Would I recommend studying Swedish at Lund University?

[@pellejutterstrom]

Congratulations! I myself have a hard time with new languages, so I'm really impressed. Heard a bit of your Swedish in the clip and must say that it sounded very good and Americans in particular tend to have a hard time with our "melody sentence" but you managed it brilliantly

[@brandoncaglern]

Thanks! Maybe I'll do an entire video in Swedish soon. Thanks for the encouragement.

[@lacs7349]

That was interesting! As a Lund native the thing about the darkness really resonated with me. Välkommen till Lund och jag hoppas det går bra för dig framöver!

[@dilanelysium5118]

Thank you for this video!! its so hard to find information about attending this school as an American. The thing you said about hating the heat is so real, I literally always say "I'd rather put on more clothes in the cold, than take off more clothes in the heat" !

[@brandoncaglern]

Amen to that! Thanks for watching!

[@cmmcmaster8813]

Really amazed at what you have accomplished while there. Love to be there, just don’t think I’d fit in with my Texas accent. Your doing great Brandon. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@dannestrom]

You can learn Swedish, or another language, at school, but for me the best way to learn a new language is to interact a lot with people native to the language I want to learn. You can try to interact a lot with native Swedish people, and especially people that work in healthcare, so that you can learn useful words and phrases for a job as a nurse, not just the regular phrases like "hello", "welcome", "yes" and "no". If you want to, you can practice Swedish with me. I am also autistic.

[@brandoncaglern]

True. The best way to learn a language is immersion which means being where the language is most spoken. However, the issue you run into with Swedish is since I am from the United States, I can only stay here for 3 months on my passport each year. The only way to stay longer, since I am not in a relationship with someone here or have family here is to come on a student visa. So that is why I chose this route. I know what you mean though about self learning a language. That is how I learned Vietnamese- mostly self taught and spending time with Vietnamese people. Another issue you run into in Sweden is most speak excellent English and many prefer to speak English with us learners since it is easier and also an opportunity to practice English. A third issue is Swedish society is quite private from an American perspective, which I actually like a lot, but it has a drawback which is that it is hard to have deep conversations with people at first until you know them really well for a long time. I think you gave me a great idea for another video :) . Thanks for your support!

[@dannestrom]

@@brandoncaglern Like many autistic people I love deep conversations, as opposed to the usual shallow conversations.

[@brandoncaglern]

@@dannestrom 😊

[@Dataknutte]

The Swedish language has died mostly within just 100 years. When you look at movies they always speek English. Even my 4 year old child stared to learn English because it's already around him.

[@pellejutterstrom]

would have been interesting with a KZbin clip of how you look at language differences between American and Swedish, i.e. small details or things that you reacted on, maybe similarities or words that you kind of recognize in English, etc.

[@brandoncaglern]

That's a great idea! Maybe I can do that soon. One of things so great about the KZbin community is the awesome ideas and suggestions people have for creating content.

[@Hiznogood]

There’s always the option to try to find the student literature second hand, that can save you a lot of money!

[@jonsson_68]

Bra jobbat av dej..

[@yourawarenesschannelwithdr2215]

Please what do you think about folkuniversite, is it a better option

[@brandoncaglern]

I think the best thing is to consider your options. For me at the time Lund was my only option since I come from outside the EU and so I had to pay a lot. SFI is as far as I know free if you have the paperwork in place to be here but I did not have it… I was here in a student permit. I don’t know much about other options. Perhaps some others have experience with that and can’t share that with us in the comments. I know from some that SFI is hit or miss depending on who your teacher is.

[@enamuddinbhuiyan5939]

How long did it take for you to learn B2 level Swedish i am learning scaring to learn Finnish language 😭😵

[@brandoncaglern]

We were studying B2 a little in level 4 (after about 3 and a half months) and then the next term in level 5 I believe. There is a lot of overlapping of A B and C levels. I have not taken an official course to determine my actual level but I was approved to move on to additional Swedish language college level courses which is a high school level of Swedish. That took about 10 or so months. I think for those who speak a language like English or German it goes a bit faster since there is much overlapping of the languages.

[@plainvanillaguy]

Are there any similar programs at other universities? If so, why did you choose this one? Was there a homestay option?

[@brandoncaglern]

I think so but from what I heard they are longer programs. I heard Lund is the shortest

[@easychess]

Hello please answer my question: I want to take swedish language course in lund university. I need this to take medical liscening exam. My question is that is that course selects people and competetive or we just apply?

