The purpose of this article is to show second-language pupils’ experiences in school and their understanding of school through analysis of how they tell about the multi-lingual primary school and instruction. These stories about school life are studied with a life story approach, and the research process can be described in three steps: tell, analyze and read. The analysis is based on the pupils’ own stories, interpreted with post-colonial theory and theories of social capital. From the database Skrivbanken (2009) with essays from the National Exam in 2003, I selected sixteen texts with the titles My school years or My view of school. The analysis shows that in school these pupils experience themselves as outside and without a key to the school’s linguistic context. Other results are the importance of the majority language for the minority-language-speaking pupils, the pursuit of a common language and the school’s importance for pupils’ increased social and cultural capital.