As a foreigner who lives in Norway, you make norwegian friends by isolating a norwegian from other Norwegians and giving them no other option until they like you. Then they will introduce you to other Norwegians and the other Norwegians will be more willing to befriend you because you're already friends with a norwegian. They call it Stockholm syndrome, but it works pretty well in Oslo too.
So you're suggesting kidnapping a Norwegian and release them only after they're so conditioned they won't try to escape? Getting a boyfriend/girlfriend (depending on your preference) used to work in the past. Maybe I'm just old.
@@Xiroi87 Not everyone wants a boyfriend/girlfriend. Some people may already have a partner when they move to norway. Or they're just about that single life. Sure, getting a partner would work. But my solution is more general. :D Besides, you'd have to befriend someone before actually getting them to date you. Or maybe I'm just young. ;)
@@Xiroi87 what exactly about my comment suggested I don't go and meet people in real life? In my generation, we don't need a partner to go out and meet people :)
Fun facts about the questions I got sent. - Zero questions about "the Icelandic dating app", which means I've taught you well (because it's not a thing) - More questions about Estonia than Finland - Weirdest question I got more than 1 of, if I like Rema 1000 or Coop more. Huh. Thank you again!
As a sami, I respect you including us in this video. Also, as for the "how do I make friends in the Nordics" parties and getting drunk...and try not to get so drunk you don't remember them the day after, but definitely alcohol is involved. Hell, I've even once had a Finnish person be the most talkative among us in a party. So yeah..
Can absolutely confirm (as a Bavarian. We're the same here, which made it a lot easier to get along with people in the Nordics). Also, the right amount of alcohol helps with understanding eachother. It's fantastic how much Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian I can speak when just drunk enough. And they? They manage Bavarian pretty well too! 😂 Language barriers is for the completely sober.
“Oh wait you want the silly answer. Uh. Potato” That got me, but honestly it is nice having more frank and informative videos stacked next to your more jokey ones
@@olafurw there was also a stand up skit in Sweden in the 90s where the comedian said, his wife's name is Berit, but he calls her Beirut, because she's so f*ing bombed... (stupid)
Right? I once was asked by a tourist in Munich, where the name comes from. Now, I'm from Munich, so I knew. Then they asked about Nürnberg and... what the hell would I know about that?
As a Dane, the Netherlands come up in relation to the Nordics a lot because it's really similar to Denmark. Not only do people mix up the adjective versions of the names and the languages all the time, the Netherlands have historically had a great deal of impact on Denmark and the two countries also share the experience of being small, easily invaded countries glued to Germany that industrialized by exporting agricultural products to the British Isles. In general, Danish and Dutch people just tend to get along, get each other and say "we do that too" about any given thing likely to come up. A less reasonable reason might also just be that people on the outside see tall, blonde people from rich Northern European countries that aren't Germany and thinking Nordic, adding the Netherlands to the category because it fits the stereotype.
Also our languages are pretty similar grammatically. Like trying to read Dutch is like reading Norwegian, but someone went really wild on how to spell things.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 You've got that backwards, Norwegian is the one that went wild on how to spell things :P Like toalett/toilet, we both stole that word from the French, the least we can do is roughly get the vowels right.
@@bramvanduijn8086 Naah, Dutch people say "twalet" but spell it "toilet". Norwegians say "toalett" and therefore spell it "toalett". Though "o" is pronounced different in Norwegian than on the continent, that is correct.. At least its internally consistent :P Maar Noors heeft andere vreemde spellingen. Ik heb geen idee waarom we skj/sj voor de "sh"-geluid gebruik, het is onzin! (Sorry for the bad grammar)
About taxes, I saw a video of a black woman who was an accountant in California and she had taken vacation spending 1 month each in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. She said that she paid 40% of her income for taxes and the only thing she saw for it was the roads she drove on. (Yes, I know, she was oversimplifying.) Her point was that in those social democracies you see what you are paying taxes for and you get a benefit, good education, good health care system. And, surprisingly to me, she said she experienced zero racism. That could be that everyone treated her like a guest because she was a tourist, but she was in each country living for a month, not just doing touristy things. I want to believe her that Nordic countries are less racist than the US. We live in Japan and my daughter's best friend is Finnish. My daughter suffers from a disability and hadn't gone to school for a month, taking classes over the internet. and her friend got the class to make a video and posted it on their website (private, only teachers, students and parents have access) begging her to return to school. My daughter went back to school. Well, at least some Nordics are very friendly.
Love this channel. My son left France to live in Finland with his Finnish wife. They now have a baby boy and I'm so happy to know that he will grow up in such a beautiful country, with kind, quiet people.
About where Norwegians go on holiday, there's also a fun tradition. They love going to Spain or Italy for the sun, but if they find out that while they're on holiday the weather was nice in Norway, that holiday was wasted and you're made fun of for missing it 😂
I once had a boss back in the early 1970s who finally booked a holiday to Spain as he was fed up with getting wet in the UK. And yes. You guessed it. Sod's law kicked in and it rained in Spain.
The sibling rivalry point is so true! Reading the 'Scandinavia and the World' comics prepared me for that more than any travel guide or language class 😆Love your videos Olafur, keep being the Nordic ambassador the world wants and needs!
So true, I'm Norwegian and love to make jokes about the Sweeds. But when some American wrote Sweeds was so entiteled, I got so offendend on their behalf. Like I can talk bad about my Swedish sibling, but if any other nationa tries to, I will defend them.
@@kirstimeretearnesen1202 whaat?? I mean, I have no problem with you saying we’re entitled, but heck no, no murican gets to call us entitled. Hmpf 🇸🇪🧡🇳🇴🇮🇸🇫🇮🇩🇰
Nordics meme way too much about the weather, and people take it seriously. I live in northern-ish Finland and I'd say we get a good three months (maybe more) of warm weather per year, and I legitimately believe these are just about the nicest places in the world to be during summer. Lots of light, very pretty and warm but not hot. Hell, 20C is not that uncommon even in September. ... unless of course you get unlucky and you get one of those random years where it's 10C in the middle of July for no reason.
@@b.a.erlebacher1139Depends on where you are. They get pretty damn bad in some rural areas some summers. Few years back during our annual cabin trip with friends, we basically stayed indoors cause the mosquitos, horsefly's and blackflies were so bad.
Nordics can make fun of each other; but if an outsider makes fun of one of the other Nordics, they should prepare to face the wrath of the others. ;) (Except Danes; it's okay to make fun of the Danish xD)
I concur with this. But I would like to add that only other Nordic countries are allowed to tease another Nordic country. We will band together real quick if there's an outside antagonist lol.
