Beeing Swedish

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Often when I meet people for the first time they get really surprised when I tell them I’m from Sweden. They expect a person with blue eyes, blond hair. Not a person with brown hair and green eyes. I have to say that this is because, in general when you see a movie with a Swedish person in it, he or she is usually blond and have blue eyes. “Hi, my name is Sven and I come from Sweden.” Sounds like a typical Swedish boy in the 20th century, or? No, not if you ask me...

I have noticed that depending where you come from (whitch part of Sweden). How you act and behave differently. I’m from Stockholm and I have to say, compare to the rest of Sweden, we from the capital think that we are just a bit better then people from Skåne and Norrland. We talk more elegant and we like to share with the rest of the world how wealthy we are. For exampel, where we work and how much we get paid. Where we go on holiday, where we buy our clothes and so on. But that’s not the thruth, but in a way it is...
If I should descibe people from Gothenburg, Skåne and Norrland they sympathize more and are more “down-to-earth” than people from Stockholm.

The national day of Sweden is on the 6th of June. I’v seen pictures from the Swedish school where you stand with our beautiful Swedish flag and singing the national anthem. People in Sweden, some of our immigrants think that Swedish flag associates to racism, but I don’t see that. I think you should support your country and be proud over it. My friend Birk Nilsson, his father is from Norway and they are very proud over having their national day, with a big parade and everything... I don’t understand why you couldn’t be happy and celebrate your national day… I can’t see anything wrong with that.
Everyone is should be proud over his country, so way would we be any different? I think you have to respect the customs for each country that you come to or visit.

I would describe Swedes as party people when we are on holiday, we drink a lot, behave like pigs sometimes. Our behaviour is in some way inexcusable. In some parts of Europe, our rumour is not the best. That can compares to the English, make a lot of noise, too much alcohol and also likes to fight. The Swedes are, with my eyes, generous, caring, but also as a very neutral population. We want to melt into the gang and be just like everybody else and not be the outsider. We call it Jantelagen. It’s the law that has had a strong grip around the soul of the Swedish people for a long, long time.
But today it isn’t that strong any more. We have become more selfish and found new ways of live our lives. I think if you ask an old person from Sweden he or she would say – Lagom är bäst and that is enough is as good as a feast, I think. We want to be friends with everybody and if you get upset or annoyed, you keep your feelings to yourself, because you don’t want any enemies. In a way I think that we are very careful what we do and say, espacially when what we do could affect other people...

Does Sweden have traditions and customs that differentiate Sweden from other countries in our world? For example, the Frenchmen are romantic, people from Finland don’t do anything else apart from sitting in their saunas, all the boys in Germany wear lederhosen and Russians are drinking vodka. You can’t stop asking yourself if this is true. Through newspapers, radio and television, we are told what happens in our world. They also have another important role besides conveying news and that is how they bescribe people. Through the screen, for example, you only have the chance to see how the person looks and how they act. It is when you meet them you have the opportunity to get to know the person and see what their personality is like. Make you own opinion!

Sweden is one of the five countries Scandinavia, in northern Europe. The country is very long, narrow and it is divided into different states. Every state has its own trademarks that make it special. Common for all the states are that every one of them has its own national costumes. The costumes consist of skirts, blouses, shawls, trousers, shirts and they are very colourful.





Allemansrätten is another very typical Swedish thing and I believe Sweden is very famous for that. If you should translate it, it means right of common access. What I have seen so far, you don’t have anything like it here in the United Kingdom. Allemansrätten basically says that everyone is allowed to spend time out in nature whenever you want and wherever you want. Of course, you need to follow some regulations, but overall allemansrätten isn’t strict at all. You might be able to see elks the animal people from all around the world come to Sweden to see.

England has kidneypie, Italy has pasta and pizza, USA has hamburgers and beef and Norway has salmon. What has Sweden? Sweden isn’t famous for a special dish, but I would say that we eat a very healthy diet. But if I had to choose one dish associated with Sweden, I think it would have to be Swedish meatballs. I will never forget when I had at lunch at IKEA’s after our visit to the Buddah temple. Nothing can beat a plate with boiled potatoes, meatballs and red whortleberry jam, prehaps an ice-cold beer in the summer with friends. My experience is that England has no food culture at all.

You may have something on the pup or on your way home, fish and chips and lots of take-away restaurants. It’s more common to eat out on restaurants in England if you compare to Sweden.
We don’t go the pub on the way home. We cook and eat together with the family. I have the feeling that in Sweden, we are more concern about the family. We spend more time with our families than the English do. If you got children, is much more common to use a nanny in England compare to Sweden.
The mums in Sweden will take care of the children by them self instead of having a nanny or leave them to day-care. It’s possible to do that thanks to the “parent money”. I think the Swedes are alone in the world to have that long time off from work. One and a half year is quite a long time to be with your child.

In August, the crayfish and the fermented herring have premiere. Crayfish is very popular on the south coast but actually in the whole Sweden. It is a very colourful feast where the eaters wear funny hats. I think this party is very nice and I’m in love with crayfish, actually all seefood!
Midsummer, another time of the year, which I really like, freinds, relatives and other people meets, havning dinner, they drink, talk and are happy. I missed the most importante thing, the dance. A tall pole covered with lots of different flowers and greens which people are dancing around and singing songs about frogs and pigs. Everyone does it, so you don’t have to feel lonely...

Lucia, well it’s a choir dressed in a white long dress with candles in their hands. If you’re the Lucia- you have a crown with five candles in the hair. Little brownies in red, gingerbread men and boys with white long dresses and cones on their heads singing songs about Christmas. It’s quite lovely...
The highlight of the year, best tradition of them all, Christmas. The whole family is home, sitting in the livingroom, gathered around the TV waiting for Donald Duck to begin. After you have a traditional Swedish Christmas table consists of a lot of diffirent dishes. Cold and warm dishes and a dessert.

If I have to chooes two thing that I think Sweden are famous for in the world, I would say the royal family and ABBA. The royal family is an old tradition, it’s not so many who still have them in the world, England does. There are some people in Sweden who thinks that we should be a republik insted of a monarchy. I don’t agree with them! Eurovision Song Contest is a big event in Europe every year. In the year of 1974 (had to call my mom and ask her) ABBA won with a song call “Waterloo”. ABBA is very famous around the whole world, they put Sweden on the map...
Beside from ABBA, we have other famous Swedes; Gustav Vasa, King Carl, Alfred Nobel, Fredrik Ljungberg just to mention a few. But what exports Sweden besides from famous celebrities? Volvo and Saab. T...