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Are you becoming a Swede? Posted by on May 20, 2011 in Culture

Let’s finish off a week of homesickness, vowels, cultural exchange and Swedish personal numbers with some Swedish stereotypical behaviour – gathered from expats in Sweden. Have a great weekend everyone!

You know you have turned into a Swede when…

…you know how to fix herring in 105 different ways.

…your front step is beginning to resemble a shoe shop.

…you have conversations with people outside when it is –10C.

…it’s no longer seems excessive to spend 1 000 SEK on alcohol in a single night

…you wear warm clothing when it’s 25 degrees plus in April – because it’s April.

…you wear shorts and t-shirt when it’s barely 10 degrees in July – because it’s July.

…you start to differentiate between types of snow.

…you no longer snigger when your kids ask for a Plopp when you’re out shopping.

…you know that ”Extrapris” goods are cheaper, even though your English mind translates the word as ”extra price”

…your husband is very long instead of being very tall.

…you ask for a Big Mac and company outside of Sweden.

…you stop thinking you’re being yelled at every time you hear “Hey!”

…you know that “fan” is a swearword, and not an admirer or an air conditioner.

…you are no longer surprised when you see full-frontal male nudity in a commercial or on TV.

…you expect to find the glove you dropped in February hanging on a post in June.

…you have given into the fact that pigs say ”nöff nöff”, frogs say ”kvack, kvack” and roosters say ”kuckeliku”.

…you can use bra, fart, and slut in the same sentence without giggling.

…you refer to weeks by their number.

…you think silence is fun.

…your coffee consumption exceeds 6 cups a day and coffee is too weak if there is less than 10 scoops per pot.

…the first thing you do upon entering a bank/post office/chemist etc. is to look for the queue number machine.

…VD is the boss, not something you need to get medical treatment for.

…a stranger on the street smiles at you, you assume:
a: he is drunk
b: he is insane
c: he’s an American
d: he’s all of the above

Feel free to add more! You know when you have turned into a Swede when…

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Comments:

  1. mostofa:

    Haaaaa !!

    Great compilation !!

    But you should add ‘Wishing people Trevlig Helg at 10 am on a Friday at work :o) ! ‘

  2. Ewa:

    I’m sitting in a cupboard, laughing, blushing and being really embarrassed at how TRUE this all is. You did forget the silence interrupted by ‘joooo visst’ and then more silence.

  3. paula:

    Wow! I think you nailed it! You got it covered.

  4. Jan:

    …you think commercial music with bad English lyrics is an example of good taste.

  5. NeMe:

    Hahaha, awesome list!

  6. Life with Subtitles:

    Awesome list. Thanks for the laugh 🙂

  7. arpita:

    when you start pronouncing all english words with alphabet “j” as “y”