Culture of Sweden
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Welcome!
My name is Loretta Qwarnström. I am a teacher here at Högskolan Dalarna. And as you most probably hear, I don't come from Sweden. So welcome to this very humble anecdotal, introduction to Swedish culture.
A lot of you who are watching this talk have probably never been to Sweden. So hopefully this will give you a few ideas and thoughts before you come. And it will attract you to come to this fantastic, wonderful country. As you see here to my right there is a wonderful wonderful picture. And this my friends is a picture all the Swedish dream. Now you all know about the American dream but eat your heart our America because this is the Swedish dream.
When I give you my talk, I do not want you to feel the I'm representing the whole of Sweden. Sweden is an extremely long, long country with many different cultures and traditions. I'm only going to give you my perspective — my personal perspective — and all the pictures that you will see are from my own personal collection. So this is my personal encounter with Sweden.
And here you have a beautiful view of the Swedish summer stuga that we call it here in Sweden. It's a little red house, and behind this little red house you have this beautiful lake. This is a view of an area very close to us here at Högskolan Dalarna. And all my friends, and all the people I know, have to have a little stuga where they can escape to at the weekends in the summer and relax and be at one with nature.
Now for me, as a visitor, when I first came I thought this was very strange because you know I come from a place called London. I think you might have heard at a place called London in England. There's a place called London in Canada as well by the way, but London, England. And there's quite a few people that live there (I think about seven million people). So when I first moved to Sweden, I moved to a place called Bolänge which has a population of about 40,000.
So for me that was the country. And then friends who live there also had this wonderful dream: that they needed their little cottage out by the lake. And I couldn't understand this. I thought, excuse me, you live in the country. Why do you need another house in the country. But at as I said, this is something but is imprinted in many people's hearts and souls: to be at one with nature and to experience this beautiful view as they come outside their house every day in the summer and the weekend.
When I first came, of course, I met with very strange sights. And one of them was this. And, of course, you all know what this is, don't you. Some of you know anyway. But maybe people that are watching this seminar do not know. This, my friends, is an outdoor low. And of course, coming from a big city, I had never ever met something like this. And it seems that as long as you have the summer cottage, it doesn't matter if there's no plumbing, no electricity, you know. It's just actually being there with in nature which is the most important thing. So this I thought was a bit strange when I came and I still think it's a bit strange.
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I must admit I'm not quite got used to decide they're all a sitting their out amongst all the trees and people because there's usually small window as you say there's a small window beside it and you know I like to be private but OK I got used to it I and of course what did I first meet when I came to Sweden and all the rituals and for me is the London Eye coming from a very multicultural society where they were also was a different Richard and traditions a this I really enjoyed I really enjoyed midsummer celebrations and this is very very special in Sweden and especially in this area da linha as you can see here there this is the Maypole and is a pagan tradition meets summer and everybody celebrates midsummer in Sweden in some way and many people celebrated in the traditional way and as you can see here a the Maypole is the center other entertainment this very wonderful phallic symbol and as you can see here these are the female a.m. fellow pink shoes you could say in for a in pagan tradition and then I won't say much more about the Maypole anyway so here people meet around this maypole and they saying and baby doll and there are many and its a family occasion on the whole I and as you can see on the left hand side there are a group of people with doing strange things and this was the first exotic meeting I had with the Swedish song tradition and it was cold small or gordana and of course I didn't know any sweeter so I said to them what are they doing and they said they are dancing and singing about little frogs a hot I said okay XI saying and why are they jumping around and while I got hands behind their hips here and they going cool act cool act cool act apk app what does that mean well co-op cock that A's native in Swedish aho but I i said no folks does sound like that but OK all except that so there was this massive people jumping around the Maypole singing little frogs little frogs they're so fun to look at at nine areas no tales but what have what about so I'm this was a very interesting meeting auto and of course I thought it was very amusing but it was a wonderful day and people were happy and children while offering and for me this was a very a.m. important encounter with Swedish kept culture and a very hot about one because I must tell you this although I'm ENGLISH my heart is here in Sweden I have had a wonderful time here and I'm still having a wonderful time and I will continue so hear you say also the adoration of summer a and this seems to be true