@@DaneInTheUS Nah, people can bash, the Nordics, I don't care, as long as they don't bash Scania. If a foreigner were within punching range, and talked smack about Scania, and I'm not talking about the trucks, I'm talking about the region, okay they can bash on Malmö, I still consider that foreign territory, it belongs to Saudi-Arabia, no one is Swedish in Malmö, so yeah... But Scania, no one is allowed to bash. We're the Urheimat. And while Iceland speaks the oldest Nordic Language, we speak the Oldest Nordic Non-insular Dialect.
Regarding taxes: most Nordic countries (and most European countries in general) also have a pretty high sales tax. Sweden's defaults to 20 or 25%, depending on whether you look at it as the percentage of the price you pay (20%) or how much you add to the untaxed price (25%). Some things are taxed at a lower rate, but that's the default. I personally think it would be better to lower the sales tax and raise the income tax (because sales tax is regressive), but on the other hand it's harder to cheat on sales tax so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The tax is sort of invisible to those of us who live here, because it's baked into the price. It's not like the US where you want to buy something costing $10 and the clerk asks you for $11 with a 10% sales tax included - no, the thing would cost $12.50 in the first place.
And on average, you all seem more aware of what it's paying for. "Yeah, this looks like a lot, but [insert list of government-provided benefits like free healthcare, extremely low unhoused population, free education, clean food, clean water, roads, etc, etc, etc...]. It's cheaper this way."
Not sure it's everywhere in europe, but the mentioned lower sales tax, at least where i am from, is for example for what is for what is considered essential foods and things alike. (if i am not mistaken) And for books for whatever reasons. But nobody knows what has lower sales tax, because essentially, like already mentioned, you see the price you need to pay, and that's what matters to people.
If you want a tax that is both progressive and really hard to cheat on, then tax assets. And even better: If enough people cheat on the asset taxes, then house prices go down. It is a win-win-win scenario for everyone excluding those few people who are currently too rich to ever need to work. But even for them, getting out of the house and working for a couple hours a day would be good for their physical and mental health.
"How to make friends" One of the easiest way to make friends is to find people that share a common interest. In the city that I live in, there's a gaming club not that far from my apartment. Back when I was living in a small nearby town, would take the train to visit. I made some friends when I joined their tabletop RPG group. There's quite a few other "föreningar" or communities that you can join. Using my city as an example, there's quite an active sailing/boating community as well. I heard of an acquaintance about a community that dabbles in 3D printing/maker stuff. The important thing is just find something that others like that you also like, join it and see if you find someone you gel with..
I don't think you can be closer to another person than evolving into a sentient gel together. Ideally, the gel should be able to temporarily mimic human form to ease communication and relatability with those that haven't yet met the right person that helps them evolve into a sentient gel.
The advice on getting friends in Denmark as a non-Dane has always been to join a club connected to an activity you're interested in. If you try to follow that, the biggest hurdle will be to actually find such a club, though searching on the internet can make this easier than back in the 80s & 90s.
@@roguebanshee "internet can make this easier than back in the 80s & 90s." That and being able to have online clubs. I used to have a gaming club in Sweden, started it up with a few friends after we took a train home from a gaming meetup. For the few years we ran it, was quite fun. We got insanely lucky with having a municipality that helped us, not just with a place to be but they also commissioned special furniture for carting our CRT's (club members took their own TV's to have in our place). I have lots of wonderful memories from that time, sometimes I long back to those days (the pizza runs were quite fun, the local pizzeria made quite allot of business during our gaming weekends). Edit: Had the club in around mid 2000's, we closed it down shortly before I moved out from that town.
Thank you so much for linking to your lecture on Learning the Wrong Way! This comment is a response to that since you will easily see it here, unlike if I respond there. I am a huge social science nerd. STEM is wonderful and it interrelates heavily to social sciences. While my №1 topic is linguistics, education methodology is also high up for me. The data you referenced about how much better we learn when our lessons aren't hyperfocused and ultralinear and thus predictable was incredibly interesting to me. When I learn foreign languages I love to supplement my lessons by getting into the background of everything, the history of the writing system, the story of the phonology and how it changed over time, especially in deeply relevant ways like how it drifted away from the always increasingly outdated orthography. I have loved to look up etymologies and interrelated words since at least middle school (age 10 on). Grammatical irregularities always have a story behind them (especially a historical context). As person with a linguistics background, I also take time to read other linguists' explanations of myths that native language teachers teach in a given language. The point being, I remember things very well when, one way or another, I get a full enough picture that I could teach it to others and answer at least some context-enhancing questions about those things. I think we should love those teachers that repeatedly put in little tangents that they find interesting and stop admiring the ones that only give a minimalist explanation with nothing to shake up the monotony. We should also love those teachers that give us challenging tasks like memorizing all the IPA characters for the language they're teaching in, memorizing all the table of elements abbreviations, memorizing the letters on a standard keyboard layout for our native languages, etc. We really learn how to learn when we're given such possibly intimidating tasks. Again, thank you for the link. I loved hearing a well-compiled lecture on a few interrelated, interesting topics from an entertaining RUclips "friend."
Aha, so making friends in the Nordics is exactly how it is in Switzerland. Cool. "No bad weather, only bad clothing" again, like Switzerland, but I think they also say this in Germany.
They do say that in Germany too! i believe this stems from here though, as it rhymes and has a good rhythm to it when we say it: Det finnes ikke dårlig klær, bare dårlig vær! (Put into Google for ai voice. Yes there is a spelling error there, that's to make sure it sounds right when using digital voice)
We're exactly like siblings. We have a bunch of jokes about each other and when there's sports on, there's a lot of friendly rivalry going on, which can get pretty intense, but we all love each other. If anyone else tries to tease another Nordic country they're gonna get it, only we are allowed to make fun of the others.
"The classic Nordic saying is "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing"" That's basically all across Europe. In the Nordics, Germany, Austria, Baltics, everywhere!
Sweden actually has considerably lower tax rates than perceived nowadays. The marginal tax rate is ~32%, but the effective tax rate is no more than about 20% for the vast majority of people.
We have pretty good weather I think. Lot's of variation. Sometimes can fluctuate a bit annoyingly but usally sunny. It's the long dark that is challengling. Especially if you come from closer the equator and is not used to it. Have a french friend, and he just becomes depressed every winter and usually just move out those mounths.
Just in case Berit sees. Norwegian here, youre name has no deeper meaning, its just a common womans name. Ólafur is right, we just look uncomfirtable by default.
