Born and raised swede here trying to shed some light on some of these claims. We eat our burgers with our hands We date, we just don't do these "flashy" american movie date's that you refer to. Our date's are much more simple, grab a coffee, lunch etc. you know, somewhere that you can actually talk to eachother We DON'T hug other people unless we know them really well Our doors do tell you to push or pull The only cream that is in smörgåstårta "sandwich cake" is cream cheese, NOT whipped cream like a regular birthday cake for example It is NOT legal to go on to someone else's property to pick mushrooms/berrys, property meaning house with yard and everything in connection to that. It basically means that you can walk around in the FOREST to pick berrys and mushrooms I don't get why queuing is such a strange thing for people from other countries, do you just go ahead of other people who's standing in line to purchase something where you're from?! The one thing that REALLY FUCKING PISSES ME OFF is the flag thing, because it's true.. People here have sticks shoved so far up their asses that it's poking their brain and makes them think that wearing our simple, yet beautiful flag, makes us rasist's.
Gnagarn ***** Max är ju inte direkt stället man sticker med familjen elr sin dejt på en vacker fredagskväll, om man nu ska äta hamburgare på en restaurang så får man göra det på ett fint och artigt sätt så att man inte sticker ut elr äcklar nån antar jag.
***** Eh, didn't stop the historical sultanates (some of whom were quite key to the spread of Islam) and Caliphates to participate in it. Very popular to have slave boys as sex slaves.
The "allemansrätten" you are talking about does not let you go into someone yard/garden and pick the berries. Only on privately or state owned land that is unhabited and considered general fauna and not cultivated crops or similar. There is a huge difference.
+I see that you are taking time out of your day to read my completely unnecessarily long username. I eat pizza with knife and fork :( I feel like a failure
Hmm I had the exact opposite experience with smiling in Stockholm. I noticed most people were actually super friendly and I exchanged smiles with strangers quite a few times. Very heart-warming!
I'm swedish and ive never ever cut my pizza with scissors nor do I know anyone who does that, and everyone i know except for my mum eats pizza with their hands. Same with the burgers, we eat them with our hands... Just because some people you've met does certain things doesnt mean that swedes in general does those things so, maybe you shouldnt say that :P
Nope. I also use utensils when available, and I think most people do, at least when you eat at home or at a restaurant. macdonalds is not a restaurant because they do not serve food ;)
The general rule about doors is you pull to go in, and you push to go out. So if you're walking into a classroom, you pull, and when you walk out, you push. If you enter a building, you'll pull, and if you're leaving, you push. Some doors are the other way however, and those can be confusing.
I am English and like you moved to Borås, Sweden about a year ago. You forgot to mention how the Swedes meticulously sort their garbage! They let it pile up in their kitchen in paper shopping bags and after a week or two take it to the recycling station where you have to sort it into cardboard, newspapers, plastic, metal, clear glass, coloured glass etc. Worst thing about Sweden is without doubt Systembolag!
How is systembolaget the worst thing? We have the 2nd lowest % of drunk driving accidents in Europe, much more difficult for underage people to drink and do stupid shit, If the majority of people wasn´t so god damn stupid then maybe we could sell alcohol in the regular stores.
How come snus and tobacco are not sold exclusively at systembolag then? If the state wants to meddle in people's private lives (health), then be at least consistent. Are the majority of people really stupid? I think not. Personal freedom and responsibility is preferable to state control.
Terence Petersen-Ajbro because neither snus or other tobacco makes you do stupid shit, heard of many tobacco related car crash deaths? The difference between alcohol and tobacco is that alcohol can make people hurt other people, i guess passive smoking does that to, but not to the same extent.
+TheDudeofDudes Well there are many firearms in sweden , mainly shotguns and heavy rifles for Moose and maybe a .22 for practice so good luck. The Police have guns too you know.
hello im new, but one thing i found a little confusing was that we eat hamburgers with knife and fork and slice pizza with sisors. i dont know about all people, but i've never seen anyone do that, and im a swede.
i've seen people cut pizza with scizzors at their homes,, i've seen people eat pizza at finer restaurants with knife and fork. (but then cutting it with the knife and fork as well, not scizzor).
+MySwedishExchange What starange part of Sweden are you living in? I eat pizza with my hands, i talk to strangers, i smile att ppl, i dont take the top of my hamburger, i eat it with my hands after squeezing it so it can fit in my mouth AND i am a swede. From a small town called Skellefteå in the northen part.
Yes, soda water with weird flavours like chocolate and vanilla is plain gross and weird, but actually it's a fairly new trend as an answer to America's fetish of sodas that taste bacon, ribs and stuff. And "smörgåstårta" is actually not a swedish thing from the beginning, it originated in France. :) Eating pizza and hamburgers with knives and forks is a typical polite thing to do if you eat a hamburger or pizza on a legit restaurant - you don't want to look like a slob. :P Most of the times there we have "pizzerior" as we call it here, and fast food places where we use our hands to eat. And don't you worry. Swedes rarely get really offended by people of different cultures' opinions of us. :P It's perfectly understandable that our culture makes you scratch your head. xD
I'm American and I've never heard of soda that tastes like bacon or ribs or meat or whatever! I'm sure those things exist here, but they're probably only made as a joke or something. I know we Americans love our bacon, but not everyone wants to sit around sipping it all day lol
Yes, "America" does not equal a very, very small minority. I know no one who has drank such odd things (water flavored like bacon, etc). I thought perhaps she was talking of mineral water. The sourmilk thing sounds like buttermilk here.
Hi, I enjoyed this video. I lived in Sweden for 20 years. I am so glad I don't live there anymore. You were spot on about the not smiling or talking to strangers. The thing is, after a while you start to become like that yourself.
You can pick berries and stuff on private land, just not in private gardens. My parents own a bit of a forest as part of their land, and you'd be allowed to pick berries, mushrooms and whatever else there as long as you don't cause any damage.
It's called allemansrätt. You can walk into a forest and pick berries, mushrooms, and various other things, provided said forest isn't like fenced off.
It depends on the context. In a fast food place, you eat with your hands. If you go out to real restaurant, though, eating with your hands is kind of gauche.
The push pull thing is easy. If it's a vertical bar then you grab it and pull. If it is a square flat plate then you put your palm on it and push. Edit: Who the hell eats hamburgers and pizza with a knife a fork?! o_O Waaait... Did you live in the capitol by any chance?
Adjuni Lol, the funny thing is that we have the same door mechanisms in America(every country I've been to has them), yet people still can't figure out how to predict if a door is push or pull.
Know this is an older video but.. you talked about how we're not having the Swedish flag on our clothes. Well at the school's I've going to when I grew up did not allow you to have clothes with the Swedish flag on. Because they saw it as racist or offending to non Swedish people. And how you explain we eating thous food. I have never in my whole life seen anyone cut a pizza with a scissor or take the meat out of the burger my whole life!! xD
+Specialcat Whaaaat? Have you ever tried cutting a pizza with a scissor? It is so much smarter(I only learned about it a couple of years ago)! And we don't have the Swedish flag because 1. we aren't that patriotic and 2. tbh it doesn't look that cool and interesting. But I do agree about the burger. I have never seen anyone take the meat out either, and people usually don't eat it with fork and knife O.o and +MySwedishExchange we usually only smile at people on the street if we know them, so all the people you smile at will probably wonder who the hell you are and where they met you for a couple of hours x)
Wow, what an interesting and fleshed out response. It's also utterly false. Sweden is a pretty damn nice place with low criminality and good wages and (mostly) fair terms on the job market. I've lived both here and abroad and I can tell you, first hand experience, that we are simply not very nationalistic. That we 'hide the flag' to be 'PC' is utter bullshit. I put up the flag on our National Day, and on birthdays. That's pretty much it. We got lots of other stuff to celebrate than simply 'being' Sweden.
We can't go to anyone's garden to pick berries and such, but to a privately owned forest, yes we can. This is called "allemansrätten" (every man's right). Nature is our inherent property in a way which we may use as long as we pay respect and clean up after us etc... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
The reason why we don't have Swedish flags on clothing is because we are not allowed to, it's considered to be racist for a swede to wear the Swedish flag (which i think is just stupid). My sister one time had a "Sweden" shirt at school, she was forbidden to wear that ever again. Funny thing, in my city they aren't even allowed to place yellow benches next to blue ones because it's would symbol the Swedish flag... You should put that in your list :P About the Pizza and Hamburgers, that's only at restaurants (except restaurants like McDonalds)
MySwedishExchange Hey, thanks for your reply! :) Well me neither really.. but it is for the tiny chance of peoples gets offended by it I guess, but personally I don't really see the difference of someone wearing a Swedish flag than some who are wearing another flag. They have even started to react on old movies for children because of the word "Neger" and basically want's to remove that even though it s famous classic, it's insane! I think it's gets more of a problem if you set rules of all this kind of things.. I don't understand why forbidding a single word would solve anything. I like Australia by the way, have never been there though but it would like to visit someday :) Sorry that my English isn't perfect.
