After living more than 20 years in the US as a Swede, I have thought a lot about how little Americans know about Sweden and what a small country Sweden really is. So for today’s episode, I started searching the internet for the most commonly asked question about Sweden. And Swedes, and I will try and answer them as well as I can.
And I will answer three categories. The first is, is Sweden blank. The second one I search for is are Swedes blank. And I then took a look at Do Swedes blank, and last but not least I will talk about some misconceptions about Sweden and Swedes that I often run into in my regular life. So let’s start with the most common question I’ve found when asking is Sweden…
Is Sweden …
The absolute top question is Sweden and Switzerland the same. This question you find in many versions is Sweden in Switzerland, is Sweden known for chocolate, is Sweden famous for making watches, is yodling from Sweden and other versions? I actually made a whole episode about the confusion between Sweden and Switzerland in one of my very early episodes on this podcast. And the answer is no Sweden and Switzerland have not very much in common. And if you want to learn more, look for that early episode. And I believe I called it. Sweden is not Switzerland.
Other common questions are; is Sweden a capitalist country, is Sweden a socialist country, Is Sweden a monarchy? The answer to all of these is, that it’s a mix. It is what we call a representative monarchy. That means that we have a parliament and we have a king. The king has no political influence but is the head of state.
Another very common question is; is Sweden cold all year round? The answer to that is no, it is cold a large portion of the year, but the summer is bright and warm.
I also saw several questions regarding religion; is Sweden religious, is Sweden Christian, is Sweden Lutheran, is Sweden a Catholic country? Well, the answer is that Sweden is officially a Lutheran country, but Swedes in general, aren’t very religious, but we still celebrate all the Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter.
Another often reoccurring question was. Is Sweden expensive? And the answer to that is both yes and no. There are many things that are more expensive in Sweden than for example here in the US, but there are also things that are less expensive. When I first moved there, I couldn’t believe how expensive it was to buy fruit in the store here since fruit Is something that is relatively cheap in Sweden. I couldn’t believe how cheap gas was because driving is very expensive in Sweden.
Then we have a couple of questions regarding what is free in Sweden. Is education free, is healthcare free? Nothing is free, but you don’t pay for your education. It is paid for by taxes.
The same with healthcare. It is subsidized. So you just pay very little for your healthcare in Sweden.
Then we have the question is the Swedish language hard to learn? I grew up learning Swedish. So it’s very hard for me to say if it’s hard to learn, but from people that have learned Swedish as a second language, I have heard that it is not that easy to learn Swedish.
Another common question is; is Sweden part of the EU and yes they are. And is Sweden in NATO, we are in the process of applying for membership in NATO?
Another common question is; is Sweden part of the Euro? And although Sweden is a member of the EU, European Union, we have not been a part of the Euro in Sweden. You still pay with Sweden krona if you use money, which I also made an episode about. Many Swedes use more digital forms of payment nowadays.
I often see questions like; are Swedes Vikings, all of Scandinavia have in one way or another roots in the Vikings.
And the last one I found several variations of is, is water safe to drink in Sweden? And that’s an easy one to answer. Yes, it’s very safe to drink Swedish water, drink it right from the tap and it’s not just safe. It tastes good.
Are Swedes…
So now some common questions that start with Are Swedes. The first three are pretty hard for me to answer, especially the first two. Are Swedes attractive, are Swedes beautiful? I know that is something you often heard, but I think Swedes are like people everywhere. Some are attractive, some are beautiful. Some are not.
Then the question that pops up after those is our Swedes antisocial. I don’t believe we are antisocial but we are compared to many other nationalities, more reserved, and it might take a longer time to really get to know us.
The next question has a little bit to do with that, but I think it’s more asked for people that thinking about maybe a vacation in Sweden and that is; are Swedes friendly to foreigners? If you ask me, I would say that Swedes are friendly to everybody, but they also manage to hide it behind their more restrictive personas. They are not loud and that outgoing and that can be mistaken for unfriendliness.
Then I found, that I had to laugh at, a lot of questions about Swedish fish. And one question I often got when I first moved here from people I got to know was are Swedish fish Swedish? And the answer is no, not really. They are similar to a fish-like candy that we have in Sweden, but in Sweden, they are not typically red. They come in all kinds of colors. What we call Swedish fish here in the US, the typical red ones, I think they were first created here in the US, but don’t quote me on that.
