Swedish Language Blog

Recently people have been asking me how the global economic crisis is affecting Sweden. It seems to me that many foreigners are under the impression that a state with a cradle-to-grave welfare scheme should be immune from the worldwide tumble.
Well, that impression is very mistaken. Welfare benefits don’t grow on trees, as some people seem to think. They come from our tax money that has made a trip through the system and now is coming out at the other end.

The economic crisis is hitting Sweden just as it’s hitting all other countries. Every day you read in the papers about new layoffs and job reductions.
Volvo plans 1 200 layoffs, 900 jobs to be cut at Karolinska, Telia-Sonera announces job cuts, OKB on the verge of bankruptcy, 18 000 layoffs in December, Swedish jobs moving abroad… And so on. The outlook for 2009 is grimmer than grim.

Yet many people don’t seem to be worried at all. They believe that having a permanent contract and belonging to a union will protect them from being laid off. I certainly hope that things will not get to the point that this belief will be put to the test.

At least in my neck of the wood, people go about spending money as usual. Shops are full of customers (but I’m not sure if they’re just looking or actually buying). Everyone I asked today was still going on their annual winter vacation. Many people actually waited till the very last minute to take advantage of, yes, you guessed it, last-minute deals.

“It may be the last holiday we can afford for quite some time,” one lady purchasing a vacation package at the Ticket.se office said out loud to no one in particular. I was waiting right behind her and we started to talk. Her husband works at the local Volvo factory and there’s trouble brewing. People will be let go.

Are worried about your personal finances and would like to get some tips on how to manage in this economy?

På konsumentverket.se kan du ladda ner en broschyr kallad “Koll på pengarna”, om du på allvar vill gå igenom din ekonomi.

As Gimena pointed out it’s almost time for the Sami market in Jokkmokk. And darn, this year I won’t be able to go. I went in 2005 when the market celebrated its 400-year anniversary, and let me tell you, it was really something. Unfortunately, I lost my camera that time… And finding a place to stay was almost impossible. Normally, all the hotels and rooms in private homes are booked well in advance. Yes, the market is THAT popular.

I just called the Jokkmokk tourist office to see how’s it’s going this year, and they told me the town is pretty much fully booked.

Why is the event so popular? This is THE Sami market in the world. And like I mentioned before, it’s been going on for more than 400 years. If you are interested in the Sami culture, there is no better place to visit.

photo: Jokkmokk guiderna

I am particularly upset that I can’t go this year, because one of my favorite Swedish indie bands – Mollet will be playing at the market.

Mollet are six Sami guys from Kiruna, who play what can be described as “garage jojk” or indigenous rock. And yes, they also sing in the Sami language.

They will be playing at the Jokkmokk market on February 6th at 10PM.
You can check out their music on their myspace page. Normally, when I’m driving long distances, you can see, or rather, hear me in the car jojking along to “Olles ija.

OK, now på svenska.

Var ligger Jokkmokk?
Jokkmokk ligger strax norr om polcirkeln, i hjärtat av Lappland.
Jokkmokk är känt för Jokkmokks marknad, som firade 400-årsjubileum i februari 2005, samt för sin roll som en central samisk samlingsplats.

Horse races are for wusses. We have reindeer races in Jokkmokk!

photo: hakimu, creative commons

PS. And don’t you just love saying “Jokkmokk“? It just sort of rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it?

If you are a new arrival to Sweden, there is something that you will notice almost immediately. Even sooner than immediately (if that’s at all possible) if you have school-age kids.
Or maybe you’ve already noticed it when dealing on-line with various Swedish establishments.

I’m talking about the charming, but vaguely inconvenient to the uninitiated, way in which Swedes use the calendar.

You see, things are counted in weeks over here.
A notice may appear at your local gym proclaiming it closed vecka 28-30, for example. With no dates added. Why no dates? Because almost everybody here knows exactly when weeks 28, 29 and 30 are.

Weeks are numbered on almost all calendars available for sale in Sweden (except for the one I bought at Ica MAXI, but it has cute kitten pictures instead, so it’s a fair trade, in my opinion).

When the weeks are in single digits, it’s easy enough to keep track of them. We are now in week 2 – vecka 2 of 2009. But just wait till summertime rolls around and you will have to decipher when week 28 begins.

Because the weeks are not numbered in my calendar, I printed out this handy chart I found on the internet and stuck it on my fridge.

And as you can see above the chart, even vacation rentals are reserved by week number, and not the actual date.
You will see week numbers on correspondence from your local vårdcentral (health clinic), library, your kids’ school, on announcements from all sorts of organizations, including Migrationsverket, and even on supermarket circulars.

So, in other words, week numbers = important stuff in Sweden.