Ahahah no worries, anytime! First off, your English is perfect!!! Yeah, I think it's both had to have rules and set boundaries, but also had to have no rules or boundaries. For instance, in Swedish schools there is barely any rules and it's no where near as strict as Australia. In ways I think this is so great because it's no so discriminatory and you can really be an individual, but I also think rules can be a motivator for students! Also, I think political correctness can be taken to far sometimes, we need to be able to recognise the change that society has undergone, what it use to be and what it is now, so we don't repeat history! You must visit Australia, Any person from any country (almost) can work in Australia for a year, so if you can you should definitely so this! And if your ever in Sydney, let me know!
MySwedishExchange Really? I don't understand why people tend to say that about my English, since I always had a hard time to get a grade in it, but thank you. =) I agree with you on that, I myself kind of needed that, it tends to be too relaxed sometimes and you take things less serious, which is nice too but it don't really help you. I don't like the school uniforms concepts though, I believe it makes us less of a human. It's good that they listen to the students though but they should be limits, in my class at high school for an example, we never had tests on Mondays and no more than two tests on same week and never more than one on the same day, with a few exceptions of course since it wasn't always possible, if that's good or not kind of depends, it's easier to pass the tests but you probably learn less from it. The educations in Sweden were far more strict before of course like in the beginning of 1900. Yeah I know, I know a few that have been working in Australia for a year, haven't done that myself though, but I might considering it, I don't know how soon that would be though. I would totally visit Sydney! You simply can't got to Australia without visiting Sydney! I will let you know for sure! Perhaps we would see each others! I don't know, would be really nice though! =)
You are exaggerating. Yes the racist bullcrap has been taken waaaaaaaaaaaay too far. But the swedish flags IS NOT seen as a racist symbol. Nor is its colours.
Ask your husband if he have ancestors from Sweden that came in hand-cuffs to Auzzie in the good ol' days, for stealing a pizza in Liverpool with a Hedge Trimmer... :)
Vilmer Only those who were settled in New South Wales and Tasmania - the other states and territories were colonised by free men who came to make a living and try their luck - there was a gold rush at a time - many people made their money with sheep and cattle. Tasmania used to be called Van Dieman's Land. Even U2 sang about it.
Swedes dare not go with the Swedish flag on their clothing for them would count as racists, people would take them as racists or that they are Nazis. It is sick with Sweden here is everything racist about trying to hold on Sweden.
You can add to your list that Swedes are overly patriotic/proud and will downvote your videos if your experience of sweden doesn't exactly match theirs. Nice video though!
we are taught in school (im born 1982.. not sure about today..) that sweden is the best country because we have the best democracy and we stay neutral in wars and how great that is.. so yeah, we are overly proud in general... a huge majority of swedes never experience anything outside sweden or tourist areas abroad,, they have no real sense of other cultures,,,, so they have no real way of comparing their culture,,, yet they think their culture is awesome.. i bet this is true for many cultures, not only swedes.
Robert Andersson I mean this is true to a very small extent for sweden. We have one of the best cultures and countries in the world but yet our politicans are saying our country "Belongs to the immigrants" and Mona Salin even said "Swedes have to be integrated into the new Sweden." And I haven`t met anyone (not even my grandparents) who have never seen another country culture. And while I am in no way well traveled myself (only been to Italy Greece, Spain, Austria, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands and USA) I haven`t really seen a country better than sweden. I mean standard of living and infrastructure in Italy Greece and Spain were shit. The USA had soooooooo many homeless people. Denmark is fucking denmark. Americans were in general in poor health (Obese or drug addicts). and the Netherlands wasn`t that different but Sweden was overall better.
You've been forced into the prudent parts I see, not the north. Anyone using knife and fork on their hamburger up in the the north gets laughed at(just a little weird, but nothing that people will make a fuss about. Afterall, some do that, a rare few). But in general it's just choice, and as a very multi-cultural country, we are quite accepting of personal preferences(in general), with the possible exception of religion. We are generally quite disgusted by religious ideas and customs, we might not always say it, but it seems to always be in the air. There is actually another way to say this, something that includes many other points aswell: Don't be stupid/foolish, and the rest is for you to decide(for the most part). That is the beauty of losing the stagnant type of cultural setting, that is a single culture dominating a country, you have to accept other views, as long as they're not a an obvious and direct problem=stupid or exceedingly lacking in regards towards others(physically causing others problems). PS. Swedish do date, but it doesn't work in the same way, and it is not as normal. Usually people just happen to meet and it all comes naturally. But isn't that better? It is not as forced.
there's definitely restaurants where hamburgers are served to be eaten with knife and fork, but that usually more expensive / upper class restaurants. all fast food burgers are eaten with hands in sweden... as for pizza, i had a couple of friends that would use scizzors to cut it, but even they would eat the pizza with their hands
This video is a joke. You should really do some reserach before you post stuff like this. I mean. Who did you at pizza with who cut it with scissors? Did he tell you that all swedes does this? Is this the same guy that told you that you can pick berries from someones lawn? Come on. Get your facts straight, because these things are not even half true.
+Daw H. (DAW the DUDE) Try cutting your pizza with scissors next time though, its awesome! Most of the people i know in sweden (I live in Sundsvall if that matters) do this just because of how efficient it is. Non of us eat with fork and knife though. also, dont get so offended by some observations from someone who lived here for only 9 months.
First of all, I'm not offended at all. I just think it's funny how she makes a list about "weird swedish things" when she doesn't even know half the truth. In my home I have something called a Pizza Slicer that I use to cut my pizza. I have indeed cut my pizza with a pair of scissors, but that was more like a matter of emergency. Cutting a pizza with a scissor is something you would find in "10 Epic College Lifehacks You Never Knew" and it's not the swedish way to eat pizza :P
Thanks for the video. It's always fun to find out how foreigners perceive Swedish food, customs etc. Just a little FYI; Smörgåstårta doesn't translate to "bread cake". It means "sandwich cake" :)
Where on earth are you? Sounds like cityfolks you met. Knife and Fork? Not talking to strangers? No smiles? Try the countryside, we are more natural here and eat pizza and burgers with our hands, and smile and talk to anyone. :)
The whole thing with not smiling or saying hi to strangers are a very strange thing for me. I am from sweden and i work in a store so i always say hi and smile at strangers when i walk around in the store. I see it as a really polite thing to do and i have always done that outside of work too, i even do it when i'm in stockholm and it's mostly people from big cities that think it's weird. Then the whole thing with eating pizza and hamburgers with knife and fork is that swedish people don't really like being seen as rude when they eat at resturants or anything like that, but if they are at home they usually eat it with their hands. (I only eat hamburger with knife and fork when i put to much on the hamburger)
The no dating part is actually starting to change here now. More people go out for a coffee and get to know eachother (especially if they met online) before deciding to go romantic or stay friends. But normally, we just hook up at parties or let a friendship grow into a romantic relationship without having to make everything so formal and official as dating tends to force you to do.
I have NEVER in my whole 32 years of Swedish life eaten pizza and hamburger like that...and I have never seen anyone do it either...makes me wonder what kind of people you hang around XD
I never seen anyone cut a pizza with scissors, or eat it with a knife and fork, not even in borås, in 27 years. You seem to have been very unlycky with your company, or have eaten little pizza.
It's common, prolly just not in your circles. My parents does it and their friends does it. I think it's a "polite" way of eating pizza?? You don't got dirty is the point.
fjolla2011 you don't eat pizza that way, that's the point. Look what happened when the mayor of NY did it, and with good cause. I'm not really sure by the way, but I'm pretty sure "my circles" aren't random people in restaurants all over this country..
I visited Stockholm, Sweden for 2 weeks, no one ate a burger or pizza for a fork and knife. However when a knife is not totally necessary they will still use it in conjunction with the fork.
we.. aren't very social in sweden, haha :P it's kind of sad. also, it's kind of sad that we don't have swedish flags clothes! maybe i'll start making that lol
You're right. We are reserved on busses, trains w/e but... We are inviting and polite, so if you aproach someone in english we will more often then not, accept your "weird" behavior because you are Aussie :P Most of us, that is. Have had a lot of intressting conversations with tourists, "who lacks the common sence to behaive like swedes do" :P It does make us uneasy at first thou. Particullary having to adress someone in english, oohhh the horror.
I hope you enjoy it here in Sweden! Talking about things you find strange about this country is great, and it also amuses swedes a lot because nobody ever talks about Sweden. Yes, we are strange people. I've just started to understand how it works when you get to talk to new people without being weird. Somehow you've got to have some kind of reason to talk, like you need to ask a question or something. When you've talked to someone once the you can say hi and talk them later about other things because you're now "friends". I just understood that like a week ago and I'm born and raised in Sweden, and still live here. Pretty strange.
The cutting pizza with scissors and eating pizza and hamburger with knife and fork thing really depends on where you are. If you're at a restaurant you don't want to get your hands dirty, so you eat with utensils, but if you're at a pizza place, you probably just eat with your hands. Same goes for hamburgers. You won't see anyone using a fork at mcdonalds. And I've never seen anyone ever cutting their pizza with scissors, but I think I'm going to start doing that now, that sounds so easy(only at home tho...)!
OhSnap Because most of the things are not typical swedish and thus called made up. I would guess she either stays in Stockholm or Malmö. Those cities are retarded (preparing for the hate) ;)
MySwedishExchange About number 9: When people look at you like that when you smile at them it's often because they think that since you smiled at them you know them so they are panicing a little and trying to remember who you are (at least it's like that for me a lot of the time)
lmao these are so true, except for the hamburger with fork thing.. and hey, it sucks that we can't really date or talk to strangers, really frustrates me!
