For some reason I felt like starting WaniKani again, after not having used it since 2013-2014 before I went to Japan. I didn't really want to pay for it but it turned out that since I had been a beta user back in the days I got quite a nice discount so I decided to take the chance after all.
(I am not going indepth into explaining WaniKani here, just so you know!)
WaniKani is used to help you remember Kanji and learn Japanese words through the use of mnemonics. I really liked it back when I used it but it does take a lot of time and if you don't use it every day the reviews and lessons you have will pile up into insane amounts.
So after not having used it for like 5 years I expected a shit ton of never ending reviews but that didn't happen. I guess when you stop your subscription the SRS (spaced repetitoin system) clock also stops, so it's been quite chill for the few days I've been using it now.
In my experience WaniKani is the best way to learn Kanji but it's not perfect so this time around I tried to make it as good as I could by installing some of the available scripts and trying out KaniWani on the side.
Scripts can help you order your reviews and lessons, and undo mistakes in typing and so on (that last one is easy to abuse, I've noticed) which is really helpful. That way I can finish studying the radicals of the kanji, then the kanji themselves and then the complete words.
KaniWani is like WaniKani but they show you words in English instead and you have to find the Japanese translation, picking the right kanji and such. It's good and serves a purpose but it's hard to keep up with using WaniKani and KaniWani at the same time since they are both very time consuming.
When I was using WaniKani before I had never been to Japan and I couldn't really speak Japanese very well and that's how it is for most people using WaniKani and they still get a lot out of it and learn a lot. But this time is different for me as I now can speak Japanese and a lot of the kanji on the website I already know to varying degrees. It's a lot easier. I feel like already having this knowledge might make WaniKani an even better resource, because it's a way to keep up what you know so that you don't forget it over time and it's easy to use because you know the language. Learning kanji isn't a daunting task now, it's something familiar and brings back good memories (at least for me, lol).
Maybe it's also more fun because I don't feel the pressure to learn in the fastest time possible now, I can use WaniKani for 30-60 minutes a day and not feel bad about leaving reviews for the next day.
I do recommend WaniKani for people that already know a lot of kanji (unless you know everything on there already, which I sure don't!) because kanji knowledge and vocab doesn't stick forever the way we would all want it to. We all need some kind of repetition system available, and WaniKani is a fun one!
Anyway, with this random post out of the way I guess I should go back to studying some more kanji, just to set a good example for myself!
Aug 3, 2019
Jun 21, 2019
Keeping in touch with friends on the other side of the planet
I am finally on summer vacation again, though I am trying to finish up my extra math courses now so that's taking up quite a lot of my time. It's not going super well, but it's fine, I guess.
During summer I usually go home to my "home town" which is nice, but it's pretty far from Gothenburg and thus I can't really meet anyone who lives in Gothenburg during the summer, well, I would if I had money but now I have to save all my money for the trip!
I will be going down to Gothenburg at the end of August for a few days though, which is nice.
It's kind of hard for me to keep up with people online, people I don't see every day or every week or month. It's easy to forget them, even though I don't want to, there is just so much else going on.
In Japan I met a lot of nice people, and I am keeping in touch with just a few of them today on a regular basis. Me and 2 friends in Japan even started a cross-continental book club, it's gone quite well so far, way better than the book club we started at SEM (where we only read 1 book and then it just kind of died out). So far we've read maybe 5(?) books.
Having something set like a book club is a good way to remember to keep in touch I suppose. Just setting specific times a week for a chat is a good way of doing it.
When there is no set structure to your chats or talks, I guess that's when things eventually die out.
But even if that happens it's always possible to start up a conversation again, even if years have gone by, I know that. You just have to work on it, and the other person has to work on it too. Some people are easier to keep up a friendship with than others, but anything is possible.
I am just rambling, really, but I just wanted to remind myself of this.
During summer I usually go home to my "home town" which is nice, but it's pretty far from Gothenburg and thus I can't really meet anyone who lives in Gothenburg during the summer, well, I would if I had money but now I have to save all my money for the trip!
I will be going down to Gothenburg at the end of August for a few days though, which is nice.
It's kind of hard for me to keep up with people online, people I don't see every day or every week or month. It's easy to forget them, even though I don't want to, there is just so much else going on.
In Japan I met a lot of nice people, and I am keeping in touch with just a few of them today on a regular basis. Me and 2 friends in Japan even started a cross-continental book club, it's gone quite well so far, way better than the book club we started at SEM (where we only read 1 book and then it just kind of died out). So far we've read maybe 5(?) books.
Having something set like a book club is a good way to remember to keep in touch I suppose. Just setting specific times a week for a chat is a good way of doing it.
