Archive for May, 2012
The christening of Sweden’s new Crown Princess Posted by jennie on May 22, 2012
As you all might now, this February saw the arrival of Sweden’s new Crown Princess, Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary. This afternoon, the three month old celebrity baby will be christened in a formal ceremony at the Royal Chapel in the Royal Palace in Stockholm. The ceremony will be conducted by Archbishop Anders Wejryd, who also…
Swedish in America Posted by Marcus Cederström on May 21, 2012
I know that a lot of the people who read this blog are just learning Swedish. But I also know that a lot of you have various reasons for learning the language. Some people because of a partner, others because of friends, still others because of family members who maybe grew up speaking Swedish even…
The history of Swedish loan words Posted by Stephen Maconi on May 18, 2012
The Swedish language has a long history of loaning words from other languages in Europe. Usually, the source languages have been of large economic or cultural importance for Sweden. This process of loaning words started around the 10th century AD, just a century after historians consider the Swedish language to have become a language of…
Starbucks in Sweden Posted by Katja on May 17, 2012
For ages and ages there was no Starbucks in Sweden, at all. Unlike the US with around about 11 000 cafés, 1000 in Canada and more than 800 in Japan, Sweden had up until recently had none even though it is one of America’s biggest coffee chains. About 7 or 8 years ago Starbucks was…
Café culture in Sweden Posted by Katja on May 14, 2012
Most of you dedicated Swedish blog readers will probably have read about or heard of the Swedish “fika”. Swedes love to have their 3 o’clock fika-time or go out to cafés and such. But still, the culture of sitting in cafés is really very different from a lot of other countries in Europe. It is…
Finland in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest Posted by Stephen Maconi on May 11, 2012
How does Finland have anything to do with Sweden? Well, first-off, the two countries neighbor each other, even though most of the “border” between them is actually the Gulf of Bothnia (Bottniska viken in Swedish). Secondly, the Swedish language is one of Finland’s two official languages – the other being, of course, Finnish. There is…
Inter-Scandinavian Communication Posted by Tibor on May 10, 2012
The newest Norwegian research shows that we understand less and less of each other´s languages in Scandinavia. (To the Scandinavian languages you count Swedish, Danish and Norwegian). The researchers blame first of all the teachers and the media for this very matter and they say that it would be very useful to concentrate more on…