Hu! Yea, I don't see why would it be a problem talking to a stranger...like I notice some Swedish agreeing in not talking to strangers in the comment section, but than again they are talking to a stranger in here. A little different but still talking to a stranger one way or another.
Well I've eaten many hamburgers with a knife and fork, although those burgers were basically too big to eat with your hands without looking like a pig, and so most customers use a knife and fork in that restaurant. Normal size burgers from like McDonalds, Max, Sibylla etc I eat with my hands.
När man går ut och äter på restaurang som är lite finare än till exempel McDonalds, så är det faktiskt väldigt vanligt att man äter hamburgare med kniv och gaffel, oavsett var i Sverige man är.
Sara, det finns faktiskt en hel del finare restauranger som specialiserar sig på hamburgare, Mölleexpressen i Helsingborg eller Shiraz i Lunds Saluhall :) det är en helt annan sak att äta hamburgare på sådana ställen och jag rekommenderar starkt att testa det om chansen ges.
I enjoyed this video, and you are right about pretty much everything in my opinion. I really don't get all the people commenting saying that what you're saying doesn't have anything in common with the Swedish society, but as someone who was partially raised in the States, I must say you are pretty much right on the spot. Most people probably can't really relate to other cultures enough to be able to reflect on their own objectively.
In smaller communities it's often okay to smile or say hello to strangers you pass on the streets. It's only when you get to larger towns or cities that people will give you wierd looks when you do that.
I know that smiling or talking to strangers unless you are asking for the time, is deemed as weird in many big cities. I am from a city in Canada, and most of the time, when random people on the street try to talk to you, they are not entirely sane. This is why big cities are often called unfriendly.I hadn't heard of Sweden being unfriendly, though.
About the doors. All doors in sweden are supposed to open outwards from the building. This is because in case of a fire you should be able to escape the building as quickly as possible. Hope this helps=)
I too am an exchange student in Uppsala trying to adapt to Swedish culture. I think some of your observations depend on what part of Sweden one hails from. I'm from Hawaii, where a lot of us smile at perfect strangers, something that has earned me a few odd looks. But actually quite a few people (many of them senior citizens) will belatedly smile back. And overall, the vast majority of Swedes are friendly and helpful people. I do agree with you on some. Like the doors.
Explaination: 1.we only eat hamburgers with knife and fork when we are in Nicer resturants, dunno why thou. 2. The use of flag texturers on clothes is a style, its weird but i mean whatever. 3. If you want normal water there is alternativs, you just gotta look for the right bottle. Sorry IF i sound offended, im really not. I just wanted to explain.
Survival guide for people who don't know whether the door should be pushed or pulled: LOOK AT THE HINGES. If the hinges are visible, then pull. If they're not: push.
a clarification of the berry picking thing "allemansrätten" you are allowed to go into privately owned forests... not like into people back yards... (that would be kinda creepy) but basically people who own forest basically own the trees and the land not necessarily the berries and mushrooms more or less.. Cultivated crops is a different thing but wildly growing plants are free for anyone to pick. Not sure what applies for hunting... A lot of sweds pick berries and mushrooms and make jam and dry mushrooms. you can also find stuff like juniper berries which is used in some Swedish specialities like "kjälknöl" (basically you freeze beef stake solid then put it in the oven at 75 deg c until its between 65-70 degrees in the middle (this usually take 8-10h) then you put it in a marinade of salt/sugar water thyme and juniper berries and let that marinade for 4-5h once it done you get a very nice roast that's beautifully pink inside and has a very nice flavour... www.ica.se/recept/tjalknol-713109/
I'm even from an immigrant area in Stockholm and I see Swedish flags everywhere. The buses have them every time something special is happening. We have a giant flagpole with the swedish flag that gets raised on every special day. On the last day of school each year we used to ALWAYS sing the national anthem. You'll see a lot of people waving the swedish flag and etc etc. It's crazy how some people think that the Swedish flag is racist though.
Pizza: Cut it into triangular slices, then use your hands. Burgers: USE YOUR GOD DAMNED HANDS! (Unless it's massive and falling apart) Sincerely: A Swede.
Emelie Pechan At least some of what she say seem rather strange to me. Eating hamburgers with knife and fork? If one eat a hamburger without bread, most people will of course prefer to do it with knife and fork. But eating a hamburger with bread in that way? No way, at least not here in Ångermanland/Västernorrlands län. And I have never heard about anyone who cut pizza with scissor. I have never encountered this thing that one should be expected to hug someone the second time one meet that person. Some older women want to hug people they know all the time, but it is after everything I know socially accepted to turn down a hug. Maybe there is to some degree different social norms for women (I have not checked that out in regard of hugging), but I strongly suspect that this Australian woman just assumed that she was "socially obligated" to hug people when she was not. It also happen that I smile to strangers, and that has been totally accepted. You can smile to strangers in Sweden. I do not know how it is in Australia though, maybe they smile even more to each other there than what we do? I have heard that Swedes might be a little reserved, but I do not have so much to compare with since I have almost never been outside Sweden. The soda water has a rather simple explaination: the tap water is potable here in Sweden. So if you ask for bottle water, people will just assume that you mean soda water. If you just want ordinary water, you ask for tap water.
One thing to think about with pushing and pulling doors is that most (modern) doors should "lead out". So when entering a building you have to pull, enter a room in a building you pull; so that when there's a fire or something, you can just push everything open when running out of the building. (Can also be useful if you're not sure which way to go, if you push open doors, you're going to get out eventually. Sadly older buildings with older doors might not have that "safety" design.
Great vid, I laughed my ass off. What you say is true but the funny thing is that I havent really thought about all these things til I saw this video. Great way to get some perspective of things!
Weirdest Things About Sweden to me is that they drink coffee like its going to be banned tomorrow . Never seen that many Fika "coffee break" in 1 day in my life .I told a girl i didn't drink coffee and she looked at me like i was injecting ebola in my eyeball . And about Swedish woman’s , yes most of them are stunning and about 3X as smart as the average American male .
I am swedish and I can sincerely not find anything offensive in this video what so ever. Nothing at all. In what way do you find her to be passive agressive?
Something more, Swedish people tend to get annoyed whene people in their surrounding are talking loudly on their mobile phones in a buss or train. Swedes call these mobile flasher ( Mobile blottare ). Swedes in the south, south of Sweden ( Scania ) tend to get also annoyed when you don't greet back. For example if the staff at the checkout counter, hotel desk clerk or train conductor greets you and you don't greet back, that would count as beeing impolite. And back and forward.
As a Swede, I enjoy this video, i think it was quite funny. First of all, i'd like to give one some response of the video itself. I think you should lower the music just a little bit, because i found it difficult to hear what you were saying, so i had to turn it up and try to filter out the music, which was ok, but a little bit annoying. Second; I've never cut a pizza with scissors and i do eat the pizza with my hands, aswell as hamburgers... Well. The pizza i eat with fork and knife if i'm at the restaurant. I do really not like that if i talk to a stranger, i'm really weird. I'd like to talk to strangers and if someone would talk to me at the bus, i'd be happy about that. What you talked about in the relationship thing is really true. If one person is interested in another, do that person just try to hang around that person to sometimes maybe get a chance to talk to him/her? I've found it rare that they go out on a date to sit and eat in a restaurant and talk. Also, if they do, i think it's quite often that they share the bill, and not that the guy just automatically pays it all. Sweden is also a place where you don't look at other people, like you said "don't look, don't smile", unless you know them. This makes for problems when i see a cute girl and i would like to talk to her, but it's not really socially acceptable here..
+MySwedishExchange Your very welcome. I am 64 years old and my son married a Swede from Stockholm. My wife and I are attempting to learn the language as well as trying to understand their customs. Good luck to you. Take care, Steve
The main thing you need to know about Sweden and swedes, is that we generally don't wanna be in each others way. So even if you think you're coming on too strong, WE will feel the need to correct the problem. If that means hug you back the first time we meet, fine. As long as it doesn't get awkward. Also, like most people have commented, seems like you're in an upper class foster family. The "Average Joe" in sweden - a "Svensson" isn't quite as uptight and proper as you describe us.
There's not cream on a sandwich cake, it's things like mayonnaise. But being a Swede I still find it disgusting. And of course we eat pizza with a knife and fork. That's how it's done. Go to Italy and check it out for yourself. ;) I've never heard about anyone using a scissor to cut it up though (and restaurants generally don't slice them up for you either, unless it's a thick crust pizza, which is rare here). When it comes to pizza I'd say that the weird things we do in Sweden is to put kebab on them, or have Bearnaise sauce (well, some bastardized factory version at least) with them. Pretty much everyone eats burgers with their hands though, unless it's a toast burger like you get in some pubs etc, which is meant to be eaten with silverware. As for filmjölk, you should have been less of a polite Swede about it and just said that you didn't like it. ;) When it comes to talking to strangers we don't do it much but in my experience most find it pleasant when someone gets a conversation going. And anyone that gets offended by this video must have some personal issues. Nothing controversial whatsoever in my view.
the bubblewater thing is common because, well. Sweden has 100% clean water in 99.9% of all water taps in the country. So they're not used to people asking for water because it is widly accepted that is you want water you just go to the nearest water tap. And yes, bubblewater is very populer in sweden, so many different companies make it
I'm from Sweden and I mainly use fork and knife to eat my hamburgers when I'm either eating at home or at a restaurant which is not a fastfood restaurant. I also cut my pizza with a scissor because it's way more effective than cutting it with a knife or some weird pizzacutter thing.
