Aniko is a Medical University Pathologist. What she does is to make diagnoses based on anything removed from a patient during an operation.  She works with her brain. She is one of the people who decide if a patient has cancer or not. What should be done to fight this cancer is decided by someone else but the decision is based on Anikó's diagnosis. Anikó rarely has contact with patients. She is very aware that she has a huge responsibility and a very important job.
 
Anikó is originally from Hungary but she has travelled the world. She realised at an early age that Hungarian was a small language, not really related to any other language, and she decided to study English, German and then Russian. She has also lived in Japan doing medical research and learned to speak and write Japanese.

She showed me an article she had written by hand, about Hungary, in Japanese.  It was published in a Japanese newspaper. She has written a thesis about Japanese medical terminology and the history of Japanese medicine for her MA. She was also asked to deliver lectures in Japan. The students and doctors were very impressed that someone with blue eyes and blonde hair could speak such good Japanese. This was a first for them. When she returned toHungaryfrom Japan she taught Japanese, as well as doing her ordinary job. She found the Japanese language very logical and not all that difficult to learn.
 
Anikó is so full of energy that it is contagious. She is the sort of person you just want to spend time with as you know she has tons of interesting stories to tell. She speaks fluent Swedish, English, German, Russian, Japanese and Hungarian.  She has devoted a lot of her time to learning languages and obviously has a special skill for doing this.

She was sent toWest Germanywhen only 16 to improve her German skills and to languages schools in England when she was 18 and 21. This was the start of her international career. She has carried out medical research in bothEnglandand Japan. She did her PhD research on breast cancer in2000 inEnglandat LeicesterUniversity.
  
After her studies Anikó worked inHungary , thenEnglandand Japan. In 2002 she was chosen to come to Sweden to work. After just 10 months in Sweden she was promoted to Senior Breast Cancer Pathologist.  She enjoys working in Sweden. The workload is less and the salary is more than she had in Hungary. She likes the diversity of the people she works with and the friendly work atmosphere.
 
The children were born inHungaryand were 5 and 7 when they moved to Sweden. They have attended the International School of Gothenburg since then. All of their subjects are taught in English. They have also picked up Swedish fluently and still speak Hungarian, which is their mother tongue. It was hard for them when the family first moved to Sweden. They liked the idea of the material benefits but they had to pick up English quickly and then, of course, Swedish. It only took them about 3-4 months to pick up the English they needed for school.Swedenis home to the children and Anikó, but so is Hungary. They visit there at least 3 times a year to see friends and family. Anikó has bought a house in Sweden and she sees herself staying here.
 
I asked Anikó what she knew about Sweden before she came here. She said that she felt she had a good picture of the culture from Ingmar Bergman´s films and of course she grew up with ABBA. As a child she read Astrid Lindgren´s “Pippi Longstocking" as well. Once she was chosen to work inSwedenshe attended a 10-week language course in Hungary. She also attended cultural awareness courses when she arrived in Sweden. She felt she has always been very well looked after here. Her colleagues are good people to work with. She appreciates the fact that when people say they are going to do something then they actually do it. She also likes the sportiness and the love of outdoors of the Swedish people. (She was a very good runner when she was a teenager and she was actually the Hungarian champion in 800m and 1200m.)
 
Anikó is aware of differences in the Swedish culture when compared to her own but she did not suffer from any culture shock when moving here. She feels this is probably because she had already lived in a variety of countries and once you have lived in Japan moving anywhere else is relatively easy.

Anikó found the Japanese culture to be a very rich one but she found it wasn´t an easy place for an independent woman. The Japanese ideal woman is silent, withdrawn and servile. A man never serves a woman. Aniko, with all her exuberance and independence, found this rather difficult to deal with at times. She considered staying in Japan but then she would have had to study for 6 years in order to become accredited in her field. Deep down she feels she is European and she loves living inEurope
 
Anikó sees a lecture, that she will soon give for the EuropeanschoolofPathologyin Stockholm, as one of the highlights of her career. The lecture is primarily for young pathologists. As well as working with breast cancer she also works with skin diseases (dermatopathology):
Anikó still likes to do sports in her spare time such as swimming and roller skating. The children are very sporty and they all like to dance and go horse riding. They all like to try different things together. It is important for Anikó to spend time with her children. 

 
Anikó´s Hungarian heritage is very important to her. The country has a wonderful culture. She loves the music and its history.Hungaryis at the crossroads of Europe, the geographical heart ofEurope . It has suffered many foreign invasions including the Tartar invasion, the Turkish invasion, the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the communist system. Despite all this Hungary has maintained a rich, diverse, culture and it is still a well-functioning country.  Hungary has always been a melting pot and a country of rich diversity.

 
As well as many Swedish friends Anikó has friends from a variety of other countries, including, of course Hungary. There is a Hungarian club in Göteborg and there are probably about 3-4000 Hungarians in Göteborg alone. About 8000 Hungarians immigrated to Sweden in 1956 at the time of the Soviet invasion and their number has increased to 30000. They have brought their rich culture, music, art, theatre, with them. This is very important for Hungarians.
 
Anikó would encourage people to come to Sweden. She feels most people would appreciate the security and the relatively good salary levels. One thing that Anikó found interesting at the beginning was that everyone called her by her first name. This would not happen inHungarywhere the Germany system of titles is still in use. In Hungary she was called “Mrs Senior Doctor". She is completely used to the lack of titles now and doesn´t mind this at all.  She feels people should be respected for their competence and not merely for their titles. Job wise, Anikó had to learn to use a new medical terminology in Sweden. In Hungary the Latin medical terminology is still used when making diagnoses.

 
I asked Anikó if she thought there was such a thing as a stereotype Swede. She mentioned things such as silent, calm, correct, but not always polite. We got into a discussion about what “polite" means. In Hungary men open doors, pull out chairs and help women on with their coats. Anikó cited an example of when she was trying to get a door open at the hospital. She had coffee in one hand and books and her ID card in the other. She dropped the card just when a male professor came along. She just stood there expecting him to pick up the card. He walked by and left her to our own devices. In Hungary it is still the male who makes the moves in a courtship and who compliments the females.
 
Another thing Anikó mentioned was the “team" spirit and group mentality in Sweden. In Hungary people are more individualistic.
Anikó will most likely stay here until she retires and perhaps move back to Hungary then. This means she has another 20 years in Sweden as she does not plan to retire until she is 67. She loves her job. It is her hobby. She is obviously very good at what she does but she always wants to do it better.

An interesting remark that Anikó made was “In Sweden they don´t just judge me, they judge my country". “It is therefore my responsibility to do my best as my country will be judged on this basis".
 
There are people from 15 different countries working in Anikó´s department. Diversity just seems to happen in this field. Everything works very well and the people complement each other. There is a variety of cultures and also of religions but there is no discrimination. Everyone is accepted for their competence in the field. Anikó loves this international, stimulating and exciting environment. This is the type of environment she has always wanted to work in.  

A quote that has helped Anikó in her travels is “when in Rome do as the Romans do".
 
An anecdote from Anikó about Japan:
At the end of my first working day I was preparing to go home around 6. Someone asked me where I was going so early. It seems that the higher the position you have the later you go home. The professors could leave at 11.00 pm to midnight to go home. They are very diligent and have not heard of "work life balance". They did disappear at around 5 or 6. As they had private rooms they went there for about an hour´s sleep and this helped them get through the long day.  It seemed that these people had little or no family life. When a woman has a baby she has to quit her job and she is allowed back to work when the youngest child turns 18!