In general, Swedes speak excellent English. I am constantly impressed by how good they are. The main exception is adults older than 50-ish. They didn't take English classes in school, and they are definitely not as good.
Today I had to witness some of the worst English I've seen since moving here. I was sitting in the peds outpatient clinic, next to the attending I was spending the day with. He had to write a note explaining why a patient needed to bring special food and asthma medicine onto a plane. I sat there while he typed what must be the most horrendous letter, in terms of grammar and spelling, that I've ever seen! Many of the errors were classic Swedish mistakes (like combining two words into one, as they do all the time in Swedish but we do not do in English), but some of the other things I just can't figure out.
Some examples:
"Certificate of need of specialfood"
"The patient needs to bring hers own food and asthmamedication"
"Consultant Pediatrichian"
"Therefore neither can she be exposed to food with nuts or gluten."
Needless to say, it was painful. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to grab the keyboard out of his hands and type it myself! I faced the dilemma of either a) sitting back and doing nothing, forcing innocent airline and airport employees to try to decipher the code, of b) saying something. I chose to mostly do b) but I did point out a few of the worst offenders, because I couldn't help myself.
Today I had to witness some of the worst English I've seen since moving here. I was sitting in the peds outpatient clinic, next to the attending I was spending the day with. He had to write a note explaining why a patient needed to bring special food and asthma medicine onto a plane. I sat there while he typed what must be the most horrendous letter, in terms of grammar and spelling, that I've ever seen! Many of the errors were classic Swedish mistakes (like combining two words into one, as they do all the time in Swedish but we do not do in English), but some of the other things I just can't figure out.
Some examples:
"Certificate of need of specialfood"
"The patient needs to bring hers own food and asthmamedication"
"Consultant Pediatrichian"
"Therefore neither can she be exposed to food with nuts or gluten."
Needless to say, it was painful. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to grab the keyboard out of his hands and type it myself! I faced the dilemma of either a) sitting back and doing nothing, forcing innocent airline and airport employees to try to decipher the code, of b) saying something. I chose to mostly do b) but I did point out a few of the worst offenders, because I couldn't help myself.
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