When there is no set structure to your chats or talks, I guess that's when things eventually die out.
But even if that happens it's always possible to start up a conversation again, even if years have gone by, I know that. You just have to work on it, and the other person has to work on it too. Some people are easier to keep up a friendship with than others, but anything is possible.
I am just rambling, really, but I just wanted to remind myself of this.
Apr 7, 2019
スウェーデンに帰ってから2年間が立っての日本語ブログ記事！yikes..
スウェーデンに帰ったのはちょうど2年前ぐらい、２０１７年４月１日でした。帰ってから日本語を話す機会とか書く機会などはもちろんあまりなくて、少しずつ日本語は覚えなくなっています。でもまだけっけうしゃべれますし、日本語で書いてある本などは普通に読めますし、この変化は速く起こりません。それはいいことかもしれませんけど、ちょっと怖い、いつの間にか日本語がわからなくなるような気がします。まだ大丈夫だと自分は思ってたらその日はきっといつか来ますよね。
日本語はやっぱり私の一番好きな言語ですし、また日本に沢山旅行したいし、今まだ持ってる日本語能力を無駄にはしたくありません。でもスウェーデンで1人で日本語の勉強をするのはちょっと難しいですよね。何を勉強すればいいのかを考えてしまいます。日本語で書いてある本は少しあって、それを読むのは好きなんですけど、やっぱそれだけでは足りません。自分が話さなかったら、書かなかったら新しい言葉とか文法などは身につけません。本とか動画とかはもちろんそれなりに大事なものなんですけど、それだけでは日本語は上手にはなりません。
たまには自分は めっちゃ日本語を話したい！聞きたい！っていう気持ちに溢れてNetflixとかでドラマやアニメを見たり、自分だけと日本語で会話をしたり、日本の曲を歌ったりしてちょっとでもまんぞくになりますけど、ちょっと寂しいですｗｗｗ。
クラスには日本人いませんし、たぶん学校全体にはいませんよね。日本人でない人の中にも日本語喋れる人まだ会ってませんし、どうしようかなって感じになります。まあ、たまにはSkypeでまだ日本に住んでいる友達と話しますけどその時は日本語使いたくてもほとんど英語になっちゃいます。
これからはもっと頑張らないとあかんねんって思ってますので、ブログでもっと日本語のブログ記事を書きましょう！丁寧語でのブログ記事、大阪弁でのブログ記事など！今それをしなかったらいつにするでしょうか？今しかありません！やばいよ！
日本語はやっぱり私の一番好きな言語ですし、また日本に沢山旅行したいし、今まだ持ってる日本語能力を無駄にはしたくありません。でもスウェーデンで1人で日本語の勉強をするのはちょっと難しいですよね。何を勉強すればいいのかを考えてしまいます。日本語で書いてある本は少しあって、それを読むのは好きなんですけど、やっぱそれだけでは足りません。自分が話さなかったら、書かなかったら新しい言葉とか文法などは身につけません。本とか動画とかはもちろんそれなりに大事なものなんですけど、それだけでは日本語は上手にはなりません。
たまには自分は めっちゃ日本語を話したい！聞きたい！っていう気持ちに溢れてNetflixとかでドラマやアニメを見たり、自分だけと日本語で会話をしたり、日本の曲を歌ったりしてちょっとでもまんぞくになりますけど、ちょっと寂しいですｗｗｗ。
クラスには日本人いませんし、たぶん学校全体にはいませんよね。日本人でない人の中にも日本語喋れる人まだ会ってませんし、どうしようかなって感じになります。まあ、たまにはSkypeでまだ日本に住んでいる友達と話しますけどその時は日本語使いたくてもほとんど英語になっちゃいます。
これからはもっと頑張らないとあかんねんって思ってますので、ブログでもっと日本語のブログ記事を書きましょう！丁寧語でのブログ記事、大阪弁でのブログ記事など！今それをしなかったらいつにするでしょうか？今しかありません！やばいよ！
Mar 17, 2019
将来には何も見えない
Exams are coming up and like usual 3 weeks before the exams I got into a bit of a panic thinking I would never have time to study enough to get the grade I want, so I contemplated not taking the exams at all and do them later instead.
But now the exams are 2 days away and things have been pretty chill for the past few days, and I feel like I know most of what we need to know.
Which means that now there is time to worry about other things instead.
Will I have enough money to do something fun in Gothenburg after exams?
Will I have enough money to go to Japan for vacation?
Will I have enough money to buy a small house or apartment in the future...?
Will I have enough money to retire when I am old?!
Sometimes I feel like everything is a downward spiral and everything I want in life is right there in front of me but because I wasn't born into money it is unreachable to me. Doesn't really sound like a fair world, does it.
