Archive for 'Living in Sweden'
Flooring in Sweden Posted by Katja on Jun 20, 2012
Have you seen one of these around and wondered what are these things? Well in Swedish they are refererd to as en mattställning. You hang your rugs on them and hit them with en mattpiska, literally translated as a rug whip. Now you might wonder why there is such a need for these mattställningar…
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…
Train Travel in Sweden Posted by Katja on May 10, 2012
Service is different in all countries. Compared to a country like Japan, Sweden’s train service isn’t that good maybe. The trains are very often late, or delayed by snow, accidents or because of waiting for other slower moving vehicles on the tracks. However, to compensate for that the train companies compensate their travelers with the…
Barnprogram Posted by Katja on May 2, 2012
In Sweden there are special channels which are funded by the state, making the accessible to everybody. These channels are also not supposed to have any commercials either. Amongst the programs on these channels there is a special children’s program called “Bolibompa”. This is in Swedish the program which is called Barn Program. This program…
Swedish Coffee Vocabulary Posted by Katja on Apr 27, 2012
It is a well known fact that Swedes drink a lot of coffee. The logical conclusion to draw of that is that there is a lot of different vocabulary that goes with that custom. Lets start by looking at the different types of coffee: 1) Bryggkaffe: Brew coffee 2) Kokkaffe: Boiled coffee 3) Snabbkaffe: Instant…
“Life-long learning” quite a Swedish concept Posted by Katja on Apr 16, 2012
From the 70’s onward the concept of everybody having the right to learn, to go to school and more importantly; go back to school become national. Folk High schools, distance learning, learning online and further developing of skills through work are all common for adults in Sweden. There is no disgrace in going back to…