I think this is the contextual answer to the last question: Berit is one of the most common Norwegian names, but no Norwegian would know its meaning without looking it up. They look uncomfortable because they don't know the answer, nothing wrong with that. A random American wouldn't know the meaning of Sarah, Jennifer, or Emily. (Hebrew Princess; Welsh, uncertain, same as Guinevere; Latin family name meaning 'Rival'.) Some names are just words (Faith; Bjørn 'Bear') but most you just have to look up. Berit is also the same name as Bridget, common in English, which is probably the answer Berit was looking for.
Agreed. It’s not the name, it’s the subtext of the question. It can come across as naive or even condescending. Sorry Berit: there’s no mystical meaning, no native wisdom, no quaint story. It’s just an ordinary name.
@@SonsOfLorgarnah, as a Dutchy I feel the country is boring. When going on a holiday in Sweden or Norway the views are interesting, in Denmark it's like driving past the same field every time 😅
as a german, my native language and dutch are both in the same subtree for west germanic, yet i still find nordic languages which are all in subtrees of the north germanic tree way easier than dutch
Netherlands would be a really nice fit. I think they politically agree with Denmark/Sweden/Finland policies in the EU. Really nice place anyway, with fitting attitude to Nordics, a bit more relaxed but still "lutheran" enough work ethic. So basically I guess would be a more "party guy" version of Denmark or so
I think that might be a cultural change. Tommi Liimatta, Finnish musician, author and podcasted, talked about (in hist brilliant Suuri Serkkuteoria, "the great cousin theory") that his parents generation (i.e. boomers) really did have any non-related friends, that's why the whole "cousin exchange of children's meme", because their parents were visiting stereotypically and specifically visiting their siblings in their summer holidays (and that's why learned our "jingle bells Batman smells" equivalents specifically from our cousins).And they had workmates, of course, but this leads to the fact that retired, divorced (or widowed) men can be very, very lonely.
and of course this guy's a genius senior software developer as well as a hilarious nordic youtuber. really making me feel bad here lol. good video though!
Do you think you’ll do another with some of the remaining questions? I’m still really curious if you’d consider the southern part of the Cimbrian peninsula (which contains the german state of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg) part of the Nordics, since it used to be part of Denmark and has a lot of shared culture (and a large danish minority and long trade history with Norway)
Is it Nordic? If they wanna be. Being Nordic has a lot to do with history and culture, not borders as strongly. Nordic is as much the people as the region.
@@olafurw Perhaps it is a matter of every individual being more or less nordic depending on their own heritage and affiliation? I myself am from this region, parts of my family are in Denmark, and I grew up on the baltic coast, and have spent a lot of time in and around the nordics, so I personally would consider myself nordic - but someone from the more southern north sea coast might see it differently.
Most immigrants came because of overpopulation, with some exception English deported undesirables, religious splitter groups, and a lot of Germans left when they came under new management.
I've been dabbling in Nordic languages for about 10 years now, off and on. Swedish is definitely my strongest and sometimes I regret doing Danish because I get words mixed up.
1:52 Umbrella? That's crazy talk. You need clothing that can handle horizontal rain, or ideally rain blowing slightly upwards. If you rely on rain protection that's vulnerable to strong winds you'll have problems in large parts of Norway for instance. Also occasionally on the Faero islands, Scotland, Ireland etc... Swedwn is mostly protected by our rain shadow behind our mountains so you'll be okay there...
I think Berit might be the male knight from David Eddings Elenium series, wondering why he got renamed Beril in Swedish translations. The Norwegians might not have it in their heart to tell him Berit is a name mostly associated with old ladies. Oh, and Netherlands are semi-Nordic because they also eat salty liquorice!
Big part of history indeed. I think that a lot of the actual trade the vikings did is connected to the trade they did with the sami. How else would european monarchs get their hands on fancy fur acessories made from arctic foxes and such animals mostly just found deep in the tundras? Also it shouldn't be "how bad are the taxes". Our countries are as great as they are partly because of the high tax rates.
There's no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing is also a saying in the north of England. I live just below Cumbria, where a lot of the words for geological features have nordic origins e.g fell, force (waterfall) and scree.
The taxes are misleading. In Sweden the income tax is roughly 30-50%. Then add another 30% called “arbetsgivaravgift” translates to employer fee. On top of that the VAT which mostly is 25%. Plus import tax from non EU.
It's also misleading because those taxes pay for things that you have to pay out of pocket in other countries like healthcare, education, etc. Take home pay is lower, but the social services are more and more accessible
When talking about tax, it's also relevant to mention that there are a lot of different tax breaks (in Sweden at least). At my last job, I was effectively paying around 24% tax due to tax breaks, even though the actual tax rate was around 32%.
The only "uncomfortable" thing I can think of with Berit is that is the name an old aunt would have, seeing a young person with it would feel strange. Other than that I have no idea
It is worth mentioning that the Sami are not the only indigenous people in Scandinavia and they arrived relatively late compared to the main population. Exactly what the migration patterns look like in Scandinavia is debated, but looks something like this: First wave of settlers was the European Hunter-Gatherers with a small admixture of Asian Hunter-Gatherers which arrived after the last ice age. If we look at the DNA analysis of people from the Mesolithic settlement in Motala, which was descending from the first migrants, and which has been recently excavated. (More DNA from stone age European(Swedish) farmers and hunter gatherers Everything points in the direction of the population carrying the same visual traits as today, except some people having a bit darker skin. The dominant male Y-chromosome seems to have been I1 and I2a and mitochondrial U4. More about Motala excavation here: Diet and mobility among Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Motala (Sweden) - The isotope perspective. The next wave of migrants came with the Anatolian farmers which spread over Europe from 9000 years and arrived in Scandinavia 6000 years ago. These people were a mix of Anatolian farmers and EHG and looked more Central European than Nordic with darker hair and brown eyes. The main Y haplogroup of this era was G2 and several U mithochondrial lines. About 4500 years ago, at the break of the copper age, the last two migration waves arrived. From the south via the agricultural plains came the corded ware - battle ax culture and from the east by the heavily forested areas the Finnic. They all met in Sweden by the Baltic coast. In the north over the tundra came the reindeer herding Sami some 3000-2500 ya also taking a special iron technology with them. During the last 2500 years the population has intermarried and there has been at least two plagues wiping out more then half of the population. The result was a very homogeneous population, with the reindeer herding Sami as somewhat more separated than the other population. During my grandfather's time and my mother's childhood Sweden experimented with communism and the government actively tried to flatten out and unify Sweden's culture. Local dialects were considered ugly, you were not supposed to wear traditional clothes, music and fashion became more European and later US focused. Because the Sami people had retained a more distinct culture, they suffered the worst from these initiatives.