I'll every single percent I me here in Sweden unfortunately you looking at me in the studio but outside they is about one of meters of snow and it has been snowing terribly so we have went to where swedes a showed different qualities have the character and then we have some a in the summer you will see a difference suede and I will explain that a bit later but summer is a very very important time would be at the Swedish people and in the summer we have moral traditions and this was again I've the things but I met when I first came a.m. and it was called the crayfish party now this looks like a very no more party where people at this chatting and talking but if you look a bit closer you'll see that they're wearing party hats and you will see that there are crayfish here I am are a real crayfish party that probably be more snaps not a wind this is much more a more refined crayfish party you can say but having said that the traditional reaching crayfish I found extremely exotic because suddenly I was a sitting in front of this big mound of crayfish and everybody was taking a crayfish and Ben AP picked up pace crayfish and I when crop and I thought about the thing but this is a Swedish tradition and this is how you eat crayfish a and the crayfish party which begins the first week ago August is a tradition that many many sweets I am celebrate and of course as you can see here in the summer with beautiful weather which is what we sometimes have been this in a some month I but and happy people back to as i said quite an exotic tradition and they're all certain ways to eat the crayfish you have to cut the head off and then you have to bring the wings off and then you have to take the shell of and is I am a lesson in life and then moose hunting at this is quite an interesting phenomenon here especially in this area but I know in other parts of Sweden but berries an official week whereby the moose hunting occur and during that week I would say and in my experience I would call it nearly Holy Week because I remember when I first started teaching in a little primary school in Bollinger my principal a.m. disappeared one week in October and you know I we're working hard on the principles gone and I think excuse me where's the principal at all well you know he's gone to them he's gone moose hunting haha I'm well you know it you know the you can have that week off when you go moose hunting areas way to no problem okay so I thought to myself this is a very important week said the here this is a friend of mine sign actually who is also a hunter so this is something that also is important for all generations in this area as well and he's the very proud owner all a Moosehead and then of course we have Lucy a at which a which aka on the th of December every year and again another very important tradition which all children are usually involved in wherever they are in nursery in school University we celebrate it as well so this is a very important tradition where we celebrate Lucy a who is at sicilian saint and here you see amass all children wearing long dresses hoffa been looking quite happy about being in them and all of them not particularly happy about being dressed up in these things that their parents are forced onto them this little boy the front doesn't look very happy with the hat he's wearing this is called us stuff fun acts and it is also very traditional but unfortunately a.m. I was the Olympic host death for Sweden at one year and we invite you be International Olympic Committee to celebrations in Stockholm and Billy International Olympic Committee come from all over the world and I am a very terrible thing happened we thought let celebrate you see a let's take a group of people dressed in these wonderful dresses in the strange happens and knock on their door very early in the morning and sing songs I unfortunately because they had never met base be four one a ball members IRC members I won't say who jumped out of bed screaming the crew cab skirt hey a size you can say a these things can be misinterpreted but I can assure you this is a very very peaceful affair and of course if you come to dollar night expect to ski we have the most wonderful slopes here if you want to go long distance skiing or you want to go downhill skiing and a very important event happens in da linha every year and is called the boss a lot but and it is a race where i think is about , competitors compete against each other to win this competition by after ski kilometers I meant that's a long way I and it's a world-renowned competition and this is something that people and on a very proud of in here this is my friends brother a Cup completing the fossil op a on the top left outside very happy gang up Spears to add downhill skiing I'm here on the right a very beautiful area way you can a ski long-distance so as you can see the environment and the scenery here in this area is breathtaking and that's what struck me when I first came as well so very quickly going into a few values that I met and let me also say these are not values but all a carved in stone but these are my experiences honest a I was awestruck by this when I first came to Sweden and I'll give you one quick example I would go into a shop and I would try some clothes on I would say well I like this the next but I'm not really sure and and the manageress at the shop said well just take them home try the morning front to be on Mira and the clothes that you want you keep them coming paving the clothes you don't want just bring them back and for me coming from a big city I felt that this was absolutely amazing on the whole I was awestruck by people's honesty and people's