Even the idea of getting a scholarship in order to do a masters abroad seems like it could just slip out of my fingers. Sure, I did get a scholarship before, but this time is different and I would not be surprised if they all just simply rejected me right away for me just being me. Because I am weird, kind of. It doesn't impact my skills, I am a really good student, but being a good student isn't all they think about when considering who to choose for a scholarship.
I am also afraid that I will never be able to "become an author" because I suck too much at writing and I might never become good at it, and even if I did that doesn't guarantee anything.
I don't want to be a slave to the status quo system, working just to make a living and barely getting to spend time on what I want. I want what I want and I hate that I might not get any of it.
The future is a scary place I dare not think about for too long, because I only see the worst in it.
But now the exams are 2 days away and things have been pretty chill for the past few days, and I feel like I know most of what we need to know.
Which means that now there is time to worry about other things instead.
Will I have enough money to do something fun in Gothenburg after exams?
Will I have enough money to go to Japan for vacation?
Will I have enough money to buy a small house or apartment in the future...?
Will I have enough money to retire when I am old?!
Sometimes I feel like everything is a downward spiral and everything I want in life is right there in front of me but because I wasn't born into money it is unreachable to me. Doesn't really sound like a fair world, does it.
Even the idea of getting a scholarship in order to do a masters abroad seems like it could just slip out of my fingers. Sure, I did get a scholarship before, but this time is different and I would not be surprised if they all just simply rejected me right away for me just being me. Because I am weird, kind of. It doesn't impact my skills, I am a really good student, but being a good student isn't all they think about when considering who to choose for a scholarship.
I am also afraid that I will never be able to "become an author" because I suck too much at writing and I might never become good at it, and even if I did that doesn't guarantee anything.
I don't want to be a slave to the status quo system, working just to make a living and barely getting to spend time on what I want. I want what I want and I hate that I might not get any of it.
The future is a scary place I dare not think about for too long, because I only see the worst in it.
Feb 4, 2019
Planning a trip to South Korea and Japan, and still struggling to make a decision about my future
Happy (belated) new year! 2018 was a fine year, nothing special, but not bad. Now we are entering 2019 though and hopefully things will get even better!
When I started my 2nd year at the SEM program at university I was sceptical, but it's been better than the first year so that's good. But, I made a promise with myself a long time ago that I would do something fun in Gothenburg every week, like at least once a week go out and do something - anything! And I am saddened to say I didn't really follow through on this promise, but during this new year I've made a new try and it's gone a lot better!
So now I've started to think more about things I want to see and places I want to visit, and I realized that during my 3rd year at SEM I will have about 4 months where I will only be studying "Distance courses" because we can choose to study whatever we want, and this means I wont be bound to school every day like I am now, so I can go travel!
Luckily I've been able to save up some money so that I can afford to visit both Japan and South Korea this September or October. In Japan I think I will just go to Tokyo and explore around there, hopefully I will be able to meet some friends again! Maybe I will go to Osaka but I'm not sure if I will have the time or money, but we will see! Anyway, in South Korea I've already made up my mind a bit more about where I want to go; I want to start in Busan and be there a few days, then check out Daejeon a little and then finally spend a few days in Seoul. I might be traveling alone in Korea though, so we will see how that goes!
It's still around 8 months til the trip so I don't know any specifics about it, I havent even booked flight tickets yet! They are pretty cheap right now but I am looking every day to see if I can find some tickets under 6000SEK!
Okay, so that's the fun stuff, now to what's bothering me:
I've decided what I will work with after I graduate, and to no ones surprise its "Web development"! Doing web development for 2 courses at school now has really reminded me about how much I like it, and even since I was 16 or something I've wanted to make awesome websites. I've already made a list of all the languages I should know/want to know, and I am very excited to learn!
During my time at SEM I've been looking into other fields that might be fun to work in and I ended up not being able to decide on anything until now, and now I feel like I've made up my mind, which is cool but it kind of changes my view about taking a masters degree. I want to take a masters, but there would be seemingly no point if it's unrelated to webdevelopment, and it's pretty hard to find one that is related. If I do find a really appealing masters degree I might just go for it even if it's not related, but I am not sure where I would be able to find that...
So right now I am in this limbo where I don't know if I should go for a masters, but at the same time I am still sickened by the thought of having to spend 5 days a week of my life dedicated to some job! Working with web development seems really fun, and I want to start right now, until I am reminded of the fact that a normal job is not like university. In a normal job I will have to wake up at 6 every morning just to catch a bus at 7 and then start working at 8, probably going home from work at 17 and not being home until 18 and then I have to cook food for 2 hours. So basically I will have about 3 hours of real free time a day except for the weekends...