The combined taxes in Sweden are way higher than that. Part from municipal taxes (usually around 33%) we have VAT on every purchase, bank accounts, houses. Penalty taxes on fuel, chemicals (which increase cost of electronics), travels by aircraft and also electricity (where the base price has been increased because of solar and wind energy. Cost * taxes * vat = xxx) Thanks Miljöpartiet!
As an Swedish citizen with Arabic background in Sweden, we have really bad reputation of crime and violence and a whole bunch of stuff. Not in Sweden alone but probably the entire planet. Anyways, I have always been on the side of trying to integrate into the Nordic society though it is impossible due to that reputation, I have been a computer guy all the life and learn Engineering to be a productive member of the Swedish community. I have went miles trying to get me a Swedish friend and sometimes I just wish I wasn't born in this day and age that Swedes will give me "the look" of disgust just doing anything. Nobody sympathizes with an Arab, and I ended up leaving the Nordic countries and go to US where they "tolerate" your background if you are good at what you do, which I am glad to say I am. Though in Sweden it seemed they would rather scratch my name of the list before even looking for qualifications. Ik not everyone in Sweden is like this but I hope things get better soon.
Say what is on your mind? So do that thing that is incredibly rare in personal interactions here? Speak too freely and you will find yourself alone a lot more and everyone will deny anything being wrong. Silently ostracizing people is like a national sport in Norway at least. It is also how we do most of the racism. No one will say anything, but you will be left out with no explanation.
" whats on your mind" That's a great advice if you want to speedrun being a social outcast, people seldom if ever want to hear the truth even if them at times need to. Just look at how far and often people lie to themselves to justify things, people are quite amazing at self-deception.
That saying about no bad weather sounds like something Germans say too lol. But I only know that by following some German social media accounts to learn about the culture 😆
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As a foreigner who lives in Norway, you make norwegian friends by isolating a norwegian from other Norwegians and giving them no other option until they like you. Then they will introduce you to other Norwegians and the other Norwegians will be more willing to befriend you because you're already friends with a norwegian. They call it Stockholm syndrome, but it works pretty well in Oslo too.
So you're suggesting kidnapping a Norwegian and release them only after they're so conditioned they won't try to escape? Getting a boyfriend/girlfriend (depending on your preference) used to work in the past. Maybe I'm just old.
@@Xiroi87 Not everyone wants a boyfriend/girlfriend. Some people may already have a partner when they move to norway. Or they're just about that single life. Sure, getting a partner would work. But my solution is more general. :D Besides, you'd have to befriend someone before actually getting them to date you. Or maybe I'm just young. ;)
@@romana316 I'm of a generation that socialised by going out and meeting people in real life. It's great.
@@Xiroi87 what exactly about my comment suggested I don't go and meet people in real life? In my generation, we don't need a partner to go out and meet people :)
@@romana316 have a nice evening
"... just looks uncomfortable by default" :-D
I agree on this. Sincerely, a norwegian.
If you look very happy, people might think you are mental or have popped lots of funny happy things..
As someone born and raised in Norway, that made me fucking lose it.
Can't disagree honestly
As a Norwegian I can confirm that one 😂 (as well as all the others)
Fun facts about the questions I got sent.
- Zero questions about "the Icelandic dating app", which means I've taught you well (because it's not a thing)
- More questions about Estonia than Finland
- Weirdest question I got more than 1 of, if I like Rema 1000 or Coop more. Huh.
Thank you again!
Those are indeed fun facts
Coop, hands-down xD but I might be biased because my local Coop OBS is the only supermarket here that offers handscanners combined with self-checkout.
Since my Norwegian nickname is close to Rema, some call me "Rema 1000"... Rema 1000 is better though.
I am mindblown by what you said in 4:08. Somebody actually lived north of Stockholm?
Now I won't fall asleep without an answer to the last question...
As a sami, I respect you including us in this video.
Also, as for the "how do I make friends in the Nordics" parties and getting drunk...and try not to get so drunk you don't remember them the day after, but definitely alcohol is involved. Hell, I've even once had a Finnish person be the most talkative among us in a party. So yeah..
Yep alcohol is not required, but it does often help you get social
@@KristianSandvikk No alcohol = no talkie to strangers.. Nordic rule #1
finns and alchol go together, they have a symbiotic relationshi-
@@Someperson12532 Yes, YES!.. Pair it with sauna, and you got a recipe for SUCCESS! And one HELL of a good time..
Can absolutely confirm (as a Bavarian. We're the same here, which made it a lot easier to get along with people in the Nordics).
Also, the right amount of alcohol helps with understanding eachother. It's fantastic how much Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian I can speak when just drunk enough. And they? They manage Bavarian pretty well too! 😂
Language barriers is for the completely sober.
“Oh wait you want the silly answer. Uh. Potato”
That got me, but honestly it is nice having more frank and informative videos stacked next to your more jokey ones
I'd bet they look uncomfortable when asked and expected to know the origin of every nordic name.
You don't have that memorized?
@@olafurw there was also a stand up skit in Sweden in the 90s where the comedian said, his wife's name is Berit, but he calls her Beirut, because she's so f*ing bombed... (stupid)
Right? I once was asked by a tourist in Munich, where the name comes from. Now, I'm from Munich, so I knew. Then they asked about Nürnberg and... what the hell would I know about that?
@@SonsOfLorgar Ööh, wasn’t that in the 80’s?? Yes? No?? Gods I’m so old I don’t remember f’sure, but 80’s, it gotta be 80’s 🙉
3:33
FINLAND NUMBER ONE IN HAPPINESS AND DEPRESSION!
FINLAND ALWAYS NUMBER ONE 🤍💙🤍💙🤍💙🤍
Sharing a landborder with both Sweden AND Russia will do that. Thank god we Danes, have some water between us and the Swedes.
That should tell you something about the happiness index. Happiness cannot be measured.
Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I'd like to be...
@@Kar4ever3 The feeling's mutual 😁
@@Kar4ever3 I think it's more darkness plus the political situation IMHO.
As a Dane, the Netherlands come up in relation to the Nordics a lot because it's really similar to Denmark. Not only do people mix up the adjective versions of the names and the languages all the time, the Netherlands have historically had a great deal of impact on Denmark and the two countries also share the experience of being small, easily invaded countries glued to Germany that industrialized by exporting agricultural products to the British Isles. In general, Danish and Dutch people just tend to get along, get each other and say "we do that too" about any given thing likely to come up.
