r/sweden • u/lynxlynxlynx- rawr • Apr 05 '15
Meta/Reddit Welcome /r/France! Today we are hosting /r/France for a little cultural and question exchange session!
Welcome French friends! Please select the "French Friend" flair and ask away!
Today we our hosting our friends from /r/france! Please come and join us and answer their questions about Sweden and the Swedish way of life! Please leave top comments for /r/france users coming over with a question or comment and please refrain from trolling, rudeness and personal attacks etc. Moderation out side of the rules may take place as to not spoil this friendly exchange. The reddiquette applies and will be moderated after in this thread.
At the same time /r/france is having us over as guests! Stop by in this thread and ask a question, drop a comment or just say hello!
Enjoy!
/The moderators of /r/sweden & /r/france
For previous exchanges please see the wiki.
Så här i Påsk tider är det inte mer än passande att vi besöker tuppens land Frankrike! (Eller hur?) Ett land som vi gav Zlatan i utbyte mot Jean-Baptist Bernadotte, en kung mot en kung så att säga. Frankrike är inte bara det land vi känner som Egentliga Frankrike utan har inkorporerat flera av sina forna koloniala utposter spridda över hela världen i staten på olika sätt. Tex är Sveriges forna koloni, Sankt-Barthélemy, idag en del av detta land! Så passa på att testa skolfranskan! Som alltid är topkommentarerna i denna tråd reserverade till personer från /r/france och vi ber er att rapportera opassande kommentarer. Ha så kul!
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u/Trexounay Apr 05 '15
What is the most amazing place in northern sweden ?
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u/sursmurf Apr 05 '15
I would say either along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia or at the mountains at the very top Abisko/Riksgränsen. Between them there are 400 km of mostly inhabited pine forest.
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u/iWraith Apr 05 '15
Here in France we often describe Sweden as a living paradise where everyone is educated, beautifull and calm. I had the chance of visiting Malmö last year (Bo01 district) and I had to admit that everything seems peacefull and perfect indeed. But as we always say, grass is greener on the other side so I was wondering if there was some subjects/areas that you Swedes people identifies as a problem or were not proud of ?
Much love <3
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Apr 05 '15
It's funny that you mention Malmö when you talk about peacefulness and perfection because when we think of Malmö it's the opposite. I assume you never left the most central parts of Malmö because if you went for a short hike you'd end up in Rosengård, the shame of the nation.
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u/JoePortagee Apr 06 '15
I'm definitely not a part of this 'we'. I find Malmö to be an absolutely lovely place. Möllevången, all the beautiful parks, the culture life, the architecture, the melting pot of tons of different cultures..
Sure it's a bit gritty and rough in the edges, but so are most port towns. It's kind of like a milder version of Marseille actually, where I happen to be living now.
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Apr 06 '15
It may not be the biggest problem, but my school has had Spanish exchange students a couple of times, and both times when I talked to them they said Swedes aren't very open and are hard to get to know. I can sort of agree with them.
Personally I don't have any huge complaints about Sweden.
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u/Swetroll Apr 06 '15
The high taxes and the way a lot of our tax money goes to waste.
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u/tiriw Apr 05 '15
What do people outside of Stockholm think about the capital? Is it view positively?
For example, it's common for french people to see Paris as a place full of snob.
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u/devolve Apr 05 '15
It's the same here. And as a person that moved here around 9 years ago I am now somewhat considered to have become more snobbish by people in my old hometown, jokingly of course, but I know that there's some truth behind it.
A lot of the country feel that politics are pretty Stockholm-centric as well. Have a look at this map and you'll see that Sweden is pretty leftist, but the Stockholm region is right leaning. Also, 25% of the green party votes are from the Stockholm region, which is a critique that often arises against their politics (as they want to raise the gasoline taxes and the rest of the country depends a lot on cars for transport – where as Stockholm has a pretty well developed public transport).
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u/tiriw Apr 05 '15
This website is really well done! Quite a nice overview.
