Till startsidan
Thursday 20 November, 2008
NEW POSTAL ADRESS
Business Region Göteborg AB
Box 111 19
SE-404 23 Göteborg
Sweden
Visiting address
Norra Hamngatan 14
Phone: +46 31 61 24 02
Fax: +46 31 61 24 01
Sandra  Nilsson
I am the product of an Australian mother and a Swedish father (who unfortunately, neglected to teach me Swedish). They met during World War II when my father was working on a Swedish ship that travelled between the US and Australia. I was actually born in Sweden but left, with my parents, when I was 6 months old, only to return 25 years later.
To cut a long story short, my travel plans went awry when I fell in love with a Swede and I have now lived here, on and off, since 1974. I arrived in Sweden with a Swedish surname (Svensson) and I couldn´t speak a word of Swedish!  
I put an ad in the paper when I first arrived stating that I “was prepared to do anything". A mistake, as I quickly learned. I received some very strange job offers! The ad led to a monotonous office job but it got me into the workforce and it certainly helped me learn Swedish and find out more about the Swedes.

My husband and I moved to Australia and lived there for 2 years in order for him to learn a little about the culture and in an endeavour to help him understand me better. I doubt that it helped! We travelled over land back to Sweden in a truck in 1978. On my return I felt I was fluent in Swedish and I enquired about returning to my chosen profession of teaching.

My audacity was met with incredibility. I didn´t have any Swedish university “points"! My four year of university studies from Melbourne were useless. Fortunately a position at Volvo Cars as a translator opened up a new world for me and I travelled the world and, really, I should be grateful to those who decided that I was not qualified to work as a teacher in Sweden. The dynamic world of international business was an exciting one and I had a variety of stimulating positions and developed immensely and learned lots along the way.

I wasn´t actually qualified for any of the positions I held and I am eternally grateful to Volvo Cars for their confidence in me. One of my numerous positions was International Service Manager where I put together a process for assisting inbounds. I also worked as Customer Relations Manager and ran Leadership and Trainee courses.

I have two children, Johanna, 27 and Christian, 24.  I have worked in India for a total of 9 months, as a volunteer. India is my third country. It has a special place in my heart and it won´t be long before I am on my way there again for another stint as a volunteer.

I accepted early retirement from Volvo Cars two years ago and since then I have been teaching “Intercultural Communication" at GTG (Göteborgs Tekniska Gymnasiet) part time and some Business English.

I enjoy reading, writing, film, travelling, socialising, hiking, gardening and spending time with my family and friends. My husband, Lennart and I have a summer cottage on Sandsjön in Härryda and a flat, soon to be completed, near Delsjön. We like to cycle and have been cycling in France, Scotland, England and Denmark as well as Sweden. I love living in Sweden (most of the time). I do not mind, however, spending a large part of the Göteborg winter in warmer climes.  I still suffer from culture shock (even after all these years) every now and then. I am grateful and very excited about this new challenge that has been offered to me by BRG.

Sandra
Updated: 20080611