We date, we just don't call it dating or anything like that. We meet, and after three or four times presumably after you have kissed, you just continue to meet in the same fashion, and if you consistently kiss, make out and are very physical you are then together. Unless you agree that it's just not "friends with benefits". We often discuss with each other what we wan't from the whole thing at a certain point (like a month) If you wan't to continue like a relationship or not. It's like this: Americans see it as dating the whole period up until an engagement, and after that you are in a relationship and will solidify it with marriage. Swedes regards themselves as being in a relationship all ready before the engagement. And IF we engage with each other, then you reach a whole new level of relationship. So marriage for a swede is a very serious business indeed :) It's like , if you are curious you ask, and then the person just replies, yeah we are together, or that person over there is my boy/girlfriend ;)
About doors (#6)...A general rule of thumb: If you are going out, you push. If you are going in, you pull. Works 95% of the times. Thought this was a universal rule.
You can't pick berries or mushrooms on someones private property. You can do it in forests and such that someone happens to own, but that's not private property, a back yard is someones private property.
Sorry but you can go in to a garden and pic their fruit. Just in the forest or in public places. You have "allemansrätten" in Sweden and this means that you can camp, swim etc on someone's land but not too close to someone's home.
Cutting pizza with a scissors? If you saw someone do that then that person must be on drugs. And its not normal to eat pizza with knife and fork. Its extreamly rare on people under 20. People over 50 its normal to do that. And the hamburger thing is very, VERY rare. It can normally happen if you dont have bread. But it someone did it, example at McDonalds people would think you are wierd. One of the only things i agree with you are the thing on busses. Everybody over 25 looks like they just lost their job. And sometimes they give you a wierd look when not doing anything.
Most schools in sweden have rules against the Swedish flag as it may be offensive for some people. Personally I think this is kind of BS tough, since some swedes might be offended becuase of the fact that other nation's flags are allowed.
This might be an old video but I have honestly in my 23 years in Sweden never seen anyone take the burger paddy out, and eat it with a knife and fork. I eat pizza with my hands and also burgers. As Specialcat said below, wearing the Swedish flag in school was considered racist for some time but I do agree with you, we are not the most patriotic country.
Hi! Fun video! A correction though - I don't think we are allowed to pick stuff on private property and we don't (ofc I'm merely speaking of myself and don't know what people you were hanging with). "We" only pick berries and mushrooms in forrests that are owned by everyone. Directly translated it's called "all mans right".
Cut a pizza with scissors!? Eat a hamburger with knife and fork!? I have lived in Sweden all of my life and I've NEVER seen anyone do that!
I'm Swedish too...
Eating hamburgers with knife and fork is not uncommon if you're in a restaurant of some kind. I've done it plenty of times.
Same here, I'm swedish from the day I was born. HELSVENSK!
yes here in the north knife and fork for a burger yes yes yes
Big Steve From England FINALLY! SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES ME!
Although I never did that myself, I have seen older people did it...my grandmother for example...
Born and raised swede here trying to shed some light on some of these claims.
We eat our burgers with our hands
We date, we just don't do these "flashy" american movie date's that you refer to. Our date's are much more simple, grab a coffee, lunch etc. you know, somewhere that you can actually talk to eachother
We DON'T hug other people unless we know them really well
Our doors do tell you to push or pull
The only cream that is in smörgåstårta "sandwich cake" is cream cheese, NOT whipped cream like a regular birthday cake for example
It is NOT legal to go on to someone else's property to pick mushrooms/berrys, property meaning house with yard and everything in connection to that. It basically means that you can walk around in the FOREST to pick berrys and mushrooms
I don't get why queuing is such a strange thing for people from other countries, do you just go ahead of other people who's standing in line to purchase something where you're from?!
The one thing that REALLY FUCKING PISSES ME OFF is the flag thing, because it's true.. People here have sticks shoved so far up their asses that it's poking their brain and makes them think that wearing our simple, yet beautiful flag, makes us rasist's.
***** Let's hope so
Gnagarn Man äter hamburgare med händerna på donken elr max, sådana snabbmatsställen. På restauranger äter man med bestick.
barbasmas Dude, varför ska man gå till en dyr restaurang när man kan gå till Max, Sibylla, eller vilken annan liten grill som helst?
Gnagarn ***** Max är ju inte direkt stället man sticker med familjen elr sin dejt på en vacker fredagskväll, om man nu ska äta hamburgare på en restaurang så får man göra det på ett fint och artigt sätt så att man inte sticker ut elr äcklar nån antar jag.
***** Eh, didn't stop the historical sultanates (some of whom were quite key to the spread of Islam) and Caliphates to participate in it. Very popular to have slave boys as sex slaves.
The "allemansrätten" you are talking about does not let you go into someone yard/garden and pick the berries. Only on privately or state owned land that is unhabited and considered general fauna and not cultivated crops or similar. There is a huge difference.
Im swedish and to be honest i have never met anyone eat hamburger whit knife and fork neither pizza..
+I see that you are taking time out of your day to read my completely unnecessarily long username. I do eat hamburgers and pizza with knife and fork
TheFlyingPenguinMan was you the one who she hang around in sweden?
+I see that you are taking time out of your day to read my completely unnecessarily long username. I eat pizza with knife and fork :( I feel like a failure
+Mist M I'm swede, I always eat hamburger with knife and fork, IF NOT im in mcdonalds or some other fast food restaurant.
jesperazza I eat with knife and fork if I'm in a restaurant because those hamburgers are too huge to take bites from.
Hmm I had the exact opposite experience with smiling in Stockholm. I noticed most people were actually super friendly and I exchanged smiles with strangers quite a few times. Very heart-warming!
I'm Swedish and 50% of what you say is not true and I have never seen any Swedish peopleeat eat hamburger with knife and fork only my Russian friend.
Stopped it France as well! In some fancy restaurant ;)
I've seen it several times. It's in resturants not Mcdonalds.
I'm swedish and ive never ever cut my pizza with scissors nor do I know anyone who does that, and everyone i know except for my mum eats pizza with their hands. Same with the burgers, we eat them with our hands... Just because some people you've met does certain things doesnt mean that swedes in general does those things so, maybe you shouldnt say that :P
I am swedish and i have never eaten hamburgers with utensils? Nor has i ever heard of it.
+Robert Jonsson I eat it with utensils if it's possible and I'm also Swede.
Party Harty
då måste du höra till undantagen.
Nope. I also use utensils when available, and I think most people do, at least when you eat at home or at a restaurant. macdonalds is not a restaurant because they do not serve food ;)
Va ä "utensils"? Aldri hört talats om
Bad Ass Bestick
where in sweden do you eat hamburgers with a fork? wut
+dragom2009 i eat kebeb with bread with my hands?
samuel bergström yes but you are given a fork with it too. and if its too much in the bread you can eat it with the fork to keep it from falling out
+dragom2009 they dont give us a fork we have to go and get it for our selfes near me
samuel bergström hm perhapes is because I always have take away.
btw what happen to timmey? I have seem him in the latest episodes
+dragom2009 havent Been Watching for a while
Girl! You aint got nothing on Filmjölk!
You better watch your back. Arla is comming for you!
Filmjölk is death!
You just need to ad some sugger! ^^,
Where are you from? :)MySwedishExchange
Ye Arla is comming xD
....Accompanied by the swedish chief from the muppet show.. Totally terryfiyng!...(((
flora med smör :3
The general rule about doors is you pull to go in, and you push to go out. So if you're walking into a classroom, you pull, and when you walk out, you push. If you enter a building, you'll pull, and if you're leaving, you push.
Some doors are the other way however, and those can be confusing.
I am English and like you moved to Borås, Sweden about a year ago. You forgot to mention how the Swedes meticulously sort their garbage! They let it pile up in their kitchen in paper shopping bags and after a week or two take it to the recycling station where you have to sort it into cardboard, newspapers, plastic, metal, clear glass, coloured glass etc. Worst thing about Sweden is without doubt Systembolag!
How is systembolaget the worst thing? We have the 2nd lowest % of drunk driving accidents in Europe, much more difficult for underage people to drink and do stupid shit, If the majority of people wasn´t so god damn stupid then maybe we could sell alcohol in the regular stores.
How come snus and tobacco are not sold exclusively at systembolag then? If the state wants to meddle in people's private lives (health), then be at least consistent.
Are the majority of people really stupid? I think not. Personal freedom and responsibility is preferable to state control.
Terence Petersen-Ajbro because neither snus or other tobacco makes you do stupid shit, heard of many tobacco related car crash deaths? The difference between alcohol and tobacco is that alcohol can make people hurt other people, i guess passive smoking does that to, but not to the same extent.
Or religion!
