I have read many blogs where an English-speaking person is complaining how annoying it is when Swedes refuse to speak Swedish to them and only speak English.
Well, I suggest these people try walking into a shopping center with an armful of C.Vs (resumes) and talking to the manager about available jobs! Because then they won't get any English. If customer service is part of the job, Swedish is part of the job. Hence no English. None.
This may seem obvious to anyone who is not English or American. After all, it IS another country. But we're so used to Swedes speaking English to us at coffee shops and bars that when a Swede offers no English, you know you're being tested. And that can make you nervous.
I can honestly say that I haven't been so frightened in a long time. There I was at Joe's Diner in this massive shopping centre, sipping coffee and staring at a list of phrases my wife had given me. I promised myself I would start my job search in 20 minutes. After 45 minutes I was wandering through the shopping centre trying to decide which shop to try first. Go for the shops you don't really want to work in first, my wife told me. They'll be good practice. So I chose a shop that sold protein drinks. I asked for the manager. I only understood that the manager was managing another shop right now and that he would be somewhere in 2 minutes. Exactly where he would be in 2 minutes was to forever remain a mystery.
Another attempt in a shop called Jack & Jones ended in the manager laughing at me as I walked out the door. Why? After he said he would ring me, I carried on with my pre-planned speech. No doubt this looked ridiculous. That was a knock to my confidence, I can tell you....
But things improved. By the last couple of shops I was chatting away quite happily. If you must speak Swedish, then you will speak Swedish. An idea that (if you come from England or America) can be quite daunting at first. You start wondering where all those lovely English-speaking Swedes have gone and how you want them back! But once you're over that hill (a hill which I'm still climbing) then it can be quite liberating. Now you're speaking Swedish with the natives! No more shame for being the dominant language.
It's integration-time, baby!
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