belief but their fellow citizen was also honest percent modesty a.m. I was struck by this positively and negatively I would say modest see that I would say to someone calls you did a fantastic job and they would say me narrow that was nothing and you will make this very often when you at talk to people that a.m. people well not step out to the crowd and say yes on the best at so quite modest in in that respect tolerance I've been accepted in the creek into the community without any problems or any issues a.m. and I feel that many many international students here at yes we between and at her school on da linha have also felt that they've been accepted into the community without any any problems what so ever a I think most students here enjoy the multicultural nature a university and and it really richer south all equality I fell extremely a strongly when I first came here firstly the Equality between people that everybody has a right to be in the society everybody has a right to express their opinion but not only equality amongst people pretty quality amongst the sexes gender quality at that struck me very strongly and I was very happy with how to act a.m. that a equal rights means equal rights between men and women as well because as you come here you realize backed society has been built for a the expression I've rights if you're either a woman or a man and equality is a very strong strong perspective issue here in Sweden I A Parliament attack it's cold the right about access this is something I know that many swedes take for granted but I think is fantastic but you can come here and you can go anywhere anywhere in the forest and you can even camp in the forest for one night without permission for the owner you can pick berries you can pick mushrooms all privately owned forest and I thought that was fantastic to be able to go anywhere I wanted accepted papers back gardens of course because you know I I mean that is your private property but anywhere in the forest a absolutely fantastic and big at this is something that I appreciate it very much when I first came the opportunity because I came again from a major city and a for you where you had to go on specific Paul and if you swayed from the Paul then the owner will be there saying no no no no no trespassers will be prosecuted so that's where I come from for me this was are freedom I love pace a avoidance of conflict I would put it but was going to that later but swayed an as the nation very peaceful nation but don't readily go to war it was a long long long time ago I when the swedes were in fact in any sort of wall that a.m. I don't want to go into but as I said this very I they were not involved in the second world war for example they try to act as a neutral nation cleanliness sorry I'm this was something that struck me very much when I first K this week is a very clean people and the houses was typo students in front of me now and they're saying no no no i got it wrong a but on the whole in my experience a all institutions hospitals which is great thank you a.m. are extremely scream Lee squeaky clean and I'll give you an example at because as I'm British I I like ball you know about this get into it and you luxurious in the bob or something is wonderful and I'm I'm yeah I can shower now and again I don't care but I never forget I had a friend of mine who is organizing a trip for for some friends to britain and she said we can't use back hotel and I said why not because they only have balked there haha and what's wrong with having a ball then it's disgusting she said how can you all in a in water but he's pretty I'm you know ever fed I didn't understand what she meant I mean I'm not that data and I games about come on don't exaggerate but there's this idea that you cannot really be clean unless you have a shower and shower the experi- important act repute Aaron Swedish homes you would always say a shower you may not see a ball that was a big if free I am okay and conscientiousness hard-working all my experience my colleagues at my friends extremely hardworking and wanting to do a very good job and here we have some funny keywords and I say funny a I mean exotic a log on now love him is this very sweet as well on this way so proud of it because I say you can say in English there's no such word and I thought well I wouldn't want tonight about what now I'm joking I'm Sun log on no gum means in solar two words Jess right but you know log on being just right is that what we all want to be but that seems to be the ethos in many a KO many occasions a and not to be too loud not to be too quiet not to be too out bad but not to be too back there so a log on me something but actually Spears how many swedes act in many situations and that is also stayed by something called young catalog which is also not a particularly English word bot a I think it exists in many many towns and cities in the world and young to log is something which says that a.m. we can be equally well all but some person cannot be back to them a that we have this even a here in Sweden which sometimes is also abate frustrating but on the other hand cultures are not fixed this is changing a.m. because we're becoming more more multicultural and now we have the welfare state which I think is fantastic a.m. as a mother all three children I experienced the social welfare system here all I was given time of work over a year took off to my children and I was paid eighty percent of my wage and I think that is as far as a quality is concerned absolutely fantastic a.m. there's a social net here but I really appreciated not only for myself for but from my family iight as far as what way as