This result comes a bit of a surprise to me somehow, I always thought the "countryside" would be leaning towards right and the big cities towards left. I guess Stockholm is special in this sense.
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Apr 05 '15
I guess it's the same as France then.
Politicians in Paris are often viewed as disconnected from reality as they never take into account cultural differences between regions or the difference between what can be done in Paris where money is plentiful and some desert regions where they struggle maintaining basic services (I mean, ecology and culture are nice but when you're struggling with high unemployment, lack of Internet or shitty roads, you don't care about secondary stuff).
The only difference is that we have other big cities outside Paris (like Bordeaux or Lyon) and the people in charge of these areas are jokingly called "Baron" because some of the'm (or their clique) have been in control for decades
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u/devolve Apr 05 '15
I think it's pretty common when the capitol is the largest and economically most powerful city. Even though the parliament members come from all over the country, they get a (small) apartment close to the parliament and their lives slowly become more Stockholm centric with all the issues we have here. A majority of the lobbyist groups, PR agencies, and think tanks are also here, which also causes a specific contextual mindset.
I've seen some outer parts of Stockholm that suffer from what you say as well. 30 minutes south of the centre and you can find huge potholes and wild grass over 1 metres tall between the houses. Catering mostly to the rich has never faired well throughout history, and I say that even though I'm not left wing.
They tried to decentralize large parts of the government 15-20 years ago, but I don't think it went as well as they hoped. A lot of the decrees still come from Stockholm, and have to be implemented regardless of where that governmental organization is situated.
Hopefully the internet might bridge that divide, when things calm down a bit (too much of a shouting match now). I can honestly say that I've never read so many articles from different smaller municipalities as I have the last year. But I try not to get my hopes up. It's a complex situation.
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u/7734128 Apr 05 '15
If you were to search Google map for fjollträsk, which means gay swamp, you'd find Stockholm.
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u/Akrasius Apr 07 '15
One interesting thing about Stockholm is how strange it looks from the outside.
Last week someone on twitter pointed out that a accounting firm was marketing itself as the "hip choice in book-keeping".
Now, for anyone outside of Stockholm that might look insane, but in the very competetive market that Stockholm hosts, that is just what you have to do when trying to get an edge.
That's sort of how I see Stockholm, like a social-system of itself.
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u/Milkgunner Apr 05 '15
Most people see Stockholm as gay. Lots of people want to move there. So I guess lots of swedes want to be gay.
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u/SheepOnMeth Apr 05 '15
Hej r/sweden Jag är SheepOnMeth och du ?
That all the swedish that I am able to remember, with bara bra, from my last erasmus semester in Luleå. I wanted to thank you all for the amazing time that I had there. I did another erasmus semester before in Finland, I must say you are easier to approach that the finnish. Anyway, when drunk it is the same. I am now a adept of the sauna and going naked in frozen lake.
What is the name of the swedish rotten fish that is open only a bucket of water and what does it taste like ? My swedish roommate wanted me to try, but I never got the courage to buy some.
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u/sursmurf Apr 05 '15
It's called Surströmming and it's not rotten, it's fermented. The smell is very strong but the taste is very good.
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u/SheepOnMeth Apr 05 '15
Tack så mycket.
Another question, is snus a big problem in Sweden as cigarette in France ?
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u/memorate Apr 05 '15
snus isn't a problem at all. Many consider it a better alternative to cigarettes. The only problem I can think of is that the government is increasing the price of it every year
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u/sursmurf Apr 05 '15 edited Apr 05 '15
Snus is less harmful than cigarettes, although it’s not good for you, of course. Another positive is that you don’t hurt anybody else like though passive smoking.
It used to be a “truth” that snus causes mouth cancer, later research have shown that this is not the case.Very soon there is to be decided in the US if Swedish snus can get away with less warning labels than other tobacco products when sold there, since it’s less harmful. This will be a first ever if it gets approved. Link
One problem we have is that the politicians have found snus to be an excellent source for tax income. In fact in the latest tax raises on tobacco we had, the price increase on snus has been larger than that of cigarettes despite it being less harmful.
