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u/Bluedude588 Jan 15 '17
Hey everyone. I've moving to Copenhagen hopefully soon, and saw that it looks like Sweden is probably within driving distance. How is the city of Malmo? Where would you recommend going that is close to your border with Denmark? I hope I get to visit your country someday!
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u/1337Gandalf Jan 15 '17
How do you guys feel about Swedish Americans? Do you see them as traitors, or as representatives of yourself, or just rando strangers?
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Jan 17 '17 edited Jan 17 '17
I think it's nice to think that I could go to the US and find some swedish-ish culture there. Definitely feel a connection to swedish-americans, a lot more so than to other americans. We have this popular tv-show in Sweden called "Allt för Sverige", where swedish-americans are competing against each other in Sweden, reality-tv-esque.
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u/Izlandi Jan 15 '17
What do you mean "Swedish Americans"? If you are a Swedish expat, nobody really cares - there are reasons to move to the US, it's a great fit for some, many Swedes like to visit etc.
If you mean that you have a name ending in -sson and your great grandmother was Swedish, but you don't speak a word of the language... yeah you'd be an American for all it's worth.
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u/sugar-snow-snap2 Jan 16 '17
do you feel represented as a culture in entertainment media? do you ever feel like sweden is lumped in with norway, denmark, or finland in american movies?
what do you think is dramatically different between sweden and the other scandinavian countries?
if you could copy/paste one thing from your culture to american culture, in order to be helpful, what would it be?
favorite food? is lutefisk common in sweden?
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Jan 16 '17
yeah, in american sit coms sure but in movies no.
"law of jante" applies more to Sweden and probably Finland, not Norway I think and certainly not Denmark.
a slight pinch of collectivist ethos, to be less ego driven in collective situations. Americans can be really obnoxius with that.
oven cooking probably. Haven't met anyone that likes lutfisk except my dad.
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u/jamesno26 Jan 15 '17
One thing I noticed about Sweden is that the English language is very common there. It seems like every Swedes can speak fluent English. How common is English in Sweden? And if it's common, why?
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u/panzerbat Jan 15 '17
Super common. English education starts early and we have a whole lot of english and american shows on tv.
Exposure and education, all there is to it.
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u/4514N_DUD3 Jan 15 '17
Hi r/Sweden,
How does it feel to punch above your weight in terms of accomplishments? Despite having such a small population, Sweden seems to have won more Nobel prizes per-capita compared to most other countries.
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u/rubicus Jan 15 '17 edited Jan 15 '17
I'd say Nobel prizes are probably somewhat misrepresented due to especially the first years being quite biased, especially for the litterature prize. But we do hit above our weight in quite a lot of things (like sport, tech companies and all kinds of computer related stuff, like games, and probably a bunch of other stuff too (edit: how could I forget music?)).
It's a bit weird to be honest. On one hand it allows this huge sense of pride at times. But at the same time, I think most people here take pride in being modest. Modesty is like the virtue of virtues in some sort of collective swedish cultural mindset. So when talking to people from other countries it's this constant mental infighting between wanting to show something you're proud of, while at the same time not comming off as boasting or overly patriotic.
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u/CoCaptainJack Jan 15 '17
As someone who studied Norwegian for a few years in college; how do you think I could get along doing basic stuff in Sweden? I know they are different languages but I'd imagine there is some crossover, right?
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Jan 15 '17
I hear it is common for Swedes to use most of their vacation time in July. Are employees working during typical leisure periods paid more, similar to Thanksgiving workers in America?
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u/Tanks4me Jan 15 '17
I like roller coasters. A lot.
One of the areas that I'm looking at visiting next (just for amusement parks) is northern Europe, so although it's not just Sweden, it's nonetheless your region. What I have in mind is to do a 19 day trip that would start in St. Petersburg and end in Hamburg. I was hoping it to cost around $4,000 - $5,000 USD, but it total ended up being $9,500, so do you think you'd be able to help me a bit in cutting costs?
I'd fly into Pulkovo International Airport and fly out of Hamburg, where the tickets would cost about $1,400. The most expensive item on the trip is the car rental; even if I chose the smallest car possible, it would end up costing $3,600. I'm also averaging about $250 per day after including gas, park tickets, food, and hotels. The schedule would look like:
Day 1: Fly to St. Petersburg
Day 2: Divo Ostrov (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Day 3: Linnanmäki (Helsinki, Finland)
Day 4: Särkänniemi (Tampere, Finland)
Day 5: Power Park (Alahärmä, Finland)
Day 6: Ferry from Vaasa to Umeå, drive to hotel in Söråker.