I stand here today studies in Sweden for example of free of charge and that is a luxury believe it or not okay the strange wud sambo sad about Mambo past mama at the small so things I found very interesting when I first came to Sweden because I came from a country where if you live with someone a your cohabiting and there is only one word in in Britain one where did the English own living together something like that but in Sweden there's this whole web I've relationships that has developed around the new families but a have cut I have have emerged here in Sweden because Sweden is a very secular country and that is something very important to to say that I am that it's stable values and norms the govern here side some ball means that you live together with someone and said abort means that you're in a relationship but you live in two different places and mom bought me is that you live with your mom and plus mom that means I don't like that word I think we need to have another word for that translated means plastic knob to and plastic what does it better than stepmother because that sounds like something from Cinderella doesn't so I am plastic Mamba that comes from a is when it's a stepmother actually a but also you can get bonus children if you go into another relationship with is more children so they called by one ish children and I don't need to go on I can tell you there's at least more descriptions are these new relationships that are occurring here in Sweden but its all I think its healthy that a we give these relationships positive I am attributes another word to I not as soon as I came here was talk thank you and thank you seems to govern quite a lot of what you do and how you communicate with people I can to give you one explanation I went into the post office one day when there were lotsa post offices here in Sweden but they're cutting down a and I wanted a stamp so I said hello can I have a stamp tak and she's and she said yes all good morning and how much will that cost and she said all we will cost $ krona tak and then I said all tak and then I took out my my money from my past I gave it to a and she said pack and then she gave me the stamp and I said track and then she said tax to make get thank you very much and I fed tax America and then we went our way so i can state that we have said tock about twenty times between us in the space of two minutes so talk very important word and if you don't know what to say what do you say back cap I another interesting tradition was this talk first and last a translated thank you for the latest and that is something that you always a say to people if you've been invited the day before the week before today in a lunch to be cow which we're gonna talk about a minute I and always say pack for saying oft thank you for the last time very important tradition and i think is a very nice tradition at what I this Rome remember when I said peace-loving this is the peace-loving suede saying nap now this is a cross between no and yes so when a swedish person says yeah to two-year what they really mean is no but I don't ask her but i wanna conflict sire now very important work to NoHo and remember when they say it they really may not have a so don't push it so the three hi proud up and the modest Swede this is I'm for saying this to you as modest weights you should be proud of your country should be proud of the wonderful people their country's produced because look at this seventy percent a suede what still want the while family to be here believe it or not I and the royal family a very important a aspect to Swedish daily life bag the two young ladies princesses are getting married this summer so there will be a big party in stock coming June be there or be square sports stars p.m. Bari in about mark I me a passion the Swedish food chain the Swedish hockey team the Swedish for portraying one of the main characters there's a guy called slapped on doesn't sound very Swedish but he Swedish he's a new suede and he is a very very well-known international football star locked on easy bra him a bitch the music industry abba rocks that a surprise these I may just stalls but have really a been great exporters a Swedish music we have a local group called mando dow I think I said that right and they are also extremely internationally a acclaimed coming from this little area Sweden I think that's fantastic industry Baltimore Eric some saw up but they're doing well them we believe in Salt I you can read these names these all people that this way if they're not proud them should be very proud of them so very quickly into a bit aback etiquette be on time this is very important here is waitin if you are late the past Sun that you're meant to me will not be very happy because they will interpret your lateness as you can't be bothered to be on time now other cultures have different aspects of this punctuality but its weight in punctuality is extremely important be prepared to remove your shoes now as I said this is something that we're many sweets just take for granted as soon as they put that may be put inside that although shares come off for me it wasn't a simple and and so be prepared the handshake now many view will say what you mean while as soon as you meet someone new in Sweden you have you say hello my name is director and you shake their hands but the funny thing about the show the handshaking is fact it goes on forever because really that person does want physical contact with you but that's the only acceptable way to to to touch the other person when you first meet them so the handshake usually lasts quite a long time because you're talking to each other as