Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
People & Culture
As is true of most places, Sweden's pop culture reflects its people's collect-
ive psyche - in this case, with an enthusiastic embrace of both the grim and
the frivolous. Swedish humour is a quirky thing indeed; it can be easily over-
looked by the untrained eye, or even misperceived as grumpiness. Swedish
literature and cinema tend to favour a weighty, Gothic sense of drama blen-
ded with gallows humour and stark aesthetics - in other words, the opposite
of its best-known pop music.
The National Psyche
Blonde, blue-eyed, cold and reserved: while these four elements may make up the prevail-
ing stereotype of Swedes, the reality is, perhaps unsurprisingly, much more complex and
contradictory. Dark hair, impish stature and random acts of friendliness are not as uncom-
mon as you may think, while a widespread passion for travel and trends can make for curi-
ous locals and enlightening conversations.
Two vital concepts in the typical Swedish mindset are
lagom
and
ordning och reda
.
Lagom
means 'just right' - not too little, not too much. A good example is
mellanöl
(medi-
um ale) - it's not strong, but it's not as weak as a light ale. An exception to
lagom
is the
smörgåsbord
.
Ordning och reda
connotes tidiness and order: everything in its proper place in the world.
A good example is the queuing system; almost every transaction in Sweden requires parti-
cipants to take a number and stand in line, which everyone does with the utmost patience.
An exception to
ordning och reda
is Stockholm traffic.
Lifestyle
Swedes are a friendly sort.
Var så god
is a common phrase and carries all sorts of expres-
sions of goodwill: 'Welcome', 'Please', 'Pleased to meet you', 'I'm happy to serve you',
'Thanks' and 'You're welcome'. And Swedes are so generous with their use of 'thank you'
(
tack
) that language texts make jokes about it.