Another common question is, are Swedes good at English? And in general, I must say we are pretty good at English. My biggest problem, when I first moved here was that I grew up. In school learning British English. So it took me a while to switch over to the more American word choice. And I still sometimes do a mix of British and American English, but in general, Swedes are pretty good at speaking English. Part of that is that we hear English on TV all the time since no Swedish TV is dubbed. So it all comes out in its original language using closed caption or subtitles.
Then I saw several questions like; Are Swedes neutral? And that is probably in the discussion about NATO recently. And there have also been other questions like were Sweden active in world war II and so forth. I wouldn’t say they are neutral. Nobody’s really neutral, but Sweden. haven’t been directly involved in any military actions for a long time.
Then one question that I saw several variations of that made me laugh is are Swedes punctual? And that is actually true. One thing that you should know about Sweden, especially if you set up an appointment, is that we keep the time. If an appointment is set up to be at three o’clock, it starts at three o’clock. I think that’s something that most Swedes have in common, that we are very punctual.
I also saw several questions on the theme; are Swedes patriotic, and that’s a funny one. Although we love our country, we don’t express it as loud as for example, Americans, the only time you really see Swedes being loud and proud about being Swedes and cheering for Sweden is when there are any sports events. Otherwise, even though we might be patriotic in our hearts, we are not very loud about it. Then again, I saw several questions about why are Swedes so quiet, all of this being quiet, being punctual, being introverts, being antisocial, all of this stems back to something called the law of Jante, which I also did an episode about. And if you really want to learn more about some of these traits us Swedes have in common, I would recommend you listen to that episode.
Then I saw a few questions about; are Swedes Scandinavian, are Sweden and Norway the same, are Sweden and Denmark, the same, And this is something very common. I think, especially here in the US people don’t really know Very much about the Northern part of Europe, but Scandinavia is all the five countries up in the north. It’s Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. So we are separate countries, but we have so much of common roots that we are similar in many ways.
Many ask are people in Sweden called Swedes and yes, we are. We are Swedes but I know that the confusion probably comes from Swedes are also a hybrid between a turnip and a type of cabbage. So Swedes are both turnips and the people of Sweden.
Do Swedes …
Then we have the question, do Swedes, and the first several questions I found were; do Swedes and Danes get along, do Swedes and Danes understand each other’s language, do Swedes and Norwegian speak the same language, do Swedes and Norwegian, like each other, get along and so forth. How do you answer a question like that? It’s so difficult to generalize. Of course, we get along, not every individual, but there are no hard feelings between the countries when it comes to understanding each other, it all depends on where you live. Both Sweden and Norway are pretty tall countries. So there is a big difference between the north and the south. If you live in the south of Sweden, you probably understand Danish pretty well, but if you live up in the north, I don’t think you will understand Danish. So that depends on what part of the country you are talking about.
I also saw many questions about; do Swedes believe in God, do Swedes celebrate Christmas, do Swedes celebrate Easter and yes, some Swedes believe in God, most Swedes celebrate Christmas and Easter, as I explained before, but not all. And Sweden has also become a very multicultural country. So we have other large religious groups that are Swedes as well. So it depends on who you are talking about.
Then my favorite question; do Swedes drink a lot of coffee? The answer; Yes. And if you have followed this podcast for a while, you know what the name of the podcast means, which is A Swedish Fika, and Fika is the process of sitting down for 15, 20 minutes at work, having a cup of coffee, and relax, or in the afternoon with your friends, go have a fika, coffee is an important part of life for us Swedes.
I also saw many questions; do Swedes drink a lot of alcohol? Alcohol and Swedes are a very difficult topics. During the week the Swedes don’t consume a lot of alcohol, but during the weekend, it is almost your duty to go out and party. And I made an episode about that as well, about Swedes’ ambivalent relationship to alcohol, or as I also called it the drunk Swede.
And then we have a very interesting topic. This question popped up in so many variations. Do Swedes feed their guests? And this story started somewhere on social media, someone told the story about how a young person, I won’t say if it was a kid, but a young person was visiting another young person. They were playing in the room and the mother called their kid to come and eat. And the other kid wasn’t invited to the table. The kid, when he stood up, asked his friend to stay in the room, and this story grow and grow and grow. And from being one person telling this story, it became like an understanding on the internet that Swedes don’t feed their guests. And I have seen both sides of this, kids that come and sit down and eat with their friends when it’s dinner time and kids that don’t. So I don’t think there is a simple answer to the question.
