Since May 2020, SMUL has been an incorporated not-for-profit association in British Columbia, Canada under the name Association of Swedish Beyond Borders – SMUL.

SMUL is short for Svenska som Modersmål UtomLands, which translated to English would be “Swedish as a Mothertongue Abroad”. 

SMUL is an association for people of Swedish heritage, who either want to maintain and develop their own Swedish language and culture, or pass it on to their children. It was loosely formed through social media as a spin off project of Swedish Women’s Educational Association – SWEA International. It received not-for-profit status on May 28, 2020.

In contrast to what many assume, it is difficult to learn languages, especially when you represent a minority in a foreign country. Through SMUL, our followers find inspiration, advice, tools and courses which help them and their children develop their heritage language and culture.

SMUL has a blog, Swedish Abroad, which has been created as a forum for articles about bilingualism. There you find new research, practical advice and personal stories, which weave a net of support for adults who want to educate themselves and get inspired to pursue the quest of teaching their children the Swedish language.

SMUL has a bookclub on Facebook, with online discussions ca 6-8 times per year. Selected books always have Swedish authors, and include novels, fact books, crime stories and classics.

The SMUL Academy is a distance education program for children and teens who want to study Swedish, started in 2016. The education was initally offered through a collaboration with the Swedish based educational company Svenska Distans. Since the summer of 2020, we run the course program ourselves with “Svenska Distans” as a trusted partner. 

SMUL was started on February 15, 2012 on Facebook and soon took on a life of its own. Discussions still mainly take place on Facebook in the closed group “Svenska som modersmål utomlands“. Today, it has more than 10,000 followers worldwide. Anyone who is interested in bilingualism and can speak Swedish is welcome to participate.

Warm regards,
Lena Normén-Younger
Vancouver, Feb 27, 2023
Chair of the SMUL Board, Mom, Swedish Expat & Language Lover

The images above come from a project, the SMUL Magazine, a free member publication. This was run during 2014-2017, and resulted in 7 volumes.