{"id":32,"date":"2014-07-01T11:09:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T09:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/temo.se\/goteborgdaily\/?p=32"},"modified":"2021-11-20T13:27:11","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T12:27:11","slug":"if-you-want-to-talk-to-a-swede-just-talk-about-the-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/?p=32","title":{"rendered":"If you want to talk to a Swede just talk about the weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Colombian student Andr\u00e9s Cuar\u00e0n, from Bogot\u00e1, was already drawn to Sweden for some time before he had the chance to come study here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in love with Sweden for a long time, firstly it was the music: my family like a lot of rock and metal music. There are a lot of bands from around here, and there is a strong metal scene,\u201d he tells G\u00f6teborg Daily.<\/p>\n

One could perhaps say Andr\u00e9s\u00a0was destined to wind up here. He had even taken a year of Swedish back in Colombia such was his interest in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwedish isn\u2019t that difficult a language compared to others, but you have to use it or lose it as they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he found that he might have the opportunity to come to Sweden to study, he didn\u2019t need much convincing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard of Chalmers because I had a friend who has been here for thirty years, and when I told him about what I wanted to do, he said, \u2018hey man you should come to Gothenburg and go to Chalmers!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9s did his bachelor degree in civil engineering in the Colombian capital, at the biggest university in the country, and finds the two countries’ education and research systems very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my country they just prepare you for work, there is a brain drain of people whose ideas can\u2019t be put into practice. In Sweden they can help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

An interest in bringing together environmental sustainability with his engineering background led him to Gothenburg and Chalmers University. He has recently begun a master\u2019s course in Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a civil engineer and I wanted to get into all the environmental stuff and the Nordic countries have a lot of things to teach us,\u201d says Andr\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Sweden they teach you not to destroy so much, and if you do, you replace it. This is different from Colombia where you do what ever is necessary to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving to Sweden gave him the chance to put his Swedish to test, a situation he manages with various approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set myself little goals in speaking Swedish, so I say to myself, \u2018today I\u2019m going to ask for a coffee in Swedish.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On his new university, Andr\u00e9s only has positive things to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been here three months, it\u2019s been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChalmers is a very nice university. They opened their arms to me and said, \u2018welcome to the university, you must work hard,’\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cChalmers has everything you need as a student, it understands the professional you want to be and helps guide you and your knowledge to that profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has some advice to people coming to Gothenburg from abroad:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be nervous to speak English with people, everyone speaks it so you can speak with a lot of people. All the people talk about the weather, if you want to talk to a Swede just talk about the weather!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGothenburg is very useful to bike in. Otherwise, you can get a student card to use the buses and trams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although most of his time in the city has been spent studying, Andr\u00e9s has managed to find a few things to enjoy with his fellow master\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to spend time in the student building in Johanneberg. They have a bar, a club, and they have a restaurant that is very cheap if you have a card.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also like to walk to town: go to Nordstan, or go to J\u00e4rntorget for a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest challenge is that everyone likes to be on time in Sweden, in my culture it\u2019s not the same. It\u2019s ok to be 15, 20 minutes late. Here people say, ’if you\u2019re going to be late send me a message or something.’\u201d<\/p>\n

After enjoying his first three months in the country, Andr\u00e9s is already keen to stay in Sweden and become a researcher in his field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the culture of the country, the way of life here. You can just live your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the idea of lagom, you have to keep things balanced, not too much, not too little.\u201d<\/p>\n

And lofty ambitions have been fostered by his good will and Chalmers\u2019 positive attitude to student research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to save the world right? Here I can put forward ideas and get involved in ideas that can help do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was created in collaboration with Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colombian student Andr\u00e9s Cuar\u00e0n, from Bogot\u00e1, was already drawn to Sweden for some time before he had the chance to come study here. \u201cI\u2019ve been in love with Sweden for a long time, firstly it was the music: my family like a lot of rock and metal music. There are a lot of bands from… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goteborgdaily.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}