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u/TheNaug Apr 05 '15
It's not really a problem since it doesn't affect anyone other than the user, unlike cigarettes that affects everyone around the user.
That said, I would never use it. I don't smoke either :P
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Apr 05 '15
I did another erasmus semester before in Finland, I must say you are easier to approach that the finnish.
Frenchman who's studied in Finland here. Why do you say that like it's an achievement? :D
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u/SheepOnMeth Apr 05 '15
Because most of the erasmus student are always staying with other erasmus people during my stay in Lappeenranta (where were you ?) . The swedish people were more cordial than the finns. Here I make of course a big generalisation from my experience.
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Apr 05 '15
Do you have swedish bands to recommend? Who sing in swedish?
I guess I only know Movits! The rest of the swedish artists I know are mainly EDM producer. Is Avicii a god in Sweden? David Guetta is seen as a joke in France by a lot of people.
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u/Breiz_atao Apr 05 '15
Do you hate the Danes as much as we hate the English ?
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u/FaenK Apr 05 '15
Both yes and no. It's a love-hate relationship, I guess. We are basically the same as they are, but we still have a hysterical history. We share the world record in most wars fought between two countries. I think it's up to 22 or something.
So we have hated the Danes more than you ever have/will hate the English.
Ha det bra!
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u/Aldorf Apr 05 '15
It's like we've fought so much that we've forgotten why.
They are our retarded little brothers across the strait.
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Apr 05 '15
I often listen people telling me that Sweden is the best place to live in the world and I wonder why ? :)
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Apr 05 '15
Hello! What's a good Swedish film I can watch apart from the obvious Bergman and why is it good?
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Apr 05 '15
Do you guys really enjoy surströmming or is it an inside joke you play on the world ? :)
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u/Nothorized Apr 05 '15
What are you usually eating for Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner?
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u/Vedlen Apr 05 '15
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u/svenne Apr 05 '15
r/Sweden was definitely more left wing three years ago. But since then we've had a gradual shift to the right and now the far right is dominant. Political threads generally are less popular than joke-threads etc though, and it's probably a small but loud minority from the far right who raise their voices high, so it's not a majority of people on r/Sweden who actually are far-right.
Here you can see our yearly summary of r/Sweden which was made last time 6 months ago. On page 21 you can see the party votes of members. The largest party is the euro-sceptic, nationalistic, right-wing, anti-immigration, welfare chauvinistic and social conservative party; the Sweden Democrats.
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u/dClauzel Apr 05 '15
Critical (typical French) question: what is the status of bread, cheese, and wine here in Sweden? Is anything survival from somebody used to products from the Mediterranean South? I have not a fond memory of Finnish red wine (it was bitter and a bit acid).
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u/Self_Detonator Apr 05 '15
Hej r/sweden
What's a popular destination for Swedes going on holidays?
For people like me who know very little about Nordic countries, they seem very similar (although they obviously aren't). Can you tell me one big cultural difference between Sweden and its neighbouring countries as well as one thing countries such as Norway, Iceland and Finland have in common with Sweden?
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Apr 05 '15
Hello Sweden !
Here, your country is often presented a good example of a flexible economy. Since France tries to make our working contract more flexible too, I still believe that our versions is not complete.
I exemplain : Here, if you don't have a permanent or public worker contract, you just can't have any mortgage and it is really hard just to rent a place (even if you have enouth money). So when the gov propose to make our contract more flexible, nothing is never said about how we can secure our possibilities to just live somewhere.
So, here are my questions :
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How does banks and owners behave in your country toward poeple with flexible contracts ?
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Does the government has a kind of insurance to secure such issue in case you lose your job ?
Thanks
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u/FrenchFishies Apr 05 '15
I just saw the map on the left and I have now something to ask.
How cold is r/Kiruna ?