Day 7: Gröna Lund (Stockholm, Sweden.)
Day 8: Kolmården Zoo (Kolmården, Sweden.)
Day 9: Skara Sommarland (Axvall, Sweden.)
Day 10: Liseberg (Göteborg, Sweden.)
Day 11: Tusenfryd (Vinterbro, Norway.)
Day 12: Fårup Sommerland (Blokhus, Denmark)
Day 13: Djurs Sommerland (Nimtofte, Denmark)
Day 14: Tivoli Friheden (Aarhus, Denmark) and Legoland Billund (Billund, Denmark)
Day 15: Bakken (Klampenborg, Denmark) and Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Day 16: Bonbon-Land (Holmegaard, Denmark)
Day 17: Hansa Park (Sierksdorf, Germany)
Day 18: Heide Park (Soltau, Germany)
Day 19: Fly out of Hamburg.
Yes, I can do all that driving without a problem, but is the mass transit system (particularly by railway) extensive enough that I could use a train for the whole trip, or are there parks on the trip that are too far out of the way that I would still need a car? Also, could I still keep to a good schedule where I could still get full days at most of these parks?
Are there any ferries directly from Vaasa (or another port near-ish to Power Park) directly to Stockholm?
Is it feasible to bring down the daily cost of the trip to about $120 - $150 per day like what I was able to do in the US, or is the cost of stuff over there simply too expensive to pull that off? (I try to search for the cheapest hotels I can find that are rated decently.)
It's super common over in the US to find hotels with air conditioning and complimentary breakfast. Are those naturally less common over in northern Europe or was I just looking in the wrong places?
I was able to get by on eating $30 per day at American amusement parks, when accounting for the above mentioned breakfasts at hotels. Is this a realistic price for northern Europe? If not, what do you think I should budget instead?
Any other tips on how to make the trip cheaper that I didn't specifically ask for?
I don't know if it would be more appropriate to just post this in r/askeurope or something, but I'll start here.
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u/Wand_Cloak_Stone Jan 15 '17 edited Jan 16 '17
There is a comic by a Danish woman called Scandinavia and the World, and she usually includes a bit of history and resources in the descriptions. It's silly, but it also helped me learn a lot about your country as well as Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Estonia. The drawings are really cute, and the author is funny.
Have you heard of it/is it popular there? What do you think about it?
Edit: forgot Norway
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u/CookieMan0 Jan 15 '17
How popular in Sweden's mainstream music scene is the band Sabaton? They are not very well known in the US, but I know they have considerable success in Europe, as far as I know.
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u/BaltimoreNewbie Jan 16 '17
Hello r/Sweden. A curious Marylander has a question for you:
How do you feel about the systembolaget you have in place? When I lived in NYC, I could buy alcohol at grocery stores or even pop down to a bodega for a beer, in Maryland I have to go to a designated liquor store to buy, but I've never imagined going to a government run store to purchase alcohol. What do you think of it? Are you overall satasfied, or is there room for improvement?
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Jan 15 '17
So Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are in a bar getting hammered. What kind of trash talk would happen in such a situation?
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u/shadow_of_octavian Jan 16 '17
I have two questions.
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First, how prevalent is snowboarding and skiing in Sweden?
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Second, how large or how small is the computer science, and programming field in Sweden?
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u/thabonch Jan 15 '17
Would you mind sharing some pictures of your average day-to-day life?
What would you eat for each meal on a normal day?
Is there anything interesting about Sweden that you think an outsider wouldn't know?
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u/-WISCONSIN- Jan 16 '17
How popular are "American" sports in Sweden if they are popular at all?
Who are the national heroes of Sweden?
What is Sweden's relationship with its neighbors like?
What is something you can do in Sweden that can't be done anywhere else?
What do you predict for the future of Sweden and why?
Thanks.
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u/cardinals5 Jan 15 '17
Hello to everyone on r/Sweden! The mod team of r/AskAnAmerican is thrilled to be sharing this cultural exchange with you!