I hi oh how are you for you whatever so you could find yourself shaking for quite a long time there a.m. but don't get too close there is this little bubble around people a my mother come came from Italy so she had she thought this was hilarious because she use her best take was to move people around the room by just getting too close so she would just talk to them like they I'm wat ground rooms with them while they went okay because they they were getting too close so be careful don't get too close perfectly a another thing not I a.m. found out and the fair really small things but they're quite fun for me they were fun for me a Dennis when you are invited to Dana don't start to drink until the highest hasn't lifted bag of unfed welcome a because at this tradition doesn't exist in my country I mean as soon as the wine with a my class I was sipping or but you have to wait their official welcome and then there's this funny toasting ritual which I thought was really quite amusing side I respect or whoever I want to toast to the because they've got toasting going on a.m. and she she or he will lift gloss look at you and say skoal and you lik job loss and look at them as a school and bad you look at each other again and then you take a little sick be trying time it really well as well and then you look at each other again and then you put the glass down it's all very wonderful and so that's the toasting grip tool no all clean this is something that I what I experienced very much which is also connected remember I was talking about law go home and all this no ok feeding which means quiet and calm now as you most probably be experienced on everything but quiet and calm so when I'm excited about something I would be excited about something and when I'm angry about something I will be angry about something but on these occasions that I have used the have been in this manner people have said to me to no creen and I've got so angry I feeling of being and sometimes when i've been intense about something somebody is said to me director why are you so angry I'm great I'm just intense passionate about this issue and then when I'll of or not I get quick sometimes like what if you've been drinking and I'm thinking to myself hold on a minute ten o'clock in the morning why do they think I've been drinking just because I'm not single out I am so I met this quite a lot and I again it's because many swedes met somebody that didn't fit the pattern quiet you know how people should be but again I will not a make said this interest or the negative bit because the thing was but I was still accepted into the community but I'd need to be in front of a train for laughing too loud because barry someone could complained I was too loud and immediately came to the conclusion I've been drinking and then the the train master came out with it you need to be quieter otherwise I'm going to have to push off this train K so that's what I experience that many years ago now I must say but a ever fed loan of a was something that I experienced and then Bosch a good because marcia good is also what that doesn't really exist in my country because for example if you have food on the table the highest all your mother or what whoever more say Bosh a good I was a please help yourselves so that boshe good is this keyword for start acting in any way so what anyone says to wash a good it means go through the door martial arts star saying washer good you can drink your coffee now Sabah chicago is also quite important word and I am here is a wonderful picture Swedish winters pot let me state that you can see that it doesn't really invite to being outdoors hours a day a.m. unless you're active at many people in Sweden whale a hibernate a little bit in the winter a.m. and this because all the sometimes better win it says but beautiful winter a and they do strange things in the winter as well just to be outside motto is called I speech fishing I've given you the Swedish weren't there up including it's cold and thought me when I came to sway I just thought was a funny word sorry I am Sunday when I came just way that I saw this low demand in the middle of this iced over lay sitting on this little little stalwart with very little at Roland just sitting there was and hours do as I don't think you know were raised to fund a that but apparently it's fun so that is also a little winter tradition you can do and of course skating or lakes which i'm dumb once and it was pretty exciting but then you have to some a and look at the difference between winter and summer you have this beautiful landscape everything has come alive and who else comes alive when the when the summer is here sweeney because I would come out in the summer and a suddenly I would start meeting people but my next door neighbor Ohio where you've been for the past six months a.m. so this is something that really sweets the suite in the winter and this week in the summer are two totally different people the three even a summer is this very vibrant excited pasan with love live for love i wanna talk to people not been stuck indoors all went to typeof attitude and you release a feel the difference between the summers wait in the winter suede and of course with the fam Occam's it's time to party party and this is something I also experienced but there was no many family parties many friend parties even if your birthday was in February you had the party injured at because this is the most important I'm to meet your friends to celebrate the summer and the actor rationing all some up the summer in general and that my friends is my little presentation on my encounter with Sweden thank you very much