And down the rabbit hole I spiral again.. Bye bye!
When I started my 2nd year at the SEM program at university I was sceptical, but it's been better than the first year so that's good. But, I made a promise with myself a long time ago that I would do something fun in Gothenburg every week, like at least once a week go out and do something - anything! And I am saddened to say I didn't really follow through on this promise, but during this new year I've made a new try and it's gone a lot better!
So now I've started to think more about things I want to see and places I want to visit, and I realized that during my 3rd year at SEM I will have about 4 months where I will only be studying "Distance courses" because we can choose to study whatever we want, and this means I wont be bound to school every day like I am now, so I can go travel!
Luckily I've been able to save up some money so that I can afford to visit both Japan and South Korea this September or October. In Japan I think I will just go to Tokyo and explore around there, hopefully I will be able to meet some friends again! Maybe I will go to Osaka but I'm not sure if I will have the time or money, but we will see! Anyway, in South Korea I've already made up my mind a bit more about where I want to go; I want to start in Busan and be there a few days, then check out Daejeon a little and then finally spend a few days in Seoul. I might be traveling alone in Korea though, so we will see how that goes!
It's still around 8 months til the trip so I don't know any specifics about it, I havent even booked flight tickets yet! They are pretty cheap right now but I am looking every day to see if I can find some tickets under 6000SEK!
Okay, so that's the fun stuff, now to what's bothering me:
I've decided what I will work with after I graduate, and to no ones surprise its "Web development"! Doing web development for 2 courses at school now has really reminded me about how much I like it, and even since I was 16 or something I've wanted to make awesome websites. I've already made a list of all the languages I should know/want to know, and I am very excited to learn!
During my time at SEM I've been looking into other fields that might be fun to work in and I ended up not being able to decide on anything until now, and now I feel like I've made up my mind, which is cool but it kind of changes my view about taking a masters degree. I want to take a masters, but there would be seemingly no point if it's unrelated to webdevelopment, and it's pretty hard to find one that is related. If I do find a really appealing masters degree I might just go for it even if it's not related, but I am not sure where I would be able to find that...
So right now I am in this limbo where I don't know if I should go for a masters, but at the same time I am still sickened by the thought of having to spend 5 days a week of my life dedicated to some job! Working with web development seems really fun, and I want to start right now, until I am reminded of the fact that a normal job is not like university. In a normal job I will have to wake up at 6 every morning just to catch a bus at 7 and then start working at 8, probably going home from work at 17 and not being home until 18 and then I have to cook food for 2 hours. So basically I will have about 3 hours of real free time a day except for the weekends...
And down the rabbit hole I spiral again.. Bye bye!
Oct 30, 2018
Japans takeover of Thailand
Long time no blog!
School has been pretty busy since I decided to take on an extra course, and it's about to get even busier since from next week I will be a teaching assistant for 2 months...
It's fine though, and so far school has been very fun since we've been doing webdev and our webdev teachers were really good!
But before I started school again I went to Thailand on a 2 week long vacation to visit my friends and do some "island hopping".
I don't really have a lot to say about the trip since I was sick about half the time (which is just what I expected to happen, but hoped wouldn't!) but I did notice a few things while I was in Thailand, namely that I almost felt like I was back in Japan!
Japan and Thailand are nothing alike, as I am sure you will know if you've been in both countries, but even so, when it comes to franchises, specifically restaurant franchises, these 2 countries suddenly become eerily similar.
Turns out Japan has been sneaking in all its favourite restaurants into Thailand one by one until every other restaurant you can see in a mall in Thailand is a Japanese restaurant!
There is Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Coco Ichiban Ya, Yayoiken, etc etc, and I'm pretty sure I saw MosBurger too (ew). Then there is everything from Shabu shabu to sushi and ramen and so on. It never ends!
Turns out the best food I would eat in Thailand was my favourite Yakishake onigiri, and man did it taste delicious!
So really, if you want to go to Japan, why not go to Thailand? It's cheaper, the people are very kind, the driving and the roads is horrible, and they have great beaches!
(Warning: Higher risk of getting sick in Thailand compared to Japan)
On a more serious note though, while I did like seeing all those Japanese restaurants in Thailand, because in a way they made me feel at home and they brought a sense of nostalgia, I really hope that Japan does not succeed with their "takeover" of the Thai restaurant industry.
One of the best things about going to another country is getting to try the food there (unless you get sick!) and if everywhere you go is suddenly a Japanese chain restaurant, it kind of takes away from that experience.
School has been pretty busy since I decided to take on an extra course, and it's about to get even busier since from next week I will be a teaching assistant for 2 months...
It's fine though, and so far school has been very fun since we've been doing webdev and our webdev teachers were really good!
