Bokrecension: sweden the secret files av Colin Moon

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Sweden-the secret files, the essay by Emma Nilborn SK1
Summary
During September me and my class have read a text about Swedes, Sweden-the secret files. The text was about Swedes, how they act and their traditions and lifestyle. The book is written by Colin Moon who has been in Sweden a several times. It is not so hard to recognise the situations he describe for an example the typical Swedish ambition to be as normal as possible.
The book is divided into two different parts. The fist part, Sweden-the secret files, is about how Swedes act and their traditions. In the second part, Sweden-more secret files, Colin Moon introduce the reader to the language Swenglish which is a mix between Swedish and English. Colin moon shows us how swenglish can cause big misunderstandings when Swedes use it in wrong situations.
Colin Moon describes Swedes as honest, normal and introvert.
I believe it is hard to describe common personalities for nine million people which is the population of Sweden. I do not think that Colin has recharged all personalities of Sweden and then summarized it into this text. And I believe he should be very carefully what he is writing because it can be interpret in many ways and he should not risk making someone indignant.
Why does we Swedes laugh at this kind of jokes, when the only thing he is doing is to degrade our people, why is it ok to humiliate our country? Why do not we react negative to this text? I thought this book was very ironic and I laugh about almost everything, but I think it is interesting to find out why we laugh about it.
Why does we recognise in this text? Am I the only who not recognise my self in any of these Swedes-type descriptions? I do not feel like “oh, that’s me” when I read the text. Why is it that way?
Analysis
Here are the quotations for the thesis about Swedish personalities;
“Swedes are marvellously reflective and introvert. To sit and say nothing for an hour is good for the soul.” (Sweden-the secret files, 2005, page 14) this is a big misunderstanding, it is not that we like to play the game of silent all day long, I believe that the Swede who has been interviewed meant something completely different. I think what the intertwined Swede really meant was that it is good for the soul to relax sometimes and to calm down from all the stress at work, have some peace and quiet. I agree that some people in the north of Sweden are more taciturn than the rest of the Swedes but you shouldn’t trust me because I am full of prejudices.
“The Swedes are very thankful people. They may not have a word for please but they more than compensate by using the word “tack” (thank you) in numbers of situations” (Sweden-the secret files, 2005, page 14) the reason why we have these combinations of the word “tack” is not because we are grateful, do not misunderstand me Swedes are a grateful people, it is that we do not have a such wordy language as, for an example English.
Why do we Swedes laugh at this text?
I believe that we Swedes recognise our selves in this text; we do not recognise our selves personally, we recognise by the way a typical Swede are. From the beginning of our life we have been told how a typical Swede a “svensson” is.
When you read a text like this you can se the qualities that a “svensson” has.
Why do we recognise the typical Swede, it is not possible that everyone in this country have met a typical Swede and can relate to this person? It is very simple you have heard it sense you was a child. It is making you feel fellowship with rest of your country, at the same time you feel like this image is a bit outdated and is not the right one.
When was this templates created? Where did it started? I think everything started at the middle of 20th century during the second war.
Europe was characterized by the nationalistic thought as well as in Sweden. The Swedish politician was working to get a better lifestyle for Sweden, they created the Swedish family templates, the showed Swedish workers how the ultimate standard of living was and maked them se the templates they were trying to achieve, the goal. Eventually the Swedes standard of life was developing, the template was now fitting and started to be too small the Swedes. Now is the Swedish people looking back to this template and use it to describe the typical Swede, the “svensson”. I think it is about time to update this image.
Conclusion
This text was very entertaining, I laugh at almost every joke.
I think it is interesting to discuss this kind of question that comes up when you read a text; it is useful find out reasons why something happens.
I think prejudice is dangerous to use when it comes to writing books it is always the real fact that weigh a lot more. I don’t say that everything in this book is prejudices...