Basel Taleb, a refugee and electrical engineer, built a tool to help himself – and other foreign engineers – to understand the Swedish energy sector.
When he arrived in Sweden on Christmas Day in 2014, Basel was placed in a reception centre in a small village in the south. As an electrical engineer from a sprawling city in Syria, living in a small village was a challenge for the 28-year-old.
While waiting for the outcome of his asylum application, Basel taught himself Swedish by watching videos on YouTube and making his own lists of phrases and words. He studied every day for almost a year – until finally, in October 2015, Basel was granted a permanent residence permit. By this time, his little list of phrases had grown to over 2000 words.
Basel started collecting words and building a work-related vocabulary for himself. When his supervisor, Katarina Skalare, found out about his side project, she immediately understood its importance and encouraged him to develop it into a phrasebook.
The finished phrasebook was presented at several work fairs and became Kraftringen’s contribution to the integration of energy sector professionals arriving in Sweden. It was very well received!
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