A less reasonable reason might also just be that people on the outside see tall, blonde people from rich Northern European countries that aren't Germany and thinking Nordic, adding the Netherlands to the category because it fits the stereotype.
Also our languages are pretty similar grammatically. Like trying to read Dutch is like reading Norwegian, but someone went really wild on how to spell things.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 You've got that backwards, Norwegian is the one that went wild on how to spell things :P
Like toalett/toilet, we both stole that word from the French, the least we can do is roughly get the vowels right.
@@bramvanduijn8086 Naah, Dutch people say "twalet" but spell it "toilet". Norwegians say "toalett" and therefore spell it "toalett". Though "o" is pronounced different in Norwegian than on the continent, that is correct.. At least its internally consistent :P
Maar Noors heeft andere vreemde spellingen. Ik heb geen idee waarom we skj/sj voor de "sh"-geluid gebruik, het is onzin!
(Sorry for the bad grammar)
A friend of mine referred to it as lakrits belt and I fully buy it.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 They aren't. They really aren't. The language closest to Dutch is actually German, believe it or not.
About taxes, I saw a video of a black woman who was an accountant in California and she had taken vacation spending 1 month each in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. She said that she paid 40% of her income for taxes and the only thing she saw for it was the roads she drove on. (Yes, I know, she was oversimplifying.) Her point was that in those social democracies you see what you are paying taxes for and you get a benefit, good education, good health care system. And, surprisingly to me, she said she experienced zero racism. That could be that everyone treated her like a guest because she was a tourist, but she was in each country living for a month, not just doing touristy things. I want to believe her that Nordic countries are less racist than the US.
We live in Japan and my daughter's best friend is Finnish. My daughter suffers from a disability and hadn't gone to school for a month, taking classes over the internet. and her friend got the class to make a video and posted it on their website (private, only teachers, students and parents have access) begging her to return to school. My daughter went back to school. Well, at least some Nordics are very friendly.
Love this channel. My son left France to live in Finland with his Finnish wife. They now have a baby boy and I'm so happy to know that he will grow up in such a beautiful country, with kind, quiet people.
I love your humour and I learned something, big win!
Thank you, that's the goal.
About where Norwegians go on holiday, there's also a fun tradition. They love going to Spain or Italy for the sun, but if they find out that while they're on holiday the weather was nice in Norway, that holiday was wasted and you're made fun of for missing it 😂
We do this in England!
It´s the same in Denmark lol
The same here in Sweden. 😁
Lots of Norwegian take long holidays in Sweden. Especially up here in northern Sweden near the beaches.
I once had a boss back in the early 1970s who finally booked a holiday to Spain as he was fed up with getting wet in the UK.
And yes. You guessed it. Sod's law kicked in and it rained in Spain.
The sibling rivalry point is so true! Reading the 'Scandinavia and the World' comics prepared me for that more than any travel guide or language class 😆Love your videos Olafur, keep being the Nordic ambassador the world wants and needs!
So true, I'm Norwegian and love to make jokes about the Sweeds. But when some American wrote Sweeds was so entiteled, I got so offendend on their behalf. Like I can talk bad about my Swedish sibling, but if any other nationa tries to, I will defend them.
@@kirstimeretearnesen1202 whaat?? I mean, I have no problem with you saying we’re entitled, but heck no, no murican gets to call us entitled. Hmpf 🇸🇪🧡🇳🇴🇮🇸🇫🇮🇩🇰
@@gellawella I've got your back aigainst any no-nordic.
@@kirstimeretearnesen1202 same here, I’ve got yours 😉
"Can Minnesota join the Nordics?"
I think you had a discussion about that (and some other things) in the US in 1861-1865. A very lively discussion.
Minnesota can't leave yet. Or, if they do, we here in the US need custody of Gov Walz.
The final statement given in 1869 was that they could if Congress decides to let them, but not if they want to do it alone without telling them first.
@@BringMayFlowers Huh, I didn't know that. Then again, I don't know much about the reconstruction era politic, except as it relates to Woodrow Wilson.
Can we at least annex Finland, Minnesota?
@@mikkoolavijarvinen3653 . . . There's a place called "Finland" in Minnesota? Man, the US just had no creativity when naming most places.
Okay bye!
Okay bye!
You have become one of this Aussie's favourite channels.
Everything you describe reminds me of growing up in Minnesota. Everything.
as a minnesotan i am glad to be a part if the nordics now
Nordics meme way too much about the weather, and people take it seriously. I live in northern-ish Finland and I'd say we get a good three months (maybe more) of warm weather per year, and I legitimately believe these are just about the nicest places in the world to be during summer. Lots of light, very pretty and warm but not hot. Hell, 20C is not that uncommon even in September.
... unless of course you get unlucky and you get one of those random years where it's 10C in the middle of July for no reason.
As someone who has lived in a similar climate in Canada, may I ask how intolerable the mosquitoes and blackflies are?
@@b.a.erlebacher1139Depends on where you are. They get pretty damn bad in some rural areas some summers. Few years back during our annual cabin trip with friends, we basically stayed indoors cause the mosquitos, horsefly's and blackflies were so bad.
... or a small amount of snow in the middle of May, as we had here in western Norway many years ago. 😁
Rain is common at that time, but not snow.
10C in the middle of July?
I'm moving.
(Yeah, I can't stand temperatures above 20C)
There is just one little problem with Finnish summer. One very tiny problem:
Mosquitos. Millions of them everywhere.
Sibling rivalry is real, on many levels. Mine can annoy me😂
yes however 90% of it is just fun and jokes, it's just people from the outside may not understand our weird humor
Nordics can make fun of each other; but if an outsider makes fun of one of the other Nordics, they should prepare to face the wrath of the others. ;)
(Except Danes; it's okay to make fun of the Danish xD)
Great statement
😂😊
I concur with this. But I would like to add that only other Nordic countries are allowed to tease another Nordic country. We will band together real quick if there's an outside antagonist lol.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was the reason why the Swedish (among others) ravaged Germany in the 30 Years' War. /s
@@DaneInTheUS Nah, people can bash, the Nordics, I don't care, as long as they don't bash Scania. If a foreigner were within punching range, and talked smack about Scania, and I'm not talking about the trucks, I'm talking about the region, okay they can bash on Malmö, I still consider that foreign territory, it belongs to Saudi-Arabia, no one is Swedish in Malmö, so yeah... But Scania, no one is allowed to bash. We're the Urheimat. And while Iceland speaks the oldest Nordic Language, we speak the Oldest Nordic Non-insular Dialect.