But before I started school again I went to Thailand on a 2 week long vacation to visit my friends and do some "island hopping".
I don't really have a lot to say about the trip since I was sick about half the time (which is just what I expected to happen, but hoped wouldn't!) but I did notice a few things while I was in Thailand, namely that I almost felt like I was back in Japan!
Japan and Thailand are nothing alike, as I am sure you will know if you've been in both countries, but even so, when it comes to franchises, specifically restaurant franchises, these 2 countries suddenly become eerily similar.
Turns out Japan has been sneaking in all its favourite restaurants into Thailand one by one until every other restaurant you can see in a mall in Thailand is a Japanese restaurant!
There is Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Coco Ichiban Ya, Yayoiken, etc etc, and I'm pretty sure I saw MosBurger too (ew). Then there is everything from Shabu shabu to sushi and ramen and so on. It never ends!
Turns out the best food I would eat in Thailand was my favourite Yakishake onigiri, and man did it taste delicious!
So really, if you want to go to Japan, why not go to Thailand? It's cheaper, the people are very kind, the driving and the roads is horrible, and they have great beaches!
(Warning: Higher risk of getting sick in Thailand compared to Japan)
On a more serious note though, while I did like seeing all those Japanese restaurants in Thailand, because in a way they made me feel at home and they brought a sense of nostalgia, I really hope that Japan does not succeed with their "takeover" of the Thai restaurant industry.
One of the best things about going to another country is getting to try the food there (unless you get sick!) and if everywhere you go is suddenly a Japanese chain restaurant, it kind of takes away from that experience.
Jun 17, 2018
Software Engineering and Management program - The breakdown
It's finally here! The moment I've all been waiting for: The Summer Holiday!
The only bad thing is that I have to work during the whole thing...
Anyhow, this means that I made the first year of university after all! It wasn't as difficult as I had feared when I first started, but also it wasn't always as great as I had hoped (at least course wise).
A classmate reminded me about a post I had written around half a year into the program, about how I liked it and thought I had picked the right program, well, turns out those feelings wouldn't last forever.
Just a few weeks after our official one year at the program I started to desperately try to find any way I could out of it, but it was too late. I am stuck here, and that's ok, I suppose, BUT if I could go back and change my decision to enter this program, I would.
So because I want to let other students know what they are getting themselves into when applying for this program (Software Engineering and Management at Göteborgs universitet / Gothenburg university) I thought I would do a bit of a breakdown of its courses and how it's structured, and tell you about the courses I've had so far, and how I feel about them.
Let's get started!
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Year 1 courses (each are 7.5hp, they always go 2 in parallel):
Mathematical Foundations for Software Engineering
Rating: Bad
This course had some fun parts, since we covered a lot of different topics in math, but it was way too crammed, with a new math subject every week. I studied like crazy for this exam, like I've never studied before, yet I still barely passed, because there were just too many things we needed to know in a very short time.
The supplies we got from the teachers (mainly explanatory videos) were really bad, and didn't help at all, so I had to find other videos on youtube to actually help me.
Object-Oriented Programming (Java)
Rating: Good
This course was great, great teachers and layout and such. I learned a lot even though I had already studied a bit of Java and knew most of what we did in the course.
Requirements and User Experience
Rating: Good
This course was boring, and I didn't really see the point of it at first, but the teacher was good (a bit cranky though), and the course layout was very well made and it felt very organized. It contained no programming, which was sad.
Mini Project: Team Programming
Rating: Bad
In a group of about 5 to 7 people we were supposed to build kind of a "library system" for borrowing and lending books. We were pretty much given free hands as to how to go about doing this. Thing is, we were supposed to be using SCRUM etc, and learn how to manage a project, but they didn't teach us anything about management beforehand, so it just felt super disorganized and I just got the feeling that we weren't learning as much as we would have if they had given us a course in management and project work before throwing us into this.
Data Structures and Algorithms
Rating: Bad
This course was a giant mess and the teacher shouldn't be a teacher at all, because they were too fragile and I worried for their mental health at times. What I learned from this course was from youtube videos and google searches, because there was simply nothing good being provided at lectures, and the teacher barely knew what they were talking about at times.
Data Management
Rating: Good
Another well structured, well organized course with good content. We got to learn SQL and a bit of NoSQL, etc.
Software Analysis and Design
Rating: Bad
This is kind of like the continuation of the "Requirements and User Experience" course, and was all about how to design software using different models. Again, I think it's boring, but I can see why it's important to developing well-structured and modular software. Sadly this course was not as good as its predecessor. It was messy, the teachers didn't seem to care about us and never answered our emails, and there were barely any lectures. After extensive complaints from students they started to try to fix it at the end of the course, but it was a bit too late at that point.
