The Swede-ish Podcast

In our latest episode of the podcast, Jill is joined by Elly and Cam to talk about making friends abroad. Something that is easier said than done, but why? We also discuss how kids cope making friends abroad and signs to look out for when things aren't going so well. Plus, tips on how to create a community when you move abroad. Check out the links on the podcast page for The Swedish Theory of Love and some of the communities that we mention.

In this weeks episode of Littlebearabroad – Surviving Sweden with Kids we talk about making friends abroad. We had loads of feedback and comments about this topic. It was all sparked by a conversation I had at the New Year with a friend who was coming to terms with the fact that some of her friendships she’d made were quite temporary. An issue that a lot of expat or transient, international families face.

So, what’s it really like making friends abroad; does it matter if your other half is native? How do the children cope making new friends, in a new language! And, what about making friends with the Swedes, why are they so cold and unimpressed?

Personally, I think Sweden gets a bad name when it comes to making friends and finding communities. It all boils down to them just doing things a bit differently. Sometimes, that comes off as being a bit colder or remote. But, as an international family/expat family trying to settle in Sweden you’d be forgiven for being put off making friends. But persistence and the knowledge that they’re actually just conditioned to be like that makes a big difference. Keep pushing!

 

In this episode we mention a couple of interesting items.

* The Swedish Theory of Love by Erik Gandini

* Facebook Communities/Groups

* Social Media

 

Lastly, our friends over at the podcast “i huvudet på ett barn” left us a message and you can find their podcast at the link above.

Happy New Year - the first podcast of 2018 and we went full on Audio Visual! Live streamed our first podcast for 2018 via Instagram. Here's the behind the scenes audio.

Well! After our 3 week break, it’s about time that we did got this big old ball rolling again! You might already know that we decided to go full on AV and live stream the podcast on Instagram. Have to admit, it didn’t go quite as well as planned. We were a little too excited about the whole thing and forgot to read out loud some of the messages we were getting sent during the broadcast. BUT, it won’t stop us from doing it again and we’ll get better and better at it.

 

Secondly, more disappointing news, we’ve lost the link to the live stream because it only has a life of 24 hours!! Nevertheless, we’ll figure out a way of recording it in the future and post all live streams along with the audio.

 

I have always felt mega pressure when it comes to learning languages and get super stressed out by it all. I don't understand these people that learn a language for fun...what!? Who are you? So, I thought it would be interesting to speak to someone who knows a bit more about it. Cue! Sofi Tegsveden Deveux from Bee Swedish, the amazing language and cultural training company based in Stockholm. The tag line on the front of their website is, "Honeymoon is over"...and they are that serious. They are the team you want in your corner when the fun has worn off, the cultural honeymoon has become a ball and chain and you need all the inspiration you can get to stick it out living in Sweden.

Learning languages… I dunno about you but I am RUBBISH at learning languages.. my French teacher in high school told me I was rubbish. Mind you, the only thing I remember about her was that she once told me that my eyes were almond shaped. That is the only thing I remember about French class. Oh, and how to say, “J’suis fille unique!”, obviously. So, of course, the best life choice for me was to meet a foreigner, and have a bi-lingual kid, ha!

 

I have always felt mega pressure when it comes to learning languages and get super stressed out by it all. I don’t understand these people that learn a language for fun…what!? Who are you? So, I thought it would be interesting to speak to someone who knows a bit more about it. Cue! Sofi Tegsveden Deveux from Bee Swedish, the amazing language and cultural training company based in Stockholm. The tag line on the front of their website is, “Honeymoon is over”…and they are that serious. They are the team you want in your corner when the fun has worn off, the cultural honeymoon has become a ball and chain and you need all the inspiration you can get to stick it out living in Sweden.

 

In today’s episode, I spoke with Sofi about the pressure we put on ourselves to learn a language, the motivation factor, the laziness factor and some great tips on how to keep yourself swimming whilst feeling like you are sinking.

 

I’m also delighted to share that Bee Swedish are going to start offering group courses in the next few weeks and months. You can find out more information on their website and via the Littlebearabroad.com website throughout December. You can follow Sofi and the rest of the Bee Swedish team via Instagram, Facebook and sign up to their newsletter.

 

Our "Pregnancy in Sweden" series continues off the website and on the podcast. Jill is joined by Lisa and Sarah to discuss their "alternative" births in Sweden. Big Congrats goes to Elly Waller who gave birth to Rumi Waller just after this podcast was recorded YAY!!!

I feel especially proud of this one! Probably because it was our 13th episode and, of course, had all the bad luck in the world recording it. But, we got it up!

 

In Sept 2017 we started a feature on the website about birth stories from Sweden. We were totally inundated with people wanting to tell, but only a few people actually wrote them. You can find them on our Pregnancy in Sweden page. When Elly decided she wanted to give birth at home, we just had to find out more about how you went about it in Sweden. Out of that journey came the discussion with Lisa Ferland and Sarah Coats Chandler. Both of whom have given birth in their home country and in Sweden.

 

You’ll no doubt know Lisa Ferland, editor and publisher, from her curated collection of stories about pregnancy abroad, the Knocked Up Abroad series. You can purchase from Amazon, via this link.

Doctor James is back! In November's 'Ask the Doctor' podcast we tackle RS Virus, Flu in small kids, prevention of seasonal bugs and chat about the hierarchy of the Swedish healthcare system for kids.

Doctor James is back… finally, we put a face to the name!

 

This week we tackle the RS Virus, Flu in very small kids, how to prevent it and other seasonal bugs. We also talk at length about the hierarchy of the Swedish healthcare system for kids.

 

In the episode we mentioned that we’d provide a list of BUMM (Barn och ungdomsmedicinska mottagningar) in Stockholms län. Below is a link to all the listed BUMM clinics with phone numbers and addresses.

 

Barn och ungdomsmedicinksa mottagningar

 

The Littlebearabroad Podcast is available to download via iTunes and via Stitcher Radio for Android. Please – like, share, love.