Regarding taxes: most Nordic countries (and most European countries in general) also have a pretty high sales tax. Sweden's defaults to 20 or 25%, depending on whether you look at it as the percentage of the price you pay (20%) or how much you add to the untaxed price (25%). Some things are taxed at a lower rate, but that's the default. I personally think it would be better to lower the sales tax and raise the income tax (because sales tax is regressive), but on the other hand it's harder to cheat on sales tax so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The tax is sort of invisible to those of us who live here, because it's baked into the price. It's not like the US where you want to buy something costing $10 and the clerk asks you for $11 with a 10% sales tax included - no, the thing would cost $12.50 in the first place.
And on average, you all seem more aware of what it's paying for. "Yeah, this looks like a lot, but [insert list of government-provided benefits like free healthcare, extremely low unhoused population, free education, clean food, clean water, roads, etc, etc, etc...]. It's cheaper this way."
Not sure it's everywhere in europe, but the mentioned lower sales tax, at least where i am from, is for example for what is for what is considered essential foods and things alike. (if i am not mistaken) And for books for whatever reasons.
But nobody knows what has lower sales tax, because essentially, like already mentioned, you see the price you need to pay, and that's what matters to people.
@@pomikat Technically, every seller in the chain pays the tax, but they get a refund on the tax for things they buy.
If you want a tax that is both progressive and really hard to cheat on, then tax assets. And even better: If enough people cheat on the asset taxes, then house prices go down. It is a win-win-win scenario for everyone excluding those few people who are currently too rich to ever need to work. But even for them, getting out of the house and working for a couple hours a day would be good for their physical and mental health.
@@bramvanduijn8086 How about no, we are already taxed on the money used to buy assets.
"How to make friends"
One of the easiest way to make friends is to find people that share a common interest. In the city that I live in, there's a gaming club not that far from my apartment. Back when I was living in a small nearby town, would take the train to visit. I made some friends when I joined their tabletop RPG group. There's quite a few other "föreningar" or communities that you can join. Using my city as an example, there's quite an active sailing/boating community as well. I heard of an acquaintance about a community that dabbles in 3D printing/maker stuff.
The important thing is just find something that others like that you also like, join it and see if you find someone you gel with..
I don't think you can be closer to another person than evolving into a sentient gel together. Ideally, the gel should be able to temporarily mimic human form to ease communication and relatability with those that haven't yet met the right person that helps them evolve into a sentient gel.
@@burlapknapsack As much as I love Monster Musume, I have no interest in becoming a sentient slime
The advice on getting friends in Denmark as a non-Dane has always been to join a club connected to an activity you're interested in.
If you try to follow that, the biggest hurdle will be to actually find such a club, though searching on the internet can make this easier than back in the 80s & 90s.
@@roguebanshee "internet can make this easier than back in the 80s & 90s."
That and being able to have online clubs. I used to have a gaming club in Sweden, started it up with a few friends after we took a train home from a gaming meetup. For the few years we ran it, was quite fun.
We got insanely lucky with having a municipality that helped us, not just with a place to be but they also commissioned special furniture for carting our CRT's (club members took their own TV's to have in our place).
I have lots of wonderful memories from that time, sometimes I long back to those days (the pizza runs were quite fun, the local pizzeria made quite allot of business during our gaming weekends).
Edit: Had the club in around mid 2000's, we closed it down shortly before I moved out from that town.
Thank you so much for linking to your lecture on Learning the Wrong Way! This comment is a response to that since you will easily see it here, unlike if I respond there.
I am a huge social science nerd. STEM is wonderful and it interrelates heavily to social sciences. While my №1 topic is linguistics, education methodology is also high up for me.
The data you referenced about how much better we learn when our lessons aren't hyperfocused and ultralinear and thus predictable was incredibly interesting to me. When I learn foreign languages I love to supplement my lessons by getting into the background of everything, the history of the writing system, the story of the phonology and how it changed over time, especially in deeply relevant ways like how it drifted away from the always increasingly outdated orthography. I have loved to look up etymologies and interrelated words since at least middle school (age 10 on). Grammatical irregularities always have a story behind them (especially a historical context). As person with a linguistics background, I also take time to read other linguists' explanations of myths that native language teachers teach in a given language.
The point being, I remember things very well when, one way or another, I get a full enough picture that I could teach it to others and answer at least some context-enhancing questions about those things. I think we should love those teachers that repeatedly put in little tangents that they find interesting and stop admiring the ones that only give a minimalist explanation with nothing to shake up the monotony. We should also love those teachers that give us challenging tasks like memorizing all the IPA characters for the language they're teaching in, memorizing all the table of elements abbreviations, memorizing the letters on a standard keyboard layout for our native languages, etc. We really learn how to learn when we're given such possibly intimidating tasks.
Again, thank you for the link. I loved hearing a well-compiled lecture on a few interrelated, interesting topics from an entertaining RUclips "friend."
Olaf, keep being excellent 😉
*Ólafur
Aha, so making friends in the Nordics is exactly how it is in Switzerland. Cool.
"No bad weather, only bad clothing" again, like Switzerland, but I think they also say this in Germany.
They do say that in Germany too! i believe this stems from here though, as it rhymes and has a good rhythm to it when we say it: Det finnes ikke dårlig klær, bare dårlig vær! (Put into Google for ai voice. Yes there is a spelling error there, that's to make sure it sounds right when using digital voice)
It was great to see you on Lateral. You make a great panelist. I hope Tom invites you back!
Thank you. We recorded 2 episodes, so the other one will come in due time.
Thank you. Always great to listen to you :-) Thank you from Norway!
We're exactly like siblings. We have a bunch of jokes about each other and when there's sports on, there's a lot of friendly rivalry going on, which can get pretty intense, but we all love each other. If anyone else tries to tease another Nordic country they're gonna get it, only we are allowed to make fun of the others.
"The classic Nordic saying is "There's no bad weather, only bad clothing""
That's basically all across Europe. In the Nordics, Germany, Austria, Baltics, everywhere!
Please do more long form videos this one and the dad joke one were so much fun!
I swear I read "doom all day" when I glanced at the timetable of daylength of late november 0:54.
Sweden actually has considerably lower tax rates than perceived nowadays. The marginal tax rate is ~32%, but the effective tax rate is no more than about 20% for the vast majority of people.
