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Fjortisar and Emos in school Posted by Katja on Jan 19, 2010
During the last couple of years a term has entered the Swedish school, actually two. The first is “Fjortis” and the second “Emo”. Apart from starting endless fights, these terms have given many youths, who are searching for friends or themselves, a place to belong. “Fjortis” originally comes from the Swedish word “fjortonåring” which means…
Umeå, biggest in the North Posted by Katja on Jan 13, 2010
Once past the first third of Sweden you have left all the bigger cities behind, with only Umeå remaining. Umeå is the city with most residents in the upper two thirds of Sweden. About 700 km north of the capital Stockholm, right along the coast, Umeå has close to 113 000 inhabitants in its municipality…
Friends, alcohol and hot tubs Posted by Katja on Dec 30, 2009
I hope you all had a great X-mas! Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and people have been making plans for a long time, most of all young people. In Sweden people spend Christmas with their families, ie. the grandparents of the mother and then the father. It is also very common that families get divorced…
Santa for hire Posted by Katja on Dec 21, 2009
Most people enjoy Christmas immensely and for young children one of the most exciting event is getting Christmas gift (julklappar) from Santa. In Sweden Christmas is celebrated on the 24th as in many other European countries, which many of you might already know. Santa (Tomten) comes to families’ houses around 4 PM and personally hands out the presents…
A new trend has infiltrated the Swedish language. Posted by Katja on Dec 12, 2009
Of course we know that a lot of languages borrow words from each other and adapt them to their own. Most people are fine with that, something a little bit annoying, new, different or just plain strange is a new trend amongst Swedish speakers right now. English verbs like to dress, to sprint or to…