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/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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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/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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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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Apr 05 '15
It is a sibling relationship, the nordics are all allowed to hate and ridicule each other, but if any one else tries to pick on any of us, they pick on all of us.
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Apr 05 '15
today we hate Danes like a big brother hates his little brother, in a loving way. but if you look at the list of wars between Sweden and Denmark you will see a similar history to that of England and France
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u/fosforsvenne Apr 06 '15 edited Apr 07 '15
These days it's not so much hatred as it is pity. It's hard to take a Scandinavian country with zero success in winter sports seriously. Even more depressingly, they don't even have a language anymore.
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u/royalswe Apr 05 '15
I think the Danes hates us more because we travel to Copenhagen to become drunk and embarrassing.
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u/CantHugEveryCat Apr 05 '15
Bångsjorr! Parvlemo frangsä?
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u/riiga Apr 05 '15
Le chien il est dans la four!
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u/ubomw Apr 05 '15
I don't get it.
My tailor is rich?
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Apr 06 '15
I thought it meant "the dog is on the floor".
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u/ubomw Apr 06 '15
In the oven actually, My tailor is rich is a line from an old teaching English book.
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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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u/Bosseffs Apr 05 '15
This gif explains it pretty good.
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u/ubomw Apr 05 '15
Ikéa, good at tax evasion.
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u/lynxlynxlynx- Apr 05 '15
You can't deliver the middle class dream without tax evasion and sweatshops!
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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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u/Woozz Apr 05 '15
I watched "La Chasse" (Jagten in sweedish ) yesterday, with Mads Mikkelsen. It was really cool!
EDIT : Oh well, I just checked, it's danish. And he's danish. Sorry haha!
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u/raklina Apr 05 '15
Evil, or Ondskan in swedish, from 2003 is a pretty good movie about violence in a 50's boarding school.
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u/Solna Apr 05 '15 edited Apr 05 '15
I didn't care too much for the movie, but maybe that's because I was comparing it to the book in my mind. The book is really good. Looked it up if it was available in French and apparently it won a prize for best book translated into French in 1990.
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u/devolve Apr 05 '15
Let the right one in is a pretty good movie, and beautifully shot by Hoyte van Hoytema (Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, Her, Spectre, etc). It is magical realism, but it doesn't venture too much in to vampirism more than being a part of the story of friendship across boundaries. I didn't find it too scary either, but some have.
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u/MaksymRebenka Apr 05 '15
It's one of my favorite movie ! The swimming pool scene is so impressive. I don't know why they call it "Morse" in France... Last year, I red the book on wich the movie is based on... It's a really disturbing book but interesting !
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u/Skalpaddan Apr 06 '15
The boy and the girl uses morse code to communicate through their walls with each other.
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u/ChopToxicity Apr 05 '15
Check out Fucking Åmal and help us find out how the wheelchair girl rang the doorbell.
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u/ikedug Apr 05 '15 edited Apr 05 '15
Fucking Åmal
Known as Show Me Love. As one commentator said, the name was changed "because one word is unprintable, and the other word is unprintable."
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u/Liurias Apr 05 '15
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u/LittleHelperRobot Apr 05 '15
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u/Skalpaddan Apr 06 '15
Check out Easy Money if you want a crime film from Sweden that's actually quite good. It's definitely not on the same level as Bergman's films but it's enyojable. It's the first of a trilogy though and the following movies weren't quite so good (second one is okay and third one is barely passable).
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u/dekmaskin Apr 06 '15
I really liked I rymden finns inga känslor, it reminds me of some lighter Jean-Pierre Jaunet films. Having said that I have a general dislike of Swedish movies as they're too bland and dry for my taste. There are exceptions of course though, such as the one I recommended.
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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/gigo09 Apr 06 '15
As a 15 year old kid I can't really say anything out of experience but I can say that the "work insurance" here is extremely strong for the old and very poor for the young. It's basically a "first one in first one out" deal where firing the people who have worked long and hard for the company is really hard and take up to 6 months before the person is actually fired whereas firing the young guy who has only worked there for a few months is pretty easy.
Simply, it's a great thing when you've found a nice job that you've worked on for a long time but extremely annoying if you're new to the market. But as I said, don't take my word as gospel I'm only 15 :)
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Apr 06 '15
Thanks for your answer.
I don't have any more clear view for my questions but you give me a cultural aspect about your work market.
So, here the rule of first in first out works until you have your permanent contract (usually after a year or two in the same company, with was your third compagny) and for the youth (- 30-35). Then, after you turn 45, the compagnies will have a lot of creativity to send you away (they prefer to pay you for behing away rather to let you going to work fr them).
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Apr 05 '15
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u/lynxlynxlynx- Apr 05 '15
I don't really know anyone that uses it as a "gender-neutral pronoun" it's actually mostly used when the gender is unknown so instead of saying "h*n, han/hon" (*he, he/she) hen is used.
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u/sursmurf Apr 05 '15
Some use it (hen) but I would say that most think it's horrible.
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u/guy_from_sweden Apr 06 '15
Never understood why people think it's horrible. People hear it and associate it with radical feminism or social justice warriors, but I just see another pronoun that can, at times (such as when the gender is unknown), be very useful.
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Apr 05 '15
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u/Censuro Apr 05 '15
Solsidan is a nice swedish comedy series.
Not equivalent but the closest swedish idioms I can think of are
"Även solen har sina fläckar." / "Even the sun has its spots" i.e. Nobody is perfect
"I natten/mörkret är alla katter grå" / "All cats are grey in the night/darkness" i.e. the difference isn't as big as one may think
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Apr 05 '15
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u/TheNaug Apr 05 '15
Computer gaming is indeed big in Sweden. As to why? I'm not sure. Swedes are pretty nerd friendly and the weather sucks during winter time so what else is there to do? =)
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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 ?