Terence Petersen-Ajbro not really the same thing now is it?
You can pick berries in privately owned forests, not people's lawns.
Officialhelpkenet Carry a pistol and you pick berries where ever you please.
Huehuehuehue
+TheDudeofDudes But thats illegal :P
+TheDudeofDudes Well there are many firearms in sweden , mainly shotguns and heavy rifles for Moose and maybe a .22 for practice so good luck. The Police have guns too you know.
EattinThurs61 Lol, it was supposed to be sarcasm...
I am swedish and I just want to face palm to most of these, maybe just because it's where I come from but still
I change my mind, I mean all of them XD
JontusMaximus I know right im just like what is she talking about
linusthegamer lol ikr!
JontusMaximus det som e seriöst stört e att de e ok att skjuta folk som går på din trädgård i Amerika like dafuq
Vilmer Ja exakt! Man kan typ döda någon, dra in den på ens tomt, och säga att det var självförsvar XD helt sjukt!
hello im new, but one thing i found a little confusing was that we eat hamburgers with knife and fork and slice pizza with sisors. i dont know about all people, but i've never seen anyone do that, and im a swede.
but other then that the video was really good
i've seen people cut pizza with scizzors at their homes,, i've seen people eat pizza at finer restaurants with knife and fork. (but then cutting it with the knife and fork as well, not scizzor).
+MySwedishExchange What starange part of Sweden are you living in?
I eat pizza with my hands, i talk to strangers, i smile att ppl, i dont take the top of my hamburger, i eat it with my hands after squeezing it so it can fit in my mouth AND i am a swede. From a small town called Skellefteå in the northen part.
+Matte Edström exakt
eller hur? jag äter också pizza med händerna
Nathanael Sallhag Eriksson Det finns 3 generella maträtter man äter med händerna.
Dessa är Pizza, Hamburgare och kyckling ;)
+Matte Edström men tacos då?
Nathanael Sallhag Eriksson Nu sa jag ju "generella" men ok, du får den ;)
Det är då FAN INGET FEL MED SMÖRGÅSTÅRTA!
ew
aNASTYfeed och vi har inte grädde på dom iheller...
+aNASTYfeed Ewwwwwww
+aNASTYfeed Det är ju bara äckliga grejer på den oftast.
PyramidHead6 Det, min vän. Det ligger i betraktarens ögon! :)
Yes, soda water with weird flavours like chocolate and vanilla is plain gross and weird, but actually it's a fairly new trend as an answer to America's fetish of sodas that taste bacon, ribs and stuff. And "smörgåstårta" is actually not a swedish thing from the beginning, it originated in France. :) Eating pizza and hamburgers with knives and forks is a typical polite thing to do if you eat a hamburger or pizza on a legit restaurant - you don't want to look like a slob. :P
Most of the times there we have "pizzerior" as we call it here, and fast food places where we use our hands to eat. And don't you worry. Swedes rarely get really offended by people of different cultures' opinions of us. :P It's perfectly understandable that our culture makes you scratch your head. xD
I really like the flavoured Soda water. It's tasty! The only problem is that the taste tends to wear off after a few sips.
I've lived in America my whole life and I've never even heard of a soda that tastes like bacon, ribs or stuff. Hell no, that's disgusting
drumline17 I bought a soda water with chocolate ice cream flavour this summer, it wasn't so bad. It was surprisingly fresh.
I'm American and I've never heard of soda that tastes like bacon or ribs or meat or whatever! I'm sure those things exist here, but they're probably only made as a joke or something. I know we Americans love our bacon, but not everyone wants to sit around sipping it all day lol
Yes, "America" does not equal a very, very small minority. I know no one who has drank such odd things (water flavored like bacon, etc). I thought perhaps she was talking of mineral water. The sourmilk thing sounds like buttermilk here.
Hi, I enjoyed this video. I lived in Sweden for 20 years. I am so glad I don't live there anymore. You were spot on about the not smiling or talking to strangers. The thing is, after a while you start to become like that yourself.
1:48 No you can't run in to a private property and start picking berries etc?:o
.
no, you can't. Gardens are private property.
It's called "private property" for a reason so no. observe the word "private" = stay out if not invited.
You can pick berries and stuff on private land, just not in private gardens. My parents own a bit of a forest as part of their land, and you'd be allowed to pick berries, mushrooms and whatever else there as long as you don't cause any damage.
It's called allemansrätt. You can walk into a forest and pick berries, mushrooms, and various other things, provided said forest isn't like fenced off.
100k citizens? thats a big city in Sweden...
yeah the city i live in has only about 10k
SovietMotherRussiaLover Stockholm?
SovietMotherRussiaLover malmö?
+SovietMotherRussiaLover I knew it
varför skriver du då malmö för? jävla sopa
pizza and hamburger fork and knife not true
um ya it is quite common here...
yes, not common :)
ikr who does that??
i've never seen anyone eat a hamburger or pizza like that accept a few immigrants #plsDon'tKillMeForSayingThat
don't lie to me !
It depends on the context. In a fast food place, you eat with your hands. If you go out to real restaurant, though, eating with your hands is kind of gauche.
The push pull thing is easy. If it's a vertical bar then you grab it and pull. If it is a square flat plate then you put your palm on it and push.
Edit: Who the hell eats hamburgers and pizza with a knife a fork?! o_O Waaait... Did you live in the capitol by any chance?
Adjuni Lol, the funny thing is that we have the same door mechanisms in America(every country I've been to has them), yet people still can't figure out how to predict if a door is push or pull.
TheDudeofDudes I'll admit, I can't door either many times.
Know this is an older video but.. you talked about how we're not having the Swedish flag on our clothes. Well at the school's I've going to when I grew up did not allow you to have clothes with the Swedish flag on. Because they saw it as racist or offending to non Swedish people.
And how you explain we eating thous food. I have never in my whole life seen anyone cut a pizza with a scissor or take the meat out of the burger my whole life!! xD
+Specialcat Interesting perspective, thanks for still taking the time to comment!
+Specialcat Whaaaat? Have you ever tried cutting a pizza with a scissor? It is so much smarter(I only learned about it a couple of years ago)! And we don't have the Swedish flag because 1. we aren't that patriotic and 2. tbh it doesn't look that cool and interesting.
But I do agree about the burger. I have never seen anyone take the meat out either, and people usually don't eat it with fork and knife O.o
and +MySwedishExchange we usually only smile at people on the street if we know them, so all the people you smile at will probably wonder who the hell you are and where they met you for a couple of hours x)
+Specialcat I'm swedish and i cut my pizza with scissors
why would anyone cut pizza with scissors??
Wow, what an interesting and fleshed out response. It's also utterly false. Sweden is a pretty damn nice place with low criminality and good wages and (mostly) fair terms on the job market. I've lived both here and abroad and I can tell you, first hand experience, that we are simply not very nationalistic. That we 'hide the flag' to be 'PC' is utter bullshit. I put up the flag on our National Day, and on birthdays. That's pretty much it. We got lots of other stuff to celebrate than simply 'being' Sweden.
We can't go to anyone's garden to pick berries and such, but to a privately owned forest, yes we can. This is called "allemansrätten" (every man's right). Nature is our inherent property in a way which we may use as long as we pay respect and clean up after us etc...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
Mikael Murstam Thanks so much for the info! And watching my videos! Really interesting!
The reason why we don't have Swedish flags on clothing is because we are not allowed to, it's considered to be racist for a swede to wear the Swedish flag (which i think is just stupid). My sister one time had a "Sweden" shirt at school, she was forbidden to wear that ever again. Funny thing, in my city they aren't even allowed to place yellow benches next to blue ones because it's would symbol the Swedish flag... You should put that in your list :P
About the Pizza and Hamburgers, that's only at restaurants (except restaurants like McDonalds)
XouZ I don't understand why the Swedish flag is racist? But this is really interesting to me! I think you should be allowed to wear it!
MySwedishExchange Hey, thanks for your reply! :) Well me neither really.. but it is for the tiny chance of peoples gets offended by it I guess, but personally I don't really see the difference of someone wearing a Swedish flag than some who are wearing another flag. They have even started to react on old movies for children because of the word "Neger" and basically want's to remove that even though it s famous classic, it's insane!
I think it's gets more of a problem if you set rules of all this kind of things.. I don't understand why forbidding a single word would solve anything.
I like Australia by the way, have never been there though but it would like to visit someday :)
Sorry that my English isn't perfect.
Ahahah no worries, anytime! First off, your English is perfect!!!
Yeah, I think it's both had to have rules and set boundaries, but also had to have no rules or boundaries. For instance, in Swedish schools there is barely any rules and it's no where near as strict as Australia. In ways I think this is so great because it's no so discriminatory and you can really be an individual, but I also think rules can be a motivator for students!
Also, I think political correctness can be taken to far sometimes, we need to be able to recognise the change that society has undergone, what it use to be and what it is now, so we don't repeat history!
You must visit Australia, Any person from any country (almost) can work in Australia for a year, so if you can you should definitely so this! And if your ever in Sydney, let me know!
MySwedishExchange Really? I don't understand why people tend to say that about my English, since I always had a hard time to get a grade in it, but thank you. =)
I agree with you on that, I myself kind of needed that, it tends to be too relaxed sometimes and you take things less serious, which is nice too but it don't really help you. I don't like the school uniforms concepts though, I believe it makes us less of a human.
