually parse the content and tell the annoying chugger to go away. So I gave her my actual opinion, which was that saving the environment is an admirable goal, but I am not a fan of Greenpeace's anti-science attitude. So we debated this a bit; she obviously had a script she was working from, but I was able to give her sensible responses and express my views meaningfully.
Finally I went to the tax office to hand in a form saying, I'm leaving Sweden, please stop taxing me. There's a section of the form which asks how long you're planning to be abroad for, and I couldn't remember the word for "indefinitely" so I said "eternally" instead. (This is what happens when you go about learning Swedish by reading parallel text prayer books and Bibles!) Anyway the tax office lady laughed at me in a kind of "aren't you cute" way.
To cheer myself up after all this ending stuff, I bought a huge gelato, with chilli-choc and raspberry, which was very yummy. Now I'm waiting for a text from Screwy to let me know he's on his way. Don't expect me around a whole lot before the weekend, between guests and last minute sorting out and travelling I'm not going to have a lot of time.
Thanks so much for all your encouragement when I was feeling defeated by the packing!
Re: Swedish competence
Date: 2009-06-17 09:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-17 09:37 pm (UTC)IKWYM, I forgot all my Danish quite quickly for this reason!
I don't know if it helps, but
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 12:36 am (UTC)(and YAY I get to see you next week)