YOOOO ÓLAFUR LONG VIDEO ‼️🤫🧏♀️🧍🏼♂️
It's like a rare shiny pokemon!
@@olafurw Nordic history 101 including the SEE when
You haven't seen his programming videos?
@surters yes, I'm just saying a Nordic video will be fire since he's the Nordictube king (The Nordictube queen is Jonna Jinton)
@@ScandinavianStarzI'm what now?
You’re just an all around nice guy, aren’t you? Great video 😊
"It exists no bad weather, only bad claether"
I like this video because its simple and very strong
Love your videos. Here's a german thing: a "Waage" is a scale in german, like for weighing things.
The licorice belt is real.
We have pretty good weather I think. Lot's of variation. Sometimes can fluctuate a bit annoyingly but usally sunny. It's the long dark that is challengling. Especially if you come from closer the equator and is not used to it. Have a french friend, and he just becomes depressed every winter and usually just move out those mounths.
Just in case Berit sees. Norwegian here, youre name has no deeper meaning, its just a common womans name. Ólafur is right, we just look uncomfirtable by default.
I think this is the contextual answer to the last question: Berit is one of the most common Norwegian names, but no Norwegian would know its meaning without looking it up. They look uncomfortable because they don't know the answer, nothing wrong with that. A random American wouldn't know the meaning of Sarah, Jennifer, or Emily. (Hebrew Princess; Welsh, uncertain, same as Guinevere; Latin family name meaning 'Rival'.) Some names are just words (Faith; Bjørn 'Bear') but most you just have to look up. Berit is also the same name as Bridget, common in English, which is probably the answer Berit was looking for.
Agreed. It’s not the name, it’s the subtext of the question. It can come across as naive or even condescending. Sorry Berit: there’s no mystical meaning, no native wisdom, no quaint story. It’s just an ordinary name.
To make friends, join a hobby group!
Knitting, hiking, boardgames, D&D, cycling, doesn't matter what the hobby is.
Everybody loves Denmark.
Because it's Denmark!
As a swede I agree. Denmark is awesome.
They've got a wonderful flag 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴
Denmark is great, the Danes, not so much 😘
/🇸🇪
Denmark is great, they’re just a bit too danish. They gotta work on that.
Iceland had the same problem and they worked on it!
@@SonsOfLorgarnah, as a Dutchy I feel the country is boring. When going on a holiday in Sweden or Norway the views are interesting, in Denmark it's like driving past the same field every time 😅
as a german, my native language and dutch are both in the same subtree for west germanic, yet i still find nordic languages which are all in subtrees of the north germanic tree way easier than dutch
The best summer weather is in the North of Sweden. Right before or after the mosquito seasons. It's 5-12 days but it doesn't get better/Finn
cheers for the video Olafur! Your advice is always welcome to those wishing to mingle at a safe distance from Nordics.
this was really great, would love more content like this!
Netherlands would be a really nice fit. I think they politically agree with Denmark/Sweden/Finland policies in the EU. Really nice place anyway, with fitting attitude to Nordics, a bit more relaxed but still "lutheran" enough work ethic. So basically I guess would be a more "party guy" version of Denmark or so
People in the Nordics definitely meet new friends after they turn 20. At least in Denmark and Sweden.
I think that might be a cultural change. Tommi Liimatta, Finnish musician, author and podcasted, talked about (in hist brilliant Suuri Serkkuteoria, "the great cousin theory") that his parents generation (i.e. boomers) really did have any non-related friends, that's why the whole "cousin exchange of children's meme", because their parents were visiting stereotypically and specifically visiting their siblings in their summer holidays (and that's why learned our "jingle bells Batman smells" equivalents specifically from our cousins).And they had workmates, of course, but this leads to the fact that retired, divorced (or widowed) men can be very, very lonely.
@@mikkoolavijarvinen3653 , There is probably also a big difference if you live in rural area or if you live in a city.
and of course this guy's a genius senior software developer as well as a hilarious nordic youtuber. really making me feel bad here lol. good video though!
This is the best video i've seen in a while
"No one hits my brother but me"
dang! I was really hoping at least one of the pet questions would make it in
I knew I had seen you somewhere... You write and talk Rust... Holy shit youre amazingly talented.
The question about why Danish sounds like that. The quick answer: Potatoe in the mouth. Oh, he just said that 😄
Do you think you’ll do another with some of the remaining questions? I’m still really curious if you’d consider the southern part of the Cimbrian peninsula (which contains the german state of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg) part of the Nordics, since it used to be part of Denmark and has a lot of shared culture (and a large danish minority and long trade history with Norway)
Is it Nordic? If they wanna be. Being Nordic has a lot to do with history and culture, not borders as strongly. Nordic is as much the people as the region.
@@olafurw Perhaps it is a matter of every individual being more or less nordic depending on their own heritage and affiliation? I myself am from this region, parts of my family are in Denmark, and I grew up on the baltic coast, and have spent a lot of time in and around the nordics, so I personally would consider myself nordic - but someone from the more southern north sea coast might see it differently.
Very good video. When the Nordics travel to other countries, what are their favorite foods? Lasagna, Schnitzel, etc.
My grandparents all came to California from Denmark long ago. Now I'm wondering if it was because the other Nordics were picking on them.
Most immigrants came because of overpopulation, with some exception English deported undesirables, religious splitter groups, and a lot of Germans left when they came under new management.
I've been dabbling in Nordic languages for about 10 years now, off and on. Swedish is definitely my strongest and sometimes I regret doing Danish because I get words mixed up.
There's no bad weather, just bad clothing: That's a saying here in germany as well!!
1:52
Umbrella?
That's crazy talk.
You need clothing that can handle horizontal rain, or ideally rain blowing slightly upwards.
If you rely on rain protection that's vulnerable to strong winds you'll have problems in large parts of Norway for instance.
Also occasionally on the Faero islands, Scotland, Ireland etc...
Swedwn is mostly protected by our rain shadow behind our mountains so you'll be okay there...
Came here for OK bye, stayed for um next.
Oh its the funny dude from Lateral with Tom Scott. hey there *wave*^^
-wave-
Well does Minnesota also enjoy salmiak (salty licorice) like the Nordic ones & the Netherlands (plus Estonia & Scotland to an extent)?
3:21 They forgot Switzerland, which speaks German with a stronger Norwegian accent than Norwegians themselves
Switzerland is the best possible proof that going up and going north are effectively the same thing.
"nobody makes friends after 20"
seems like it's the same as the uk~ but it'd be more like after highschool here!
