Welcome to Sweden

Cross-cultural differences are always interesting, sometimes frustrating and often funny. It’s the humour of cultural differences that is the basis for the TV4 series “Welcome to Sweden”.

As I’ve been following the adventures of Bruce in his new homeland, it has reminded me of my own experiences of cultural differences when I first moved to Sweden. I recognise a lot of Bruce’s experiences though I was not a ‘love import’. I was more of a ‘job refugee’. I came to Sweden to work for a year as a time out from a job I had in London, never planning to stay. More than twenty five years later I’m still here…

And more than twenty five years later many things are still the same, culturally. Recently in Stockholm Metro there have been a series of letters to the editor on the subject of ‘to put your bag on the seat beside you or not’ when travelling by train or bus.

I first encountered this cultural question when travelling on the underground. I had quite a long commute and often had a book with me. The book I was reading was “How green was my valley” by Richard Llewellyn. I was absorbed in the book and suddenly somebody sat on the bag that I had place on the seat beside me. I was really surprised that the person hadn’t said something, such as “Excuse me”, rather than just sit wordlessly on the bag and avoid eye contact.

Cross-cultural differences can be a great subject for small talk so I asked a Swede about this behaviour. I was told that in fact, the cultural rules were that I should always be aware of who might want to sit and wordlessly remove my bag. I could absolutely see the reasonableness of my being aware of other passengers. At the same time I didn’t see why the other passenger couldn’t just say a simple word before sitting down on my bag.

When this situation has arisen on the underground and the other person is of another cultural background, it has often instead been an opportunity for a mini-contact. The scene then goes something like this. The person says, “Excuse me”. I look up. We have brief eye contact, and usually exchange a quick smile. I move the bag and the person sits down. It all happens in perhaps 5 seconds or less. But it’s been a brief moment of contact with another human being.

The big difference is that Sweden is a contact-avoiding culture. Eye contact and even one-word small talk is avoided. I know a foreign journalist who goes to the local store to buy something when he’s feeling a bit lonely because there’ll be a “hello” from the person at the till.

An interesting aspect about the exchange of letters in Metro is that it seemed to be between Swedes, so perhaps there is a change going on there. I believe we can be “both-and” in this situation, rather than “either-or”. We can both be aware of our fellow passengers and also have the opportunity for a mini-contact by saying, “Excuse me”.

Try it!

//Allie

Allie Edwardsson är författare till ”Cracking the Code of International Communication”.
Läs ett smakprov här, beställ boken här.