It's good that they listen to the students though but they should be limits, in my class at high school for an example, we never had tests on Mondays and no more than two tests on same week and never more than one on the same day, with a few exceptions of course since it wasn't always possible, if that's good or not kind of depends, it's easier to pass the tests but you probably learn less from it. The educations in Sweden were far more strict before of course like in the beginning of 1900.
Yeah I know, I know a few that have been working in Australia for a year, haven't done that myself though, but I might considering it, I don't know how soon that would be though. I would totally visit Sydney! You simply can't got to Australia without visiting Sydney! I will let you know for sure! Perhaps we would see each others! I don't know, would be really nice though! =)
You are exaggerating. Yes the racist bullcrap has been taken waaaaaaaaaaaay too far. But the swedish flags IS NOT seen as a racist symbol. Nor is its colours.
Haha - my husband eats hamburgers with a knife and fork and he is Australian
JoziGirl Adaptions a great thing ;)
Ask your husband if he have ancestors from Sweden that came in hand-cuffs to Auzzie in the good ol' days, for stealing a pizza in Liverpool with a Hedge Trimmer... :)
***** Hahaha - I think that he has Scottish and French ancestry.
most the crimminals if not all that lived in Autsralia was british... please correct me if im worng xD
Vilmer Only those who were settled in New South Wales and Tasmania - the other states and territories were colonised by free men who came to make a living and try their luck - there was a gold rush at a time - many people made their money with sheep and cattle.
Tasmania used to be called Van Dieman's Land. Even U2 sang about it.
haha very true great video
Swedes dare not go with the Swedish flag on their clothing for them would count as racists, people would take them as racists or that they are Nazis. It is sick with Sweden here is everything racist about trying to hold on Sweden.
Thank you so much for commenting on my video Steve! You are what inspired me to make videos about Sweden in the first place!
It's so true Mikael Jakobsson! Couldn't have said it better myself.
BIG STEVE!!!!!!!!!!
***** HEY!! sweden is not bad at all....i just saying
You can add to your list that Swedes are overly patriotic/proud and will downvote your videos if your experience of sweden doesn't exactly match theirs.
Nice video though!
HAHHAHA I have come to understand that! So much hate on this video!
F u
... This is fucking holarius to me
we are taught in school (im born 1982.. not sure about today..) that sweden is the best country because we have the best democracy and we stay neutral in wars and how great that is.. so yeah, we are overly proud in general... a huge majority of swedes never experience anything outside sweden or tourist areas abroad,, they have no real sense of other cultures,,,, so they have no real way of comparing their culture,,, yet they think their culture is awesome.. i bet this is true for many cultures, not only swedes.
Robert Andersson I mean this is true to a very small extent for sweden. We have one of the best cultures and countries in the world but yet our politicans are saying our country "Belongs to the immigrants" and Mona Salin even said "Swedes have to be integrated into the new Sweden." And I haven`t met anyone (not even my grandparents) who have never seen another country culture. And while I am in no way well traveled myself (only been to Italy Greece, Spain, Austria, Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands and USA) I haven`t really seen a country better than sweden. I mean standard of living and infrastructure in Italy Greece and Spain were shit. The USA had soooooooo many homeless people. Denmark is fucking denmark. Americans were in general in poor health (Obese or drug addicts). and the Netherlands wasn`t that different but Sweden was overall better.
You've been forced into the prudent parts I see, not the north. Anyone using knife and fork on their hamburger up in the the north gets laughed at(just a little weird, but nothing that people will make a fuss about. Afterall, some do that, a rare few). But in general it's just choice, and as a very multi-cultural country, we are quite accepting of personal preferences(in general), with the possible exception of religion. We are generally quite disgusted by religious ideas and customs, we might not always say it, but it seems to always be in the air. There is actually another way to say this, something that includes many other points aswell: Don't be stupid/foolish, and the rest is for you to decide(for the most part). That is the beauty of losing the stagnant type of cultural setting, that is a single culture dominating a country, you have to accept other views, as long as they're not a an obvious and direct problem=stupid or exceedingly lacking in regards towards others(physically causing others problems).
PS. Swedish do date, but it doesn't work in the same way, and it is not as normal. Usually people just happen to meet and it all comes naturally. But isn't that better? It is not as forced.
Indeed, in the North, we do talk to strangers from time to time, and smile back when someone smiles at you!
TheSwedishTraveler
Hahah yeah xP
but she talks about her experience in sweden not facts
*****
Yes and we are telling her how it is in northern part of Sweden.
i think i commented on the wrong comment
XD
we eat pizza and hamburgers with our hands chill xD
Speak for yourself... filthy barbarian.
idk but where the hell are you in sweden we eat ur pizza and hamburgers with ur hands
elias il Ikr xD
Ye XD
there's definitely restaurants where hamburgers are served to be eaten with knife and fork, but that usually more expensive / upper class restaurants.
all fast food burgers are eaten with hands in sweden...
as for pizza, i had a couple of friends that would use scizzors to cut it, but even they would eat the pizza with their hands
It's called smörgåstårta not smurgusturtu
Sorry, Swedish is not my first language so all I can do it try! Thanks for the correction though, I will definitely try to improve :)
i just comment that for fun, didn't mean to insult or anything :) sorry if it felt like a insult...
btw, can you do a video when you try to speak swedish?
i eat with hands (only with handburger), and cut pizza with scissors??? i cut with knife...
Zikox i always belived we cut it with a pizza cutter
This video is a joke. You should really do some reserach before you post stuff like this.
I mean. Who did you at pizza with who cut it with scissors? Did he tell you that all swedes does this? Is this the same guy that told you that you can pick berries from someones lawn?
Come on. Get your facts straight, because these things are not even half true.
+Daw H. (DAW the DUDE) Try cutting your pizza with scissors next time though, its awesome! Most of the people i know in sweden (I live in Sundsvall if that matters) do this just because of how efficient it is. Non of us eat with fork and knife though.
also, dont get so offended by some observations from someone who lived here for only 9 months.
First of all, I'm not offended at all. I just think it's funny how she makes a list about "weird swedish things" when she doesn't even know half the truth.
In my home I have something called a Pizza Slicer that I use to cut my pizza. I have indeed cut my pizza with a pair of scissors, but that was more like a matter of emergency. Cutting a pizza with a scissor is something you would find in "10 Epic College Lifehacks You Never Knew" and it's not the swedish way to eat pizza :P
Thats probably true:p pizza slicers are awesome, but so is a simple pair of scissors:)
+Daw H. (DAW the DUDE) My mom used and still use the Scissor trick so yeah, its a thing.
+Daw H. (DAW the DUDE) Only fat obese people eat pizza and hamburgers.
Thanks for the video. It's always fun to find out how foreigners perceive Swedish food, customs etc.
Just a little FYI; Smörgåstårta doesn't translate to "bread cake". It means "sandwich cake" :)
You're eating at the wrong establishments if whenever you order water, you get sparkling water.
Where on earth are you? Sounds like cityfolks you met. Knife and Fork? Not talking to strangers? No smiles? Try the countryside, we are more natural here and eat pizza and burgers with our hands, and smile and talk to anyone. :)
Kaj Dalfall If you want to meet friendly people in sweden, talk to any old man in Göteborg.
Tim Stahel of course :)
Why does everyone think queing is so weird, do people from other countries just fight eachother to be the next one at the cashier or what?
Hahah yeah, in Oz it's a battle to the death!
If we do wear swedish flags on our shirts we are classified as rasist so that is why:(
+Tobias ”Tobaz” Asp
Häng fanan högt!
The whole thing with not smiling or saying hi to strangers are a very strange thing for me. I am from sweden and i work in a store so i always say hi and smile at strangers when i walk around in the store. I see it as a really polite thing to do and i have always done that outside of work too, i even do it when i'm in stockholm and it's mostly people from big cities that think it's weird.
Then the whole thing with eating pizza and hamburgers with knife and fork is that swedish people don't really like being seen as rude when they eat at resturants or anything like that, but if they are at home they usually eat it with their hands. (I only eat hamburger with knife and fork when i put to much on the hamburger)
The no dating part is actually starting to change here now. More people go out for a coffee and get to know eachother (especially if they met online) before deciding to go romantic or stay friends.
But normally, we just hook up at parties or let a friendship grow into a romantic relationship without having to make everything so formal and official as dating tends to force you to do.
And the strangest thing about Sweden is it's not Sweden anymore. It's Absurdistan.
I have NEVER in my whole 32 years of Swedish life eaten pizza and hamburger like that...and I have never seen anyone do it either...makes me wonder what kind of people you hang around XD
I never seen anyone cut a pizza with scissors, or eat it with a knife and fork, not even in borås, in 27 years. You seem to have been very unlycky with your company, or have eaten little pizza.
Purple Haze I eat Pizza a lot even at Pizza Hut people use a knife and for, but I actually prefer that and do it all the time!
It's common, prolly just not in your circles. My parents does it and their friends does it. I think it's a "polite" way of eating pizza?? You don't got dirty is the point.
fjolla2011 you don't eat pizza that way, that's the point. Look what happened when the mayor of NY did it, and with good cause. I'm not really sure by the way, but I'm pretty sure "my circles" aren't random people in restaurants all over this country..