Also the exam was crazy big, with no time to finish all parts without hurrying like crazy, and even the people that usually always get a VG felt like they had been screwed over by this exam.
Mini Project: Systems Development
Rating: Bad
Another projec course! Like the first one we had to be in teams of around 5-7 people, but this time we didn't get to choose our own teams... !
This course was a big, vague mess for weeks and weeks, and made me suffer a lot.
We were supposed to program a robot car to autonomously parallel park itself using Arduino, and later they also added that we had to use a Raspberry Pi for something too. My group used the Pi with a PiCamera to try to make the car detect traffic lights.
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Final verdict:
So, there you have them, our courses for year 1!
As you can see, most of them are bad, and it's not just my opinion reflected up there, but almost all my classmates opinions as well, because every day before class you know there's going to be trash talking about a course going on, if that course happens to suck.
Main problems:
Unorganized courses
Many of the courses we had were badly structured and very unorganized, and courses like the "Mini projects" take up way too much time, time which I would've liked to also spend on the other course as well.
Project courses
Working in such big groups, where some people don't work at all and you have to pick up their slack sucks. These courses are mostly just about googling, because you don't know anything you're supposed to know. They don't bring anything to the table that you couldn't learn in a better way if the course was restructured.
Problem based learning
Also the mini projects do not teach us enough, because they are built on some random idea of "Problem based learning" where you don't teach the student anything, you just give them a problem and tell them to figure it out on their own. Trust me, it sucks and is a bad way of teaching anything.
What if a piano teacher just gave a total newbie a piece of sheet music and told them to play it? The student wouldn't know what to do, and would have to spend hours and hours google searching something the teacher could've just told them straight up right then and there.
That's basically how it was for us during these 2 mini project courses.
Not enough programming
Another thing that bothered me A LOT is that we have only had 1 single programming course this year (I don't count SQL here, but maybe other people would). And one of the biggest reasons that I applied for this program was that I thought there would be a lot of programming!
Before I applied I even emailed the people responsible for this course and asked them what programming languages we would learn, and they listed around 7 different languages! So of course I felt really good about it.
Turns out software engineering is not mostly programming though, but really it's about making models. That's why we have a lot more architecture courses than programming courses.
Management
Maybe I am stupid but I thought that the management part of "Software Engineering and Management" was about managning software, not projects. Turns out I was wrong. Which would have been ok if they had actually thaught us any good management skills, but they haven't.
Missing courses for masters
When you finish this program there are not a lot of options for masters programmes you can apply to, unlesss you like me in some roundabout way find a way to study extra math courses during year 2.
In year 3 we have half a year to study whatever courses we want, and in an ideal world this would be where we could study all those math courses we need for masters, but it's not. The math courses I need aren't even available as stand alone university courses in Göteborg. So I have to apply for internet university courses in these math subjects, and hope that I get a spot, and hope that they do not get cancelled, because if they do, I will not be eligible for the masters I want.
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What's to come:
Year 2 courses:
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
The continuation of Software Analysis and Design, with the same teachers...
Mobile and Web Development
(Finally some more programming)
Software Development Methodologies
Mini Project
(Ugh!)
Cyber Physical Systems and Systems of Systems: Development of Embedded and Real-Time Systems
Software Quality and Testing
Project: Cyber Physical Systems and Systems of Systems, 15hp
(Double ugh! A project course that is twice as long...!)
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Year 3 courses:
30hp - Elective courses (I will be adding a lot of programming and more math here)
Software Engineering Research and Practice: Startups and Industrial Software Product Management
Research methods in Software Engineering
Bachelor Thesis in Software Engineering and Management, 15hp
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Okay, this has gone on long enough. All I can say is that I think that year 2 is going to be quite difficult for me, with it's 22.5 hp of project courses (which are my least favourite of all the courses)! Year 2 is basically the reason I didn't want to continue this program, along with just the general awfulness of a bunch of other courses.
But like I said, I have to continue, it's too late for my to apply for other programs now...
And if I can just get through this second year, I will have a great 3rd year (I think), because there are no mini projects the 3rd year and I have found a bunch of nice courses I want to apply to.
But that's just me. This is an international program after all, and most of the students are not Swedish, and some of them don't speak a lot of Swedish, or for some other reason cannot apply for different courses outside of this program.
So, here's why you shouldn't apply for this program if you are not Swedish, and don't have a certificate saying that you are eligible to apply for courses thaught in Swedish:
You will not be eligible for almost any computer/programming related masters, and during your 3rd year you will most likely not be able to pick any course you want, because only a few of them are available in English in Gothenburg.
