I not long time ago became a member in a facebook group for Kyrgyz and Swedish friendship. this is an article of an unknown author about Sweds. Decided that it would be interesting for me and my friends to read in future...
'' A Swede is tall, blonde, blue-eyed and wears a woolly hat in the winter. By nature he is shy reserved, serious, and industrious and finds it hard to laugh at himself. He is also a creature of habit and every morning gets up at 5.30 to give himself enough time to read the morning newspaper before going to work. Since work does not usually start until 8 o clock, this can only imply that a Swede is also a slow reader.
Apart from himself ,his chief interests are money, his job, his home, ice-hockey and his family(in that order). He also loves animals-especially dogs-and spend hours cycling through the town, dragging a huge and ferocious Alsatian behind him on a leash.
A Swede is usually punctual, honest, reliable, clean, has his own teeth and is law abiding. Evidence of the latter is particularly noticeable at pedestrian crossings. No matter what the weather is like, a Swede would rather get soaked to the skin than cross an empty street when a red light was showing.
Similarly, he always wears a seat belt, never drinks and drives, always has a television licence, usually hands in his tax return on time, invariably has a plastic bag in his pocket when he walks his dog and never has a bath after 10 o'clock.
A Swede is also very cautious and rarely does anything on impulse (except perhaps sneeze). To him, all decisions are a matter of life and death. Take a simple matter like buying cheese, for example. A Swede may try at least ten different sorts of cheeses before finally deciding to buy twenty grams of Brie. It is this same sense of caution that prevents him from plunging into marriage straight away. Instead, he lives with a women first, has one or two children, then-if all seems well- asks her to marry him.With reference to marriage, a Swede is quite unlike most European men. Anything a housewife can do, he can do better- from cooking to sewing on buttons. In fact, everything in the home (apart from breast feeding) is shared.
A Swede also likes to think he is well-informed and spends hours finding out all he can about such things as nuclear power, the Third World pollution, South Africa the sexual habits of the centipede, etc. while at the same time paying little attention to unimportant matters - such as the name of his neighbours or whether certain types of beer should be banned or not.
Most Swedes are fanatics when it comes to keeping fit and regularly spend their weekends running through the nearest forest or cycling for hours in the cellar on a bicycle fixed to the floor. With his health in mind, he has also given up smoking, sugar, drinking coffee in the evenings, going to bed after 10 o'clock and mixing with strangers.
But perhaps the greatest thing about a Swede is his sense of equality-of everyone being the same as everyone else. To help this, most Swedes have the same surnames- Svensson, Nilsson, Persson- earn the same amount of money after tax, have the same taste in furniture, dress alike, think alike, drive a Volvo and go to Mallorca in the summer.
A Swede also refuses to admit that he is prejudiced in any way. To him, all foreigners are just the same as Swedes and although he doesn’t actually have any Yugoslavian, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Italian, Finnish or Czechoslovakian friends himself, he is certain there are very little difference between them and Swedes-apart from their names, their customs, the way they grow vegetables in the kitchen, the fact that they carry knives, rob banks, live on social security, pinch their jobs, breed like rabbits, beat their wives and speak Swedish like someone with a gobstopper in his mouth.Finally, a Swede loves the sun, hates queuing, gets a kick out of being first on the bus, detests winter, enjoys sex, cant stand gypsies, believes what the National Social Board of Health and Welfare tells him, doesn’t believe in god, worships Ingemar Stenmark, only gets drunk when he drinks, is patriotic (wears Swedish flag underpants) visits the off-licence twice a week, visits his parents at Christmas, goes to English classes and ,inevitable, is deeply offended by an article such as this one ''.
'' A Swede is tall, blonde, blue-eyed and wears a woolly hat in the winter. By nature he is shy reserved, serious, and industrious and finds it hard to laugh at himself. He is also a creature of habit and every morning gets up at 5.30 to give himself enough time to read the morning newspaper before going to work. Since work does not usually start until 8 o clock, this can only imply that a Swede is also a slow reader.
Apart from himself ,his chief interests are money, his job, his home, ice-hockey and his family(in that order). He also loves animals-especially dogs-and spend hours cycling through the town, dragging a huge and ferocious Alsatian behind him on a leash.
A Swede is usually punctual, honest, reliable, clean, has his own teeth and is law abiding. Evidence of the latter is particularly noticeable at pedestrian crossings. No matter what the weather is like, a Swede would rather get soaked to the skin than cross an empty street when a red light was showing.
Similarly, he always wears a seat belt, never drinks and drives, always has a television licence, usually hands in his tax return on time, invariably has a plastic bag in his pocket when he walks his dog and never has a bath after 10 o'clock.
A Swede is also very cautious and rarely does anything on impulse (except perhaps sneeze). To him, all decisions are a matter of life and death. Take a simple matter like buying cheese, for example. A Swede may try at least ten different sorts of cheeses before finally deciding to buy twenty grams of Brie. It is this same sense of caution that prevents him from plunging into marriage straight away. Instead, he lives with a women first, has one or two children, then-if all seems well- asks her to marry him.With reference to marriage, a Swede is quite unlike most European men. Anything a housewife can do, he can do better- from cooking to sewing on buttons. In fact, everything in the home (apart from breast feeding) is shared.
A Swede also likes to think he is well-informed and spends hours finding out all he can about such things as nuclear power, the Third World pollution, South Africa the sexual habits of the centipede, etc. while at the same time paying little attention to unimportant matters - such as the name of his neighbours or whether certain types of beer should be banned or not.
Most Swedes are fanatics when it comes to keeping fit and regularly spend their weekends running through the nearest forest or cycling for hours in the cellar on a bicycle fixed to the floor. With his health in mind, he has also given up smoking, sugar, drinking coffee in the evenings, going to bed after 10 o'clock and mixing with strangers.
But perhaps the greatest thing about a Swede is his sense of equality-of everyone being the same as everyone else. To help this, most Swedes have the same surnames- Svensson, Nilsson, Persson- earn the same amount of money after tax, have the same taste in furniture, dress alike, think alike, drive a Volvo and go to Mallorca in the summer.
A Swede also refuses to admit that he is prejudiced in any way. To him, all foreigners are just the same as Swedes and although he doesn’t actually have any Yugoslavian, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Italian, Finnish or Czechoslovakian friends himself, he is certain there are very little difference between them and Swedes-apart from their names, their customs, the way they grow vegetables in the kitchen, the fact that they carry knives, rob banks, live on social security, pinch their jobs, breed like rabbits, beat their wives and speak Swedish like someone with a gobstopper in his mouth.Finally, a Swede loves the sun, hates queuing, gets a kick out of being first on the bus, detests winter, enjoys sex, cant stand gypsies, believes what the National Social Board of Health and Welfare tells him, doesn’t believe in god, worships Ingemar Stenmark, only gets drunk when he drinks, is patriotic (wears Swedish flag underpants) visits the off-licence twice a week, visits his parents at Christmas, goes to English classes and ,inevitable, is deeply offended by an article such as this one ''.
It was very intrestingly described, a bit exaggerated, sometimes right to the point, sometimes rather overestimated, Yugoslavian part was absolutly not nicly written, but in General it was quite funny :)
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