I visited Stockholm, Sweden for 2 weeks, no one ate a burger or pizza for a fork and knife. However when a knife is not totally necessary they will still use it in conjunction with the fork.
Being both a Swede and a Boråsare, this vid makes me happy! I had no idea we're so.. different. Thanks for shedding some light on it! :)
we.. aren't very social in sweden, haha :P it's kind of sad. also, it's kind of sad that we don't have swedish flags clothes! maybe i'll start making that lol
elinini Thank-you so much for watching my videos! You should definitely start making clothes with Swedish flags on them!
Picking berries flowers etc from another person's garden without permission is strictly forbidden :D
But it's allowed to break into others' houses, if you're being stalked or in need for a refuge, amirite? :)
Grandmaster Kush Thanks for watching my vids and the info!
MySwedishExchange Lol np, thx for making it!
You're right. We are reserved on busses, trains w/e but... We are inviting and polite, so if you aproach someone in english we will more often then not, accept your "weird" behavior because you are Aussie :P
Most of us, that is. Have had a lot of intressting conversations with tourists, "who lacks the common sence to behaive like swedes do" :P
It does make us uneasy at first thou. Particullary having to adress someone in english, oohhh the horror.
perkalov Ahahah thanks for the comment, I find this really interesting and a refreshing perspective!
Very true!
I hope you enjoy it here in Sweden! Talking about things you find strange about this country is great, and it also amuses swedes a lot because nobody ever talks about Sweden. Yes, we are strange people. I've just started to understand how it works when you get to talk to new people without being weird. Somehow you've got to have some kind of reason to talk, like you need to ask a question or something. When you've talked to someone once the you can say hi and talk them later about other things because you're now "friends". I just understood that like a week ago and I'm born and raised in Sweden, and still live here. Pretty strange.
The cutting pizza with scissors and eating pizza and hamburger with knife and fork thing really depends on where you are. If you're at a restaurant you don't want to get your hands dirty, so you eat with utensils, but if you're at a pizza place, you probably just eat with your hands. Same goes for hamburgers. You won't see anyone using a fork at mcdonalds. And I've never seen anyone ever cutting their pizza with scissors, but I think I'm going to start doing that now, that sounds so easy(only at home tho...)!
Reason why people won't wear swedish flag:
It just doesn't suit clothes.
Why does this video get so many dislikes?
OhSnap Because most of the things are not typical swedish and thus called made up. I would guess she either stays in Stockholm or Malmö. Those cities are retarded (preparing for the hate) ;)
My bad, apparently she was in Borås. Still the same tho :P
Are you even fond of Stockholm? Also, these are just her expeariances, at least she tried.
OhSnap I like the city, originally designed by Germans. But i don't like the inhabitants. Awful, self-centered people.
OhSnap Guess what, Shes offending sweds!
Add sugar or jam to Filmjölk :) It goes from disgusting to good :D
MySwedishExchange About number 9: When people look at you like that when you smile at them it's often because they think that since you smiled at them you know them so they are panicing a little and trying to remember who you are (at least it's like that for me a lot of the time)
the doors often go out from buildings as a part of fire evacuation (push to go out), this means pull to go in.
lmao these are so true, except for the hamburger with fork thing.. and hey, it sucks that we can't really date or talk to strangers, really frustrates me!
Anna de la Mer I agree
Hu! Yea, I don't see why would it be a problem talking to a stranger...like I notice some Swedish agreeing in not talking to strangers in the comment section, but than again they are talking to a stranger in here. A little different but still talking to a stranger one way or another.
Vanny ARTS its just how it is sweden,live with it
Lol never seen a swede eat a hamburger with knife and fork. And i am a swede.
Well I've eaten many hamburgers with a knife and fork, although those burgers were basically too big to eat with your hands without looking like a pig, and so most customers use a knife and fork in that restaurant. Normal size burgers from like McDonalds, Max, Sibylla etc I eat with my hands.
are you kidding me?
När man går ut och äter på restaurang som är lite finare än till exempel McDonalds, så är det faktiskt väldigt vanligt att man äter hamburgare med kniv och gaffel, oavsett var i Sverige man är.
Frida... Om man är på en finare resturang så tror jag att man inte beställer hamburgare??
Sara, det finns faktiskt en hel del finare restauranger som specialiserar sig på hamburgare, Mölleexpressen i Helsingborg eller Shiraz i Lunds Saluhall :) det är en helt annan sak att äta hamburgare på sådana ställen och jag rekommenderar starkt att testa det om chansen ges.
You are supposed to have sugar on Filmjölk :D, unless you are weird like my aunt.
Mikael Murstam Okay! Will definitely note that!
You are not supposed to have suger in fillmjölk
Weirdo!!!
Because otherwise it doesn't mix well in your mouth and you will have sour parts and sweet parts separated
I think you just shouldn't eat it, it sounds like!
I enjoyed this video, and you are right about pretty much everything in my opinion. I really don't get all the people commenting saying that what you're saying doesn't have anything in common with the Swedish society, but as someone who was partially raised in the States, I must say you are pretty much right on the spot. Most people probably can't really relate to other cultures enough to be able to reflect on their own objectively.
In smaller communities it's often okay to smile or say hello to strangers you pass on the streets. It's only when you get to larger towns or cities that people will give you wierd looks when you do that.
She must be in Stockholm, that place is weired even to swedes.
I live in Stockholm and I've never ever seen someone cut their pizza with scissors HAHA. And I eat pizza and hamburgar with maah haaands.
Laugh OutLoud Yeah, I know now not everyone does it! But thank you for watching! :)
Anyone like Salt Licorice?
I know that smiling or talking to strangers unless you are asking for the time, is deemed as weird in many big cities. I am from a city in Canada, and most of the time, when random people on the street try to talk to you, they are not entirely sane. This is why big cities are often called unfriendly.I hadn't heard of Sweden being unfriendly, though.
I'm Swedish and i have NEVER seen a Swede eat pizza or hamburgers witha knife and fork.
jag undrar verkligen vart hon bor. För jag har bort i Sverige i hela mitt liv och jag har inte märkt någon av saker men iallafall
Jag bor i Borås! Det är fantastik! :D
MySwedishExchange jaha nice, jag bor ungefär 35,5 mil där ifrån.
.
I will be in gothenburg tomorrow afternoon! Mainly around central station so I might see you! :D
have you been in Gothenburg before?? MySwedishExchange
Who the fuck have you been with xD cut pizza with sizzor? xD hhehe
+Mre942 yes I've seen people do this and its very effective way if you think about it.
+Daniel Filippus must be easier just cut it in 4 pcs with a knife and eat it with your hands like me and all my friends do (in sweden) haha
Cut it how? Then you need to cut it beforehand or use a plate. the pizza box is not good for cutting with a knife.
About the doors. All doors in sweden are supposed to open outwards from the building. This is because in case of a fire you should be able to escape the building as quickly as possible. Hope this helps=)
I too am an exchange student in Uppsala trying to adapt to Swedish culture. I think some of your observations depend on what part of Sweden one hails from. I'm from Hawaii, where a lot of us smile at perfect strangers, something that has earned me a few odd looks. But actually quite a few people (many of them senior citizens) will belatedly smile back. And overall, the vast majority of Swedes are friendly and helpful people. I do agree with you on some. Like the doors.
Explaination: 1.we only eat hamburgers with knife and fork when we are in Nicer resturants, dunno why thou.
2. The use of flag texturers on clothes is a style, its weird but i mean whatever.
3. If you want normal water there is alternativs, you just gotta look for the right bottle.
Sorry IF i sound offended, im really not. I just wanted to explain.
Survival guide for people who don't know whether the door should be pushed or pulled: LOOK AT THE HINGES. If the hinges are visible, then pull. If they're not: push.
I'm Swedish and I sometimes walk around smiling to people, often they tend to smile back but sometimes they just do as you described.
a clarification of the berry picking thing "allemansrätten"
you are allowed to go into privately owned forests... not like into people back yards... (that would be kinda creepy)
but basically people who own forest basically own the trees and the land not necessarily the berries and mushrooms more or less..
Cultivated crops is a different thing but wildly growing plants are free for anyone to pick.
Not sure what applies for hunting...
A lot of sweds pick berries and mushrooms and make jam and dry mushrooms.
you can also find stuff like juniper berries which is used in some Swedish specialities like "kjälknöl" (basically you freeze beef stake solid then put it in the oven at 75 deg c until its between 65-70 degrees in the middle (this usually take 8-10h) then you put it in a marinade of salt/sugar water thyme and juniper berries and let that marinade for 4-5h
once it done you get a very nice roast that's beautifully pink inside and has a very nice flavour...
www.ica.se/recept/tjalknol-713109/
I'm even from an immigrant area in Stockholm and I see Swedish flags everywhere. The buses have them every time something special is happening. We have a giant flagpole with the swedish flag that gets raised on every special day. On the last day of school each year we used to ALWAYS sing the national anthem. You'll see a lot of people waving the swedish flag and etc etc. It's crazy how some people think that the Swedish flag is racist though.
Pizza: Cut it into triangular slices, then use your hands.