[@easychess]

For example gpa is affecting selection or no?

[@brandoncaglern]

I would say apply and see what happens. I unfortunately cannot answer for the university. I have heard it’s become more competitive to get in lately.

[@sg2664]

Fantastic video. Thank you for posting about your experience. It sounds like is a 100% full time commitment. Would you mind sharing how many hours per day you studied in class and how many hours per day you studied outside of class? I'm trying to get an understanding of the daily commitment. Thanks so much!

[@brandoncaglern]

Thanks. Yea it is basically 40 hours plus of school a week counting studying. We had a lot of homework each day. No holidays. Was pretty tough. They do not recommend working while in the program.

[@sg2664]

One other question- you mentioned some students did not have high enough grades to move on to the next level(s), what score do you need to pass and is there an exam after each level or just after level 4 and again after level 8? Thank you again for sharing this information. It's so valuable. I hope you passed your nursing exam and that you're enjoying your time in Sweden. I'm American and envious. Congrats!

[@brandoncaglern]

Yup I passed the final nurse exam last week 😃. The grades were A-F. F being failed. I had As,Bs and Cs levels 1-4. Levels 5-8 was brutal and way too fast paced. I made Ds and Es but passed all levels. Level 8 was prep for a comprehensive exam of everything. That was the most important part. Once you passed it, you get a certificate of completion. Other people that failed just took a separate test called the Tesus. Not sure how it’s spelled. I managed to avoid that so that I could just get my certificate and move on. Once you get the certificate, you are qualified to take further college level courses in Swedish and are deemed high school level Swedish.

[@sg2664]

@@brandoncaglernhi, thanks so much for both of your replies. So helpful. Big Congrats on passing the nursing exam. You’ve accomplished so much in just a short time! One more question on the Swedish program: I think the prosody of the Swedish language would be a big challenge for me. Is that something that was difficult for you in terms of passing levels 1-8 in the program to get the certificate? Thanks again for taking the time to share this info!

[@IAmNotABot9]

Do you know if it's possible to get a stipend from that course as an European citizen? I know it's definitely possible with full degrees. How were your colleagues supporting themselves financially there throughout the programme?

[@brandoncaglern]

That’s a great question. I really do not know. I heard the European citizens studied without paying. Most took out loans, did food deliveries, or lived off saved money.

[@IAmNotABot9]

@@brandoncaglern Alright. I see. Thank you for your answer mate! I'll apply this summer and figure out how to do this as I go haha

[@brandoncaglern]

@@IAmNotABot9 lycka till ☺️

[@IAmNotABot9]

You didn't mention what are the requirements to get accepted into the course. I mean, is it difficult to be accepted?

[@brandoncaglern]

It’s been a bit since I took the course so I don’t remember all the details but we did have to be fluent in English. I heard it has gotten more difficult to get in the program now. I would recommend going on Lund’s website so that you get a more accurate and updated list of requirements. When I applied it was almost 3 years ago.

[@plainvanillaguy]

How many hours per day/week were the classes?

[@brandoncaglern]

Full time. Just like a full time job… plus homework

[@dannestrom]

Welcome to Sweden! I wouldn't say that autism implies a learning disability. I am also autistic, and learn a lot quite easily. We do have another way of learning though, and the school system is not the best for autistic people. There are many other ways for us to learn though. For example I learn a lot from KZbin videos. I just have to find the quality videos, because there is also a lot of junk on KZbin. I also watch a lot of TED talks, and read blogs.

[@brandoncaglern]

I know what you mean. I too have my own style of learning and learned a lot of stuff on KZbin. The interesting thing about those on the spectrum of autism is it truly is a spectrum. I know for myself that it does feel like a disability with certain areas of life while at other times I feel I have superpowers and it does affect my physical health from time to time. I was prone to panic attacks throughout the program which is not healthy for my heart. It was also impossible for me to do certain activities like taking test in a room with other people and noises. In addition to that, I have a bit of selective mutism when stressed and delayed learning ability. I remember during one test I was being recorded on camera and I thought I was going to faint. I was seeing tunnel vision and got really dizzy and I could not feel my legs or arms. Another occasion I had to step out of the class for a bit because it was to stimulating and my heart rate was pushing 180 beats per minute sitting still in the chair. They were always super supportive and understanding though. Hilarious what you said about the junk out there on some videos. Very true. Sometimes the algorithm works in strange ways :)

[@Leo-ks5es]

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖒 😇