Global Tales from Two Young Travelers

Cultural Adjustment:The language, school and public transportation

By Jon Minor and Emily Reisch

We’ve survived our first weeks in Sweden very well – not too much culture shock and with only a few embarrassing incidents.

It’s just like we’re kindergartners again. Our landlord Harry, who’s also a student, walked us to class our first day. We learned to take the bus on our own.

We started our Swedish class and are learning the alphabet, to count and to tell time. The vowels are very difficult for us. Besides a, e, i, o, u and y, the Swedish alphabet includes å, ä and ö. The most difficult are e, i and y. They’re all pronounced “ee” – but in three slightly different ways. We’ve learned to correctly pronounce the name of the city we live in - Jönköping is “Yon-shir-ping.”

We managed to get stuck in the automatic revolving doors on the first day. “We look like really bad mimes” we thought, as we tried to push the glass doors around to open again. They didn’t move. A student rescued us by waving his hand in front of the door’s sensor. We found out a few days later that if you touch the door, it stops.

Jönköping, which is about the size of Sioux Falls, is located on the southern tip of Lake Vättern in south central Sweden. It was once the match capital of the world. The first match factory was here and now is home of the world’s only match museum.

The Högskolan i Jönköping (university in Jönköping) is beautiful, even in the short, dark winter days. All of the buildings appear to be brand-new – they’re very spacious, have cafeterias with coffee and food, and are filled with comfortable lobby areas where students gather.

The international business school is built in a semi-circle. The engineering school is attached to it, and from the air they look like a key. They were built this way because “education is the key to the future.”

Jönköping is known for its many small businesses. Its entrepreneurial atmosphere makes it the perfect location for a university. In the business school, students are encouraged to start their own businesses while taking classes. 80% of students spend time overseas, studying at one of their 190 partner universities.

The communication building is the newest. One entire side is glass. Inside this glass lobby is an olive tree (a symbol of knowledge) from Greece, a tree from Japan and a small pond. The main lobby includes small trees, rocks and water flowing down a long, step-like fountain. An old factory building was converted to the library.

The first time we took the bus we were very careful to remember our stop, so we knew where to get back off. It said “Länstrafiken” right above the route map. A message board in the front of the bus, along with a recorded voice announces the stops. While we were waiting for the bus after class, we noticed “Länstrafiken” above the map. But we’d gotten on at the Länstrafiken stop…?

Länstrafiken was also in several other places. We quickly realized that Länstrafiken was the name of the bus company – not our stop. Every stop has “Länstrafiken” on it! Our Swedish friends were so amused by the story that one even asked us for permission to tell his friends.

The shortened winter days in South Dakota have only slightly prepared us for the short days here. The northern part of Sweden is within the Arctic Circle and has days in the winter with 24 hours of night. The sun never sets some days in the summer. Every day here is lengthened by a few minutes of light, but we’re looking forward to the long, sunny days of summer. The climate is similar to South Dakota’s – cold! The wind coming off Lake Vättern is bitterly chilling.

We’ll be visiting Kiruna, which is in the Arctic Circle, in February with other international students. One thing we’ll see is the Ice Hotel, which is made entirely out of ice and snow. It melts every May and is rebuilt every winter. We’ll definitely share the experience and photos with you.