Sweden is not Switzerland

Why todays topic?

There have been more times than I can count since I first moved to the US 18 years ago that people who meet me for the first time mistake Sweden for Switzerland. This is more common than people actually know where Sweden is, or know anything about Sweden.
So now that I have this opportunity to “educate” using my podcast I couldn’t resist. Today I will take a look at similarities (which aren’t that many) and differences between the two countries. I will also share some things that each country is “famous” for with a focus on Sweden. And finally, I will share some fun facts about Sweden and Swedish products that might surprise you but that you are free to use the next time you meet a Swede to really impress.

But before we start with that

Moving to the US, there was a couple of things that hit me right away that were very different from Sweden. The first thing I noticed was how very proud most Americans are of being Americans, in Sweden this part mostly pops up when we are at the sporting event or something like that, then we can be very patriotic, but here it’s more an everyday thing.
Even when people have very different points of view on politics, on social issues, on practically anything they can always agree on being proud to be American. In Sweden, we are more careful about saying things like we are proud to be Swedes unless it is at a soccer game or any other sports event, then you see the bue and yellow flags.

So now let’s talk about Sweden and Switzerland

Another thing that really confused me, and maybe because I’m a teacher, was that Americans are very unaware of the rest of the world, especially when it comes to geography. When I met someone new and we started to talk, it could go something like this.

Oh, I hear you have an accent. Where are you from?

I am from Sweden.

Oh, I love your chocolate

me: Well, I think you are confusing Sweden with Switzerland.

That is something very common. If I had to penny for every time someone thought Sweden is the same as Switzerland. I would be very rich today. I don’t get upset that people don’t know the difference between Sweden and Switzerland. It gives me an opportunity to tell them a little bit about Sweden, but I must say it was somewhat disturbing that my mother-in-law, God bless her soul, even after 10 years introduced me as;

This is Pia, my daughter-in-law and she is from Switzerland.

I mean, come on after 10 years, shouldn’t you know that I’m from Sweden.

What do the have in common?

So let’s start with the similarities because they aren’t too many. Let’s start with the obvious both countries start with an S, as I said, both are located in Europe and both have a relatively small population. Sweden has about 10.4 million people while Switzerland has about 8.7 million.

And now some differences

But let’s take a look at the differences; Switzerland is a small country when it comes to area and it’s in the center of Europe with no coasts. On the other hand, Sweden is the fourth largest country in Europe when it comes to size, Sweden has a long coast up in the Baltic sea.
Switzerland has a president. While Sweden has a king that has no official power and a prime minister. Switzerland is a country with high mountains, the Alps, and four official languages. While Sweden is a long narrow country with some mountains in the north and really flat land in the south and Sweden only had one language Swedish, but they recognize five minority languages. And one of those is the Swedish sign language.

What are they know for?

So let’s take a look at what each of these countries is known for. Let’s start with Switzerland. They are known for chocolate cheese, their banking system, and watches, while Sweden is known for. Volvo, Ikea, pop music, and the Nobel prize. And of course, Swedish meatballs. And if you listened to my last episode, you are familiar with Swedish fika.

Let’s look a bit closer on Sweden

Let me give you some ideas, what you can talk about with a Swede if you want to seem like you are knowledgeable about Sweden. If you are a music lover, for example, you should know that Sweden is the third-largest country in the world after only the UK and the US when it comes to pop music in 2012. More than half of all the top songs of the billboard hot 100 were produced or written by a Swede, more than 50%. And if you’re my age, you probably remember ABBA, Sweden’s most successful pop export ever with songs like Dancing Queen, Mama Mia, and Waterloo, and this was back in the seventies and talking about music;

Did you know that the app Spotify is from Sweden? It was started in 2006 in Stockholm by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Today, Spotify is worth around $26 billion and has more than 200 million active users worldwide. And talking about technology. Did you know that the best-selling video game of all time, with over 176 million copies sold was created by a Swede?

The game is now owned by Microsoft, but it was developed by Marcus Persson a Swedish video game programmer and designer. And the game is, of course, Minecraft. And maybe you are driving a Swedish car like Volvo or Saab Volvo luxury cars are nowadays owned by a Chinese company, but it started in Sweden.

One thing that most people know about as a Swedish product, it’s Ikea, but did you know that the name Ikea is an acronym for the founder’s initials, Ingvar Kamprad, and the farm on which he grew up Elmtaryd in the town Agunnaryd. He started the company in 1943 and it was originally a mail-order business and they actually didn’t start to sell furniture until 1956. And if you have ever visited an Ikea store, you might have gone to the restaurant and had Swedish meatballs at Ikea’s restaurant. More than 2 million meatballs worldwide are served every day. And I will make an episode later on in this series where we talk a little bit more about Swedish food to love and to hate.

My final thoughts

I hope the next time you run into a Swede you know the difference between these two countries. If you have any additional questions you can just add them in the comments below this post, and I will do my best to answer them.
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