{"id":1949,"date":"2020-06-23T13:54:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T12:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naturetravels.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2024-06-06T10:54:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T09:54:28","slug":"how-to-pretend-to-be-swedish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naturetravels.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-pretend-to-be-swedish\/","title":{"rendered":"How To (Pretend To) Be Swedish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bob from the Nature Travels team draws on his 20 years of experience with Swedish culture to give some tips on how to blend in if you\u2019re travelling to Sweden or have some Swedish friends!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Build up your coffee tolerance and take time out for \u201cfika\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For such a relaxed bunch, the Swedes drink an obscene amount of coffee \u2013 Sweden has one of the highest coffee consumption levels in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it doesn\u2019t seem to affect them at all. Amazingly, their neighbours the Finns consistently top the world coffee-drinking charts by a considerable margin and yet are even more chilled!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with other Scandinavian ideas such as Danish \u201chygge\u201d<\/em> and Norwegian wood-stacking, Swedish fika<\/em> culture has been much talked about in recent years. And for good reason \u2013 the Swedes have elevated the humble coffee-and-cake break to an almost spiritual level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like \u201cfredagsmys\u201d <\/em>(see below), fika <\/em>is all about taking time: time out from your work, time to connect with your family or friends, time to get to know your colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"How
Photo: Nature Travels.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Swedes listen with horror to tales of British office workers taking \u201cbreaks\u201d at their desks in front of their computers. After all, how can you possibly cultivate and value the social connections so important to working life with a coffee mug in one hand and a telephone in the other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a simple idea, but a very important one: Coffee and cake (and the time spent with the people you share them with) are sacrosanct. The inbox can wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Take off your shoes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the whole, Swedes don\u2019t stand on politeness and ceremony nearly as much as the Brits, but one area of etiquette you mustn\u2019t ignore is the \u201cno shoes in the house\u201d rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walk around a Swede\u2019s house with your outdoor shoes on and you\u2019ll be committing a social sin of almost unimaginable magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo: Nature Travels.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Fortunately, Swedish houses are warm (often too warm), and many have underfloor heating, so walking around in your socks is likely to feel just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it\u2019s a more formal occasion such as a dinner or a party, bring your inside shoes in a little bag and change at the door. For more relaxed occasions, there may well be a selection of guest slippers to borrow waiting for you in the hallway!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Stare intently at everyone before drinking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Brits tend to mutter a perfunctory \u201cCheers!\u201d before throwing back their drink without paying much attention to what anyone else at the table is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so in Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raise your glass, say (or wait for someone else to say) \u201cSk\u00e5l\u201d and then \u2013 this is the important bit \u2013 look EVERYONE else at the table straight in the eye for a second or two, one at a time. If possible, try to look friendly rather than deranged as you do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When, and only when, everyone has looked at everyone else, take a drink and set your glass back on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, once you’ve got through this, you can then continue drinking as normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NB:<\/strong> If it\u2019s schnapps you\u2019re drinking (and often even if it isn’t), the above must be preceeded by a song, usually this one:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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