So if this is you, you most likely wont be able to apply for those 3 math courses you need to be applicable for most masters in fields like computer science etc, and a lot of doors will be closed to you. You also wont be able to apply for any courses outside of software engineering for your 3rd year, which also sucks.
Before applying for this program I read posts on different forums online about people talking about the problems about this course, and those problems still persist to this day. I didn't listen to them, I thought maybe they were outliers, but now I know that they were right.
It's too late for me to change programs now, and I've come to terms with that (pretty much), but it's not too late for you! So if you are considering applying to this program, really think it over, try to find as much information about it as you can to see if it really is for you. Talk to students and talk to the people in charge of the program, because knowing what you are getting yourself into can save you a lot of pain.
Honestly the only reason I am still at this program is because of the awesome people and friends in my class, that brighten up the dark times, haha.
Ok, sorry. Rant is over now, time to enjoy my Sunday! :D
The only bad thing is that I have to work during the whole thing...
Anyhow, this means that I made the first year of university after all! It wasn't as difficult as I had feared when I first started, but also it wasn't always as great as I had hoped (at least course wise).
A classmate reminded me about a post I had written around half a year into the program, about how I liked it and thought I had picked the right program, well, turns out those feelings wouldn't last forever.
Just a few weeks after our official one year at the program I started to desperately try to find any way I could out of it, but it was too late. I am stuck here, and that's ok, I suppose, BUT if I could go back and change my decision to enter this program, I would.
So because I want to let other students know what they are getting themselves into when applying for this program (Software Engineering and Management at Göteborgs universitet / Gothenburg university) I thought I would do a bit of a breakdown of its courses and how it's structured, and tell you about the courses I've had so far, and how I feel about them.
Let's get started!
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Year 1 courses (each are 7.5hp, they always go 2 in parallel):
Mathematical Foundations for Software Engineering
Rating: Bad
This course had some fun parts, since we covered a lot of different topics in math, but it was way too crammed, with a new math subject every week. I studied like crazy for this exam, like I've never studied before, yet I still barely passed, because there were just too many things we needed to know in a very short time.
The supplies we got from the teachers (mainly explanatory videos) were really bad, and didn't help at all, so I had to find other videos on youtube to actually help me.
Object-Oriented Programming (Java)
Rating: Good
This course was great, great teachers and layout and such. I learned a lot even though I had already studied a bit of Java and knew most of what we did in the course.
Requirements and User Experience
Rating: Good
This course was boring, and I didn't really see the point of it at first, but the teacher was good (a bit cranky though), and the course layout was very well made and it felt very organized. It contained no programming, which was sad.
Mini Project: Team Programming
Rating: Bad
In a group of about 5 to 7 people we were supposed to build kind of a "library system" for borrowing and lending books. We were pretty much given free hands as to how to go about doing this. Thing is, we were supposed to be using SCRUM etc, and learn how to manage a project, but they didn't teach us anything about management beforehand, so it just felt super disorganized and I just got the feeling that we weren't learning as much as we would have if they had given us a course in management and project work before throwing us into this.
Data Structures and Algorithms
Rating: Bad
This course was a giant mess and the teacher shouldn't be a teacher at all, because they were too fragile and I worried for their mental health at times. What I learned from this course was from youtube videos and google searches, because there was simply nothing good being provided at lectures, and the teacher barely knew what they were talking about at times.
Data Management
Rating: Good
Another well structured, well organized course with good content. We got to learn SQL and a bit of NoSQL, etc.
Software Analysis and Design
Rating: Bad
This is kind of like the continuation of the "Requirements and User Experience" course, and was all about how to design software using different models. Again, I think it's boring, but I can see why it's important to developing well-structured and modular software. Sadly this course was not as good as its predecessor. It was messy, the teachers didn't seem to care about us and never answered our emails, and there were barely any lectures. After extensive complaints from students they started to try to fix it at the end of the course, but it was a bit too late at that point.
Also the exam was crazy big, with no time to finish all parts without hurrying like crazy, and even the people that usually always get a VG felt like they had been screwed over by this exam.
Mini Project: Systems Development
Rating: Bad
Another projec course! Like the first one we had to be in teams of around 5-7 people, but this time we didn't get to choose our own teams... !
This course was a big, vague mess for weeks and weeks, and made me suffer a lot.
We were supposed to program a robot car to autonomously parallel park itself using Arduino, and later they also added that we had to use a Raspberry Pi for something too. My group used the Pi with a PiCamera to try to make the car detect traffic lights.
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Final verdict:
So, there you have them, our courses for year 1!
As you can see, most of them are bad, and it's not just my opinion reflected up there, but almost all my classmates opinions as well, because every day before class you know there's going to be trash talking about a course going on, if that course happens to suck.
