Tag Archives: Culture
Madeleine and Jonas split – Do you support Sweden’s royal family? Posted by Gabriel on Apr 27, 2010
The Swedish Royal Court recently announced that Princess Madeleine had broken up with her fiancé, Jonas Bergström, after weeks of media reports about a brief affair between the groom-to-be and a Norwegian handball star during a ski trip. Yes, handball. (We’ll explain that in another post:-)) It has been quite a few exciting years for…
The blonde and blue-eyed Swede and immigration Posted by Gabriel on Mar 31, 2010
Blonde hair and blue-eyed Swedes can be found, but less and less in groups. By now it is of course no surprise to you to hear that all Swedes don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. Nope, Sweden has been changing. Around 20 percent of the Swedish population has a foreign background. The top three…
Do Swedes care less about their kids? Posted by Gabriel on Feb 12, 2010
I’ll borrow this from Jennie. Warning! The following post will contain some major generalizations: Where I come from, we celebrate children. We put them up in the air and smile at them. We buy too many things for them. We tell them they are the best (even if they’re not). We ask them questions at…
Special Easter Mission for You Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 11, 2009
Easter day is almost upon us and pretty soon the church bells will go crazy and wake everybody up. But before that happens, here are a few things to remember about Påsk in Sweden. It’s a two day holiday. Easter Monday is known as Annandag Påsk. What are some traditional Easter foods? This being Sweden…
Immigration to Sweden – A Few Thoughts Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 28, 2009
Last time we talked about Swedish emigration to the US, but what about foreign immigration to Sweden? This is a subject that everybody has an opinion about and when discussing those opinions, tempers can run high, even among normally very reserved Swedes. I don’t know if as an immigrant myself, I should be even discussing…
When a Short, Sharp Intake of Breath Means “Yes” Posted by Transparent Language on Mar 19, 2009
My friend had to go to the doctor the other day, and afterwards, when we were having fika, he said: “wow, I guess I’m seriously sick. The doctor was making those scared little noises at pretty much everything I told her.” As you can very easily guess, my friend is an expat and hasn’t been…
When Daddies Take Care of Kids – Gender Equality Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 24, 2009
I am back from my Caribbean adventure and it was indeed lovely. We didn’t meet any Swedes along the way. Instead, we ran into two Norwegians while driving to Half Moon Bay in Antigua. So that was our Scandinavian connection for the week. It was an interesting trip, but the most interesting bit happened in…