Burgers: USE YOUR GOD DAMNED HANDS! (Unless it's massive and falling apart)
Sincerely: A Swede.
why the bloody hell are Swedes downvoting this vid? She's just voicing her opinion about the weirdest things, it's not offensive to Sweden.
No but because 80% of everything she's saying is true bullshit
MetalBuddiez no it isn't
Emelie Pechan At least some of what she say seem rather strange to me. Eating hamburgers with knife and fork? If one eat a hamburger without bread, most people will of course prefer to do it with knife and fork. But eating a hamburger with bread in that way? No way, at least not here in Ångermanland/Västernorrlands län. And I have never heard about anyone who cut pizza with scissor.
I have never encountered this thing that one should be expected to hug someone the second time one meet that person. Some older women want to hug people they know all the time, but it is after everything I know socially accepted to turn down a hug. Maybe there is to some degree different social norms for women (I have not checked that out in regard of hugging), but I strongly suspect that this Australian woman just assumed that she was "socially obligated" to hug people when she was not.
It also happen that I smile to strangers, and that has been totally accepted. You can smile to strangers in Sweden. I do not know how it is in Australia though, maybe they smile even more to each other there than what we do? I have heard that Swedes might be a little reserved, but I do not have so much to compare with since I have almost never been outside Sweden.
The soda water has a rather simple explaination: the tap water is potable here in Sweden. So if you ask for bottle water, people will just assume that you mean soda water. If you just want ordinary water, you ask for tap water.
No,but it might be offending to Swedes,not Sweden
One thing to think about with pushing and pulling doors is that most (modern) doors should "lead out". So when entering a building you have to pull, enter a room in a building you pull; so that when there's a fire or something, you can just push everything open when running out of the building. (Can also be useful if you're not sure which way to go, if you push open doors, you're going to get out eventually.
Sadly older buildings with older doors might not have that "safety" design.
Great vid, I laughed my ass off. What you say is true but the funny thing is that I havent really thought about all these things til I saw this video. Great way to get some perspective of things!
Weirdest Things About Sweden to me is that they drink coffee like its going to be banned tomorrow . Never seen that many Fika "coffee break" in 1 day in my life .I told a girl i didn't drink coffee and she looked at me like i was injecting ebola in my eyeball . And about Swedish woman’s , yes most of them are stunning and about 3X as smart as the average American male .
Why has this video gotten so many dislikes? There is nothing offensive in it at all?
even I not being Swedish started feeling slightly bad for them!... :) she's a bit too much passive-agressive in my view
I am swedish and I can sincerely not find anything offensive in this video what so ever. Nothing at all. In what way do you find her to be passive agressive?
it's not offensive but most of it just isn't true - or even a thing. (svensk här också!)
Sara Matilda Can you name a few examples of what you think is untrue?
Most of it is true. Stop lying.
Something more, Swedish people tend to get annoyed whene people in their surrounding are talking loudly on their mobile phones in a buss or train. Swedes call these mobile flasher ( Mobile blottare ).
Swedes in the south, south of Sweden ( Scania ) tend to get also annoyed when you don't greet back. For example if the staff at the checkout counter, hotel desk clerk or train conductor greets you and you don't greet back, that would count as beeing impolite. And back and forward.
Nice video.
I hope you get some nice experinces
from Sweden as well and not only weird ones! BtW, where Oz are you from?
Sydney!
Haha this video gave me a few good laughs! Thanks! Which Swedish city are you living in?
As a Swede, I enjoy this video, i think it was quite funny.
First of all, i'd like to give one some response of the video itself. I think you should lower the music just a little bit, because i found it difficult to hear what you were saying, so i had to turn it up and try to filter out the music, which was ok, but a little bit annoying.
Second;
I've never cut a pizza with scissors and i do eat the pizza with my hands, aswell as hamburgers... Well. The pizza i eat with fork and knife if i'm at the restaurant.
I do really not like that if i talk to a stranger, i'm really weird. I'd like to talk to strangers and if someone would talk to me at the bus, i'd be happy about that.
What you talked about in the relationship thing is really true. If one person is interested in another, do that person just try to hang around that person to sometimes maybe get a chance to talk to him/her? I've found it rare that they go out on a date to sit and eat in a restaurant and talk. Also, if they do, i think it's quite often that they share the bill, and not that the guy just automatically pays it all.
Sweden is also a place where you don't look at other people, like you said "don't look, don't smile", unless you know them. This makes for problems when i see a cute girl and i would like to talk to her, but it's not really socially acceptable here..
Thank you for posting this video.
+Steve Balistreri Thank you for your lovely comment Steve!
+MySwedishExchange Your very welcome. I am 64 years old and my son married a Swede from Stockholm. My wife and I are attempting to learn the language as well as trying to understand their customs. Good luck to you. Take care, Steve
The main thing you need to know about Sweden and swedes, is that we generally don't wanna be in each others way. So even if you think you're coming on too strong, WE will feel the need to correct the problem. If that means hug you back the first time we meet, fine. As long as it doesn't get awkward.
Also, like most people have commented, seems like you're in an upper class foster family. The "Average Joe" in sweden - a "Svensson" isn't quite as uptight and proper as you describe us.
There's not cream on a sandwich cake, it's things like mayonnaise. But being a Swede I still find it disgusting.
And of course we eat pizza with a knife and fork. That's how it's done. Go to Italy and check it out for yourself. ;) I've never heard about anyone using a scissor to cut it up though (and restaurants generally don't slice them up for you either, unless it's a thick crust pizza, which is rare here). When it comes to pizza I'd say that the weird things we do in Sweden is to put kebab on them, or have Bearnaise sauce (well, some bastardized factory version at least) with them.
Pretty much everyone eats burgers with their hands though, unless it's a toast burger like you get in some pubs etc, which is meant to be eaten with silverware.
As for filmjölk, you should have been less of a polite Swede about it and just said that you didn't like it. ;)
When it comes to talking to strangers we don't do it much but in my experience most find it pleasant when someone gets a conversation going.
And anyone that gets offended by this video must have some personal issues. Nothing controversial whatsoever in my view.
the bubblewater thing is common because, well. Sweden has 100% clean water in 99.9% of all water taps in the country. So they're not used to people asking for water because it is widly accepted that is you want water you just go to the nearest water tap. And yes, bubblewater is very populer in sweden, so many different companies make it
I'm from Sweden and I mainly use fork and knife to eat my hamburgers when I'm either eating at home or at a restaurant which is not a fastfood restaurant. I also cut my pizza with a scissor because it's way more effective than cutting it with a knife or some weird pizzacutter thing.
We date, we just don't call it dating or anything like that. We meet, and after three or four times presumably after you have kissed, you just continue to meet in the same fashion, and if you consistently kiss, make out and are very physical you are then together. Unless you agree that it's just not "friends with benefits". We often discuss with each other what we wan't from the whole thing at a certain point (like a month) If you wan't to continue like a relationship or not. It's like this: Americans see it as dating the whole period up until an engagement, and after that you are in a relationship and will solidify it with marriage. Swedes regards themselves as being in a relationship all ready before the engagement. And IF we engage with each other, then you reach a whole new level of relationship. So marriage for a swede is a very serious business indeed :)
It's like , if you are curious you ask, and then the person just replies, yeah we are together, or that person over there is my boy/girlfriend ;)
About doors (#6)...A general rule of thumb:
If you are going out, you push.
If you are going in, you pull.
Works 95% of the times. Thought this was a universal rule.
You can't pick berries or mushrooms on someones private property. You can do it in forests and such that someone happens to own, but that's not private property, a back yard is someones private property.
Why would one not be serious about queueing up though? I mean, what's use of a queue if everbody just cuts in line?
Sorry but you can go in to a garden and pic their fruit. Just in the forest or in public places. You have "allemansrätten" in Sweden and this means that you can camp, swim etc on someone's land but not too close to someone's home.
Cutting pizza with a scissors? If you saw someone do that then that person must be on drugs. And its not normal to eat pizza with knife and fork. Its extreamly rare on people under 20. People over 50 its normal to do that.
And the hamburger thing is very, VERY rare. It can normally happen if you dont have bread. But it someone did it, example at McDonalds people would think you are wierd.
One of the only things i agree with you are the thing on busses. Everybody over 25 looks like they just lost their job. And sometimes they give you a wierd look when not doing anything.
Most schools in sweden have rules against the Swedish flag as it may be offensive for some people. Personally I think this is kind of BS tough, since some swedes might be offended becuase of the fact that other nation's flags are allowed.
have you tried cutting pizza whith a sissor it's very efficiant
This might be an old video but I have honestly in my 23 years in Sweden never seen anyone take the burger paddy out, and eat it with a knife and fork. I eat pizza with my hands and also burgers. As Specialcat said below, wearing the Swedish flag in school was considered racist for some time but I do agree with you, we are not the most patriotic country.
Hi! Fun video! A correction though - I don't think we are allowed to pick stuff on private property and we don't (ofc I'm merely speaking of myself and don't know what people you were hanging with). "We" only pick berries and mushrooms in forrests that are owned by everyone. Directly translated it's called "all mans right".
yeah i live in Sweden and i can agree with like one thing :S What part of Sweden do you "exchange" in?