Main problems:
Unorganized courses
Many of the courses we had were badly structured and very unorganized, and courses like the "Mini projects" take up way too much time, time which I would've liked to also spend on the other course as well.
Project courses
Working in such big groups, where some people don't work at all and you have to pick up their slack sucks. These courses are mostly just about googling, because you don't know anything you're supposed to know. They don't bring anything to the table that you couldn't learn in a better way if the course was restructured.
Problem based learning
Also the mini projects do not teach us enough, because they are built on some random idea of "Problem based learning" where you don't teach the student anything, you just give them a problem and tell them to figure it out on their own. Trust me, it sucks and is a bad way of teaching anything.
What if a piano teacher just gave a total newbie a piece of sheet music and told them to play it? The student wouldn't know what to do, and would have to spend hours and hours google searching something the teacher could've just told them straight up right then and there.
That's basically how it was for us during these 2 mini project courses.
Not enough programming
Another thing that bothered me A LOT is that we have only had 1 single programming course this year (I don't count SQL here, but maybe other people would). And one of the biggest reasons that I applied for this program was that I thought there would be a lot of programming!
Before I applied I even emailed the people responsible for this course and asked them what programming languages we would learn, and they listed around 7 different languages! So of course I felt really good about it.
Turns out software engineering is not mostly programming though, but really it's about making models. That's why we have a lot more architecture courses than programming courses.
Management
Maybe I am stupid but I thought that the management part of "Software Engineering and Management" was about managning software, not projects. Turns out I was wrong. Which would have been ok if they had actually thaught us any good management skills, but they haven't.
Missing courses for masters
When you finish this program there are not a lot of options for masters programmes you can apply to, unlesss you like me in some roundabout way find a way to study extra math courses during year 2.
In year 3 we have half a year to study whatever courses we want, and in an ideal world this would be where we could study all those math courses we need for masters, but it's not. The math courses I need aren't even available as stand alone university courses in Göteborg. So I have to apply for internet university courses in these math subjects, and hope that I get a spot, and hope that they do not get cancelled, because if they do, I will not be eligible for the masters I want.
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
What's to come:
Year 2 courses:
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
The continuation of Software Analysis and Design, with the same teachers...
Mobile and Web Development
(Finally some more programming)
Software Development Methodologies
Mini Project
(Ugh!)
Cyber Physical Systems and Systems of Systems: Development of Embedded and Real-Time Systems
Software Quality and Testing
Project: Cyber Physical Systems and Systems of Systems, 15hp
(Double ugh! A project course that is twice as long...!)
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Year 3 courses:
30hp - Elective courses (I will be adding a lot of programming and more math here)
Software Engineering Research and Practice: Startups and Industrial Software Product Management
Research methods in Software Engineering
Bachelor Thesis in Software Engineering and Management, 15hp
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
Okay, this has gone on long enough. All I can say is that I think that year 2 is going to be quite difficult for me, with it's 22.5 hp of project courses (which are my least favourite of all the courses)! Year 2 is basically the reason I didn't want to continue this program, along with just the general awfulness of a bunch of other courses.
But like I said, I have to continue, it's too late for my to apply for other programs now...
And if I can just get through this second year, I will have a great 3rd year (I think), because there are no mini projects the 3rd year and I have found a bunch of nice courses I want to apply to.
But that's just me. This is an international program after all, and most of the students are not Swedish, and some of them don't speak a lot of Swedish, or for some other reason cannot apply for different courses outside of this program.
So, here's why you shouldn't apply for this program if you are not Swedish, and don't have a certificate saying that you are eligible to apply for courses thaught in Swedish:
You will not be eligible for almost any computer/programming related masters, and during your 3rd year you will most likely not be able to pick any course you want, because only a few of them are available in English in Gothenburg.
So if this is you, you most likely wont be able to apply for those 3 math courses you need to be applicable for most masters in fields like computer science etc, and a lot of doors will be closed to you. You also wont be able to apply for any courses outside of software engineering for your 3rd year, which also sucks.
Before applying for this program I read posts on different forums online about people talking about the problems about this course, and those problems still persist to this day. I didn't listen to them, I thought maybe they were outliers, but now I know that they were right.
It's too late for me to change programs now, and I've come to terms with that (pretty much), but it's not too late for you! So if you are considering applying to this program, really think it over, try to find as much information about it as you can to see if it really is for you. Talk to students and talk to the people in charge of the program, because knowing what you are getting yourself into can save you a lot of pain.
Honestly the only reason I am still at this program is because of the awesome people and friends in my class, that brighten up the dark times, haha.
Ok, sorry. Rant is over now, time to enjoy my Sunday! :D
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