Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I miss my number

I had a doctor's appointment today, which included a couple of tests (and an unexpected tetanus shot... ouch). While sitting in the waiting room with all my labels for the tests and my paperwork, I suddenly realized I miss my Swedish "personal number" (the equivalent to the US social security number, which I just recently - finally - learn by heart).

Had I been in Sweden, it would have been that very familiar number that would have been on all my paper work. Now it was just my health provider's medical number on the papers (you use your social security number much less than you use your Swedish "personal number" in Sweden), which I, after the six years I've had it now still have no clue about.

And it made me wonder - will I ever forget my Swedish number... from not using as frequently... just like a pin code for a credit card you rarely use (it's only the last four digits that are unique in the Swedish number - the first six is your birthday - and that I hopefully will remember....) or how deep is it stuck in my brain? I actually do remember my first telephone number that we changed when moving in... 1983...? So some numbers stick around at least...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oj, har du inte lyckats glömma ditt svenska nummer än:-)? Det klarade jag av för länge sen... Trots att jag inte lärt mig mitt franska nummer än!

Annika said...

Nej, det glömmer man nog aldrig :-)
Det sitter etsat i hjärnan.
Jag har faktiskt lärt mig mitt SS nummer nu...tur det. Inte för att man använder det så ofta, men ofta nog. Numera står det ju inte längre på körkortet, det gjorde det förr.
Antar att det är bra att kunna sitt svenska nummer för än idag måste man ju använda det ibland när man pratar med sve myndigheter om ngt...

Anna, Fair and True said...

Det är verkligen enkelt med personnummer! Samtidigt är det svårt att göra någonting utan personnummer i Sverige. Märker det nu när jag jobbar med diplomater som inte har det (eller de har sin födelsedag + 0000) och ingenting funkar utan ett riktigt.

Ally said...

I had to remember really hard what my personnummer was the other day. I'm not sure how but Pete came up with it faster than me. How sad is that, I really only need to know the last 4 digits. May I add then when you're first learning Swedish and you need to learn the "sj" sound, it sucks to be born on the 17th day of a month in the 70's. ;-)

I can still recite my telephone number from when I lived in Livermore, CA as a little girl (also about '83). They've redone the area codes in California since then but I remember it.

JaCal said...

Fransyskan - nope - det sitter som berget. ;-) Barnens kan jag dock inte alls - och inte heller deras social security..

Annika - haha - ja, etsat är ordet. Och nej, man använder SS så pass sällan att det tar TID att lära sig... nu börjar det gå bättre... Personnummer ska man ju ha hela tiden - helt galet - för en tidningsprenumeration...

Anna - ja, det är konstigt hur det har slagit igenom så - knappt man kan göra något utan sitt personnr. Hur funkar det om man har samodningsnummer (som svenska barn som inte varit folkbokförda i Sverige har) tro? Blir det samma problem som med 0000 tro...

Ally - haha - yes, you should avoid the number 7! I'm also born on the 17th day in the 70s. ;-) Isn't it amazing how you can remember that old phonenumber... what made your brain decide that this was important knowledge to restore for +30 years... how about 8*7 or 3*14?