Myths about Swedes
As I am now making my blogger debut in English, I thought that instead of introducing myself, I’d kill some myths about Swedish people.
First of all: Sweden and Switzerland are not the same! At all. There are certain similarities, such as being about the only two countries in the world that were neutral during WWI, WWII and any other war fought since somewhere back in the 18th century. So forget about showing off when you talk to a Swede by saying, “Ah! Watches!” because that’s Switzerland. Chocolate? Switzerland. The Alps then? That’s also Switzerland.
Switzerland is situated in the very heart of Europe, squeezed in between Germany and France, and they would have to be an extraordinarily diplomatic people to stay neutral for two hundred years considering the fact that Germany and France never missed an opportunity to take a swing at each other. Sweden on the other hand is in Scandinavia, between Norway and Finland, and perhaps a bit isolated from the rest of Europe. Going north from Germany really doesn’t take you anywhere, so there’s not a lot of people passing through. Maybe that is why others don’t know much about us.
Now, let’s kill some myths.
We don’t have polar bears running loose in Stockholm. We don’t have any polar bears at all in Sweden, except in zoos. Polar bears live on the Arctic, and as far as I know there are some polar bears in Canada as well. But not in Sweden. And no penguins either. They’ve heard about the polar bears and stay away from here.
Swedish girls are not called Inga or Ingrid. It’s a rather uncommon name among girls younger than 50. And they’re not constantly horny either. At least not in my experience. But that could actually say more about me than about Swedish women.
Not all Swedes are blond with an athletic build. That’s some sort of pre-Nazi, Viking-romantic image, and it’s not true and never was. In fact; lots of the Viking stories are myth as well, and the existing Vikings where mainly from what is now Norway and Denmark. However, the Vikings reached America way ahead of Columbus who, to my knowledge, never even reached the mainland. And by the way: He was looking for India for crying out loud! Now there’s a guy I’d never trust with a map.
In American movies, whenever a Swedish character shows up, he/she almost always speaks with a distinct German accent. It’s a forgivable mistake since the Swedish and German languages are closely related. Therefore I can understand that it may sound somewhat similar to the untrained ear. Still, they’re actually no more similar than for example French and Spanish.
And finally: Swedish does not sound anything like the chef in the Muppet show!
First of all: Sweden and Switzerland are not the same! At all. There are certain similarities, such as being about the only two countries in the world that were neutral during WWI, WWII and any other war fought since somewhere back in the 18th century. So forget about showing off when you talk to a Swede by saying, “Ah! Watches!” because that’s Switzerland. Chocolate? Switzerland. The Alps then? That’s also Switzerland.
Switzerland is situated in the very heart of Europe, squeezed in between Germany and France, and they would have to be an extraordinarily diplomatic people to stay neutral for two hundred years considering the fact that Germany and France never missed an opportunity to take a swing at each other. Sweden on the other hand is in Scandinavia, between Norway and Finland, and perhaps a bit isolated from the rest of Europe. Going north from Germany really doesn’t take you anywhere, so there’s not a lot of people passing through. Maybe that is why others don’t know much about us.
Now, let’s kill some myths.
We don’t have polar bears running loose in Stockholm. We don’t have any polar bears at all in Sweden, except in zoos. Polar bears live on the Arctic, and as far as I know there are some polar bears in Canada as well. But not in Sweden. And no penguins either. They’ve heard about the polar bears and stay away from here.
Swedish girls are not called Inga or Ingrid. It’s a rather uncommon name among girls younger than 50. And they’re not constantly horny either. At least not in my experience. But that could actually say more about me than about Swedish women.
Not all Swedes are blond with an athletic build. That’s some sort of pre-Nazi, Viking-romantic image, and it’s not true and never was. In fact; lots of the Viking stories are myth as well, and the existing Vikings where mainly from what is now Norway and Denmark. However, the Vikings reached America way ahead of Columbus who, to my knowledge, never even reached the mainland. And by the way: He was looking for India for crying out loud! Now there’s a guy I’d never trust with a map.
In American movies, whenever a Swedish character shows up, he/she almost always speaks with a distinct German accent. It’s a forgivable mistake since the Swedish and German languages are closely related. Therefore I can understand that it may sound somewhat similar to the untrained ear. Still, they’re actually no more similar than for example French and Spanish.
And finally: Swedish does not sound anything like the chef in the Muppet show!
posted by Joshua_Tree at 6:58 PM
3 Comments:
Your post is awesome! Too many times have I been annoyed by the horny Inga/Ingrid thing (even though I'm not Swedish myself, I've been living in Stockholm for 10 years now), and the polar bears. Though I usually find that funny. Things would be a lot more interesting if we had polar bears in our backyards...
Well, there are times when a polar bear could come in handy. I'd like to have a trained polar bear that I could bring with me to IKEA for example. That oughta make people get out of my way and NOT run over me with their trollies.
Hello there
I found your blog while searching the Internet. Seem as we write about swedes both of us. You are welcome to check mine out aswell.
All the best from me, anna
http://www.4vikings.com/blog.asp
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