Then I saw a lot of questions about Will Ferrell. Does Will Ferrell speak Swedish? And I got curious. So I had to look it up. In my mind, it was why would, Will Ferrell speak Swedish? It turns out that he is married to a Swedish woman and that their kids speak Swedish with their mother. So he has willingly or been forced into, or just happened to speak decent Swedish. So the answer to that is yes.
Then I saw a lot of questions about; do Swedes import garbage and the answer is yes, they do. Sweden has developed a system where they use garbage to create electricity. When they develop this, they soon realized that they didn’t have enough trash to produce all the electricity they could use. So somehow they realized that other countries had an overflow of garbage and they just put it in big landfills. So Sweden gets paid by other countries to take their garbage, which they then convert into electricity. So they get electricity from the garbage plus they get paid to import this garbage, quite a brilliant solution if you ask me.
Then I saw several questions; Do Swedes only eat candy on Saturday? Candy is another thing that is very important for us Swedes, just like coffee, and yes, we have something called Saturday candy, Lördagsgodis. This is the day when most kids and most adults indulge a little bit in candy. This doesn’t mean we don’t eat candy on other days. This is something I also made an episode about. That was called Fredagsmys and Lördagsgodis, which is Friday koozy and Saturday candy.
And of course, I found the question. Do Swedes pay high taxes? and yes, I think on average, The tax level is at 42% or something like that, but they also get a lot of things back from their taxes, the very low cost, good healthcare free schools, school lunches, and school material from kindergarten to the end of the university. So yes, we pay high taxes in Sweden, but since I can compare now, after living here for 20 years, I. Don’t think that we have less spendable money than the Americans, because here I have to pay out of pocket for so many things that I get for free in Sweden. So I think we end up on an even plain field. We just pay in different ways. Swedes pay by taxes. In America, we pay outta pocket.
And then we have the questions;. Do Swedes eat Roten fish or do Swedes eat surströmming? Surströmming is something that is eaten seasonal, mostly in the Northern part of Sweden. It is fermented herring, and I don’t like it, my mother loves it. The thing with, surströmming is that it is so smelly, so when you open the can it stinks, I can’t even be nearby when someone opens surströmming, because the smell is….. it there aren’t words to describe it! But it’s true, many people eat surströmming.
Then there were two questions related to money in another way than taxes. Do Swedes use money and do Swedes tip? Tipping first of all; it’s not a common system, the way it is in the US and that is because servers and other service people have regular salaries in Sweden. So tipping is really giving that little extra because you got treated well, or the food was sensational or something like that. The same for hairdressers and all survive work. It’s not that common that you tip and if you do, you’re really just rounding up what the cost really was.
And do Swedes use money? Yes. But less and less. And there are several pay systems in Sweden that are more and more common. And I did an episode about that called A Cashless Sweden.
Misconceptions
Now, let me end with addressing some of the misconceptions that I have run into personally, during my years here, the first one is I freeze a lot. I don’t like the cold and I am very quickly frozen. So I have often heard this. Why are you cold? Aren’t you Swedish? Yes. That doesn’t mean that my body doesn’t react to the cold and I’m always, always quick to start freezing.
Another one is; is it really true that people are nude everywhere in Sweden? No, it’s not. First of all, you all think that Sweden is so cold? Why would people be nude? Secondly, no, we are dressed just like the rest of the world. What happened was in the fifties, Sweden was one of the first countries that showed female breasts bare in a movie. And from that, we have to live the Swedish sin. So I’m sorry to disappoint, but people are not running around naked everywhere in Sweden.
Then of course I have heard more than I can count when I tell people that I’m Swedish, I have heard flurgy, durgy, hurdy. And if you don’t know what that is, that is the Swedish chef from the muppets and that is not Swedish, at all.
And then, of course, the most common of them all Swedes are tall, blonde, and blue-eyed. Personally, I’m short, I’m five foot nowadays I am gray, but I can give you that I used to be blonde. My eyes are a mix of most colors. I have a little blue, a little green, a little brown, a little of everything. So it is not true at all.
So that was my attempt of answering some of the most common questions about Sweden and Swedes that I found on the internet. In my next episode, I’m gonna talk a little bit about the Swedish language. There are quite a few words and expressions that are funny or can be misunderstood between English and Swedish. And I thought we could have some fun with the Swedish language.
So until next time, as we say in Sweden,
Hej Då!