I think Berit might be the male knight from David Eddings Elenium series, wondering why he got renamed Beril in Swedish translations. The Norwegians might not have it in their heart to tell him Berit is a name mostly associated with old ladies.
Oh, and Netherlands are semi-Nordic because they also eat salty liquorice!
Finland carries Toyota sales
Norwegians don't always look uncomfortable!
We sometimes look broody or angry as well
Big part of history indeed. I think that a lot of the actual trade the vikings did is connected to the trade they did with the sami. How else would european monarchs get their hands on fancy fur acessories made from arctic foxes and such animals mostly just found deep in the tundras?
Also it shouldn't be "how bad are the taxes". Our countries are as great as they are partly because of the high tax rates.
There's no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing is also a saying in the north of England. I live just below Cumbria, where a lot of the words for geological features have nordic origins e.g fell, force (waterfall) and scree.
Bud, no one makes friends after the 20's anywhere.
'My first question is, 'why?' ' Ha!
The taxes are misleading. In Sweden the income tax is roughly 30-50%. Then add another 30% called “arbetsgivaravgift” translates to employer fee. On top of that the VAT which mostly is 25%. Plus import tax from non EU.
It's also misleading because those taxes pay for things that you have to pay out of pocket in other countries like healthcare, education, etc. Take home pay is lower, but the social services are more and more accessible
Netherlands is just rain, too warm for snow
and too low
Dang it! If I would've known on time, I would've been on this!!! 😢
Oh, I thought it was live. Guess it was just a post. Thank you, though.
😀💪nice video man!
Thank you.
When talking about tax, it's also relevant to mention that there are a lot of different tax breaks (in Sweden at least). At my last job, I was effectively paying around 24% tax due to tax breaks, even though the actual tax rate was around 32%.
Giitu for the Saámi shout out!
hey finland exists too
Great 😆 So you have answered well, Comedy and Irony. Thank you for good joke, alright.
Best Wishes from STOCKHOLM - SWEDEN 🎁
Just like reading "unsafe" and you are suddenly thinking about rust aren't you :D
There's no bad weather only bad kleather
The only "uncomfortable" thing I can think of with Berit is that is the name an old aunt would have, seeing a young person with it would feel strange. Other than that I have no idea
Thank you Ólafur
"Mmh NEXT :) " 😆
It is worth mentioning that the Sami are not the only indigenous people in Scandinavia and they arrived relatively late compared to the main population. Exactly what the migration patterns look like in Scandinavia is debated, but looks something like this:
First wave of settlers was the European Hunter-Gatherers with a small admixture of Asian Hunter-Gatherers which arrived after the last ice age. If we look at the DNA analysis of people from the Mesolithic settlement in Motala, which was descending from the first migrants, and which has been recently excavated.
(More DNA from stone age European(Swedish) farmers and hunter gatherers
Everything points in the direction of the population carrying the same visual traits as today, except some people having a bit darker skin. The dominant male Y-chromosome seems to have been I1 and I2a and mitochondrial U4. More about Motala excavation here:
Diet and mobility among Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Motala (Sweden) - The isotope perspective.
The next wave of migrants came with the Anatolian farmers which spread over Europe from 9000 years and arrived in Scandinavia 6000 years ago. These people were a mix of Anatolian farmers and EHG and looked more Central European than Nordic with darker hair and brown eyes. The main Y haplogroup of this era was G2 and several U mithochondrial lines.
About 4500 years ago, at the break of the copper age, the last two migration waves arrived. From the south via the agricultural plains came the corded ware - battle ax culture and from the east by the heavily forested areas the Finnic. They all met in Sweden by the Baltic coast. In the north over the tundra came the reindeer herding Sami some 3000-2500 ya also taking a special iron technology with them.
During the last 2500 years the population has intermarried and there has been at least two plagues wiping out more then half of the population. The result was a very homogeneous population, with the reindeer herding Sami as somewhat more separated than the other population.
During my grandfather's time and my mother's childhood Sweden experimented with communism and the government actively tried to flatten out and unify Sweden's culture. Local dialects were considered ugly, you were not supposed to wear traditional clothes, music and fashion became more European and later US focused. Because the Sami people had retained a more distinct culture, they suffered the worst from these initiatives.
The combined taxes in Sweden are way higher than that. Part from municipal taxes (usually around 33%) we have VAT on every purchase, bank accounts, houses. Penalty taxes on fuel, chemicals (which increase cost of electronics), travels by aircraft and also electricity (where the base price has been increased because of solar and wind energy. Cost * taxes * vat = xxx) Thanks Miljöpartiet!
Sitting in the southt of the jylland peninsula, just a way too much south, ...
Mir gefällt's😊
I let the spare T stay😋
4:43 Best question
As an Swedish citizen with Arabic background in Sweden, we have really bad reputation of crime and violence and a whole bunch of stuff. Not in Sweden alone but probably the entire planet. Anyways, I have always been on the side of trying to integrate into the Nordic society though it is impossible due to that reputation, I have been a computer guy all the life and learn Engineering to be a productive member of the Swedish community. I have went miles trying to get me a Swedish friend and sometimes I just wish I wasn't born in this day and age that Swedes will give me "the look" of disgust just doing anything. Nobody sympathizes with an Arab, and I ended up leaving the Nordic countries and go to US where they "tolerate" your background if you are good at what you do, which I am glad to say I am. Though in Sweden it seemed they would rather scratch my name of the list before even looking for qualifications. Ik not everyone in Sweden is like this but I hope things get better soon.
Norwegians speaking English have the most friendly accents.
3:24 Sad Schleswig-Holstein moment
About making friends: Just be a decent human being and say whats on your mind. Always worked!
Facts!
Say what is on your mind? So do that thing that is incredibly rare in personal interactions here? Speak too freely and you will find yourself alone a lot more and everyone will deny anything being wrong. Silently ostracizing people is like a national sport in Norway at least. It is also how we do most of the racism. No one will say anything, but you will be left out with no explanation.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 It was "Be a decent human" and "say whats on your mind" not or :D
" whats on your mind"
That's a great advice if you want to speedrun being a social outcast, people seldom if ever want to hear the truth even if them at times need to. Just look at how far and often people lie to themselves to justify things, people are quite amazing at self-deception.
@@SvengelskaBlondie then i dont care about those people
One for the algorythm.
Love this!
The Netherlands is pretty much Denmark and vice versa
Så bra!!! ❤❤
That saying about no bad weather sounds like something Germans say too lol. But I only know that by following some German social media accounts to learn about the culture 😆