It's been almost 10 months living in Sweden so I guess it's time to write something about this country as there are definitely a lot of things to talk about Swedish culture and way of living.
I want to start with my favorites: The stereotypes. If you are not one of those that confuse Sweden and Switzerland, the first things that come into mind when you hear about Sweden or Swedish would be quite similar. I think the best way is to see what people ask to Google about it.
Ok, let's start with the appearance as in my opinion that's the most distinctive thing about Scandinavians. For me, yes they are mostly tall and blonde. But it's not like the hair color is lemon yellow as opposed to common perception. They are more brunette or something.
But in my experience people usually ask if the people here are actually cold. This is hard to answer. Because it's not like they never smile and stuff. It's the opposite. They try to be very kind to everybody. When you go to a supermarket , the cashier gives you the most genuine smile and says "hello" and "goodbye" to everybody with the same sincerity without geting tired of it. This is definitely not the case in the countries where so called "warm people" live. Maybe the reason is people here really love their jobs and they don't see working as a burden or torture. Well of course, it's probably related to the working conditions and salaries. I will get back to this subject later.
I think the best way to describe them would be "Calm" instead of "Cold". Because they are really cold-blooded. You cannot see any crazy people runing, shouting, jumping, fighting in the street. They don't get angry so easily for stupid reasons. Or they do not react very much to the circumstances going on around. However they turn into a complete opposite when they are drunk and you can see the rudeness, crazyness and everything that they've been opressing. I guess the reason why they are so calm is somehow related to the weather. It's always so cold that they just don't want to spend time in the streets and go back home :) I mean, you really don't have any energy to do anything than necessary when it's so cold.
In general, I could say that they are very nice and polite people. I used to admire how Scandinavians dress elegantly, but now there is this weird trend going on that I noticed. Guys wear these hats everywhere indoor and outdoor although there is no sun. Some girls shave some part of their hair and stuff. But still the majority looks always stylish and chic.This picture on the right would be a typical Swedish that you can recognize everywhere.
When it comes to racism, it's really hard to say something directly. I could easily make a generalization that Danish people are racist but it's not really the same in Sweden. But there is something about them and in my opinion it's almost as bad as racism. They are known to be very "introverted". That is, they are not really open to new cultures, people or anyhthing other than what they have in Scandinavia and what they believe as the best. Hence, they do their best for not to get in touch with any foreigners, this includes the rest of the europe as well. So it's not a racism about the immigrants and stuff, they just don't want to interact with anybody else than their "master race". So they give rights to immigrants, they try not to discriminate them, they behave equally to them but they say -Just do whatever you want without disturbing or interacting with me, you are free to live here (Of course if you ask to an immigrant, they will not agree with this equally behaving but i guess it's everywhere). They don't have a concern about integration as in Germany, they don't want integrate anyway.
However, all Swedes were really angry and surprised when the far-right nationalistic party in Sweden entered the parliement in 2010 with 5.7% of the votes. This kind of parties have much more votes in other countries such as Holland where they have around 20%. So, I think this shows that Swedish people are actually not racist but they have a very closed society. But still, it's as annoying as racism and actually not that different than racism if you see the reasons behind why they are like that.
When it comes to the country itself, this is what Google tells us about what people wonder about it.
I guess the confusion about European Union and Sweden comes from the fact that they use Swedish Kronas here instead of Euros and another scandinavian country Norway is not a part of EU. But yea, Sweden is in EU.
About socialism, it's a very common perception because of all the regulations of Swedish government. Sweden is a welfare state. The taxes can go up to 50% and it returns as free education, health care, etc. This gives all the Swedish people a high standard of living and equaly distributed welfare which Swedes care really a lot. The difference between the rich and the poor is very very narrow. This is of course great and creates a peaceful society. Swedes never try to show off with their money and belongings. They are happy living in a modest, comfortable life. You can see that in their faces that they are actually happy with their lives. That's why they always rank the top in those "Happiest People" surveys.
Since money is not a matter of superiority between people, they don't mind to do things that wouldn't be expected from rich people. For example, they take their own bags to the supermarket so that they don't buy another plastic bag everytime they go shopping (yes, you have to pay for plastic bags: 50 Turkish kuruş), they keep all their bottles at home and they carry them to recycling machines to get their deposit back. They dont mind to do their responsibilities for the environment. However when I ask to a friend of mine if he recycles his bottles and stuff, his answer was -"We are not poor maaann!" =) This is an apparent difference between Swedish culture and the rest.
Here's my favorite video about this which tells about Sweden and the Swedes:
It's true that working conditions are really great in Sweden. You start with 6 weeks of paid vacation when you start to work after graduation. That means, all Sweden is swimming in the mediterranean sea during all summer.
The downside of this equal working conditions for everybody is, all the shops are closed after 5 pm in the weekdays and open only until 2pm on SATURDAY and closed all sunday. This is really annoying and hard to get used to. Since they protect the rights of the workers, they dont want them to work on saturdays when everybody else is not working and also in the evenings of the weekdays. It's regulated by law that you cannot open your shop even if you are really willing to work extra hours (Unless you have a special permission). This creates a very boring lifestyle here because everybody has to stay at home after work as there is nothing else to do. They don't even have possibilities to spend their money.
For me this is really nonsense, people should be able to work extra hours if they want to. Students can work with shifts during weekends to save some money, etc.
Sweden is also famous for strict alcohol consumption regulations which makes them one of the least alcohol consuming countries in Europe (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption).
Driniking beverages which have more than 3.5% of alcohol is forbidden in all public places which means streets, parks, beaches, etc. Alcohol sales is monopolized and only 1 shop has the permission to sell which is closed usually at 15 or 17 pm. There are also huge taxes on alcohol which are up to 40%. However this only stops Swedes drinking in the weekdays and they spend all their money in the weekends.
Another notable thing about Sweden is the complete equality of women and men. From what I see it's actually more than equality. They are considered
exactly the same as if there is no difference whatsoever. Women here would not really like when you try to pay the bill for them or hold the door for them. They don't really behave like what I call "girly behaviors".
For instance, when the women is pregnant and have a baby, the paid vacation time which is about 9 months can be shared between men and women. That is, the woman can start to work and the man will take care of the baby if they want. And the sign in the toilets about the place to change the diaper of the babies also exists in men toilet.
To sum up, there are really great advantages of living in a country like Sweden but if you are not a person who likes to live in a calm, quiet and monotonous life then that's really not the place to be.
One thing maybe the most important one I forgot is the weather that everybody keeps asking and mocking!! Sweden has just had the warmest winter of the last
250 years!! So it didnt really snow or rain much, yayyyy!
