Brit Reacts to What NOT to Do in Sweden | Avoid These 10 Mistakes! 

Another thing in Sweden, if a Swedish person is trying to get past you and you are in the way, they won't ask you to move, they will just stare menacingly at your feet until you move on your own... 😅 Great reaction video!

As a swede, #10 boils down to not wanting to be in debt to someone. So it all depends on who you do it to. Always ask first if they would like another etc.

Swedes have an inherent fear of owing anyone anything. If you're gifted something you want to gift something in turn INSTANTLY to clear the debt. Feels extremely awkward if someone surprises you with something like buying a round of drinks. You can also observe this in how swedes say thank you all the time. Observe a swede buying something and the interaction with the cashier. Both are thanking eachother for EVERYTHING. Often doing a double thanks, a "tack tack" to double up to clear the social debt.

Speaking of the tv show "Allt för sverige", I remember watching one episode where this american just screamed or at least exclaimed in the camera "I FEEL SO SWEDISH!!" And then he took of all of his clothes, butt naked, ran off and jumped in a lake near by 😅 It was SO NOT a swedish behavior, 100% typically american however 😂

It's funny that he talks about being in a company and talking about your wage because there's one exception to talking about wages and that's with someone at your work who has the same job as you. Of course you need to ease into it and not blurt it out but it's really important to compare wages so you can get the best deal when you negotiate. Also he forgot about never wearing your outdoor shoes indoors. That's the number one reason, for me at least, why I would never invite someone to my home again. Unless it's like a handyman or whatever.

Escalator thing is definitely just Stockholm. I've lived in Gothenburg for over 10 years and never run into this problem. Stockholm also got way more big and long escalators especially around the Central Station and subway areas.

Regarding religion, here's my two cents as someone who was born and raised in Sweden and still lives there, but who also has Irish family. Growing up, I definitely knew my Irish grandmother was religious, but I had no idea that my Swedish grandmother was until I was an adult. In fact, I had no idea that both of my Swedish aunts and my uncle considered themselves deeply Christian until I was an adult. Faith was and is a private thing to them and I think that most Swedes feel the same. Talking about faith, something so personal and private, can feel very intrusive, at least when you barely know each other. I'm personally an agnostic atheist who finds religion, especially the Abrahamic ones, quite fascinating; where they started, what other faiths they borrowed from, etc. But even I find people's earnest and enthusiastic public show of faith to be a bit uncomfortable at times.

That thing on the fika-table is in fact, apple pie with custard sauce. It is pretty common to eat in Sweden during the summer, oftentimes we even make it with our own apples from the backyard. Delicious!

Hello, I`m Swedish and a funny thing happened yesterday. I was standing on the sidewalk minding my own business (as we do) when a man came up to me. We said ”Hej!” And he stopped about 2 m from me. We casted glances at eachother but kept silent. After about 5 minutes we started to talk ( this was in a small town and would never happen in Stockholm). After a couple of minutes converstion his wife came. Her first question was: Do you know eachother? Since we didn`t she thought it was strange but nice that we talked. Happens only in Sweden.

In Sweden ( and even Norway, Denmark,Finland and Island, I think) if you say you are religious is more the same as you saying you only are one step from being a Priest in the US. If you say, I am of Christian faith or raised in a Christian family, nobody rises an eyebrow.

Swed here! I've lived in the UK on two occasions and I must say there's a lot of similarities. However I'd say there's a big pub culture in the UK which frankly doesn't exist at all in the same way in Sweden.

In some situations where queueing is expected, we have replaced linestanding with ticket dispensers. You grab a ticket, then you can go sit down or wander around while waiting for your number to be called. This is typical for pharmacies, car inspection, deli counters, tax office, etc.

Just one thing I want to add to #1 is that you can pretty much never cut in line, but sometimes if you’re in a store and have very little to pay for others will let you go before them because it won’t take you as long to scan and pay.

The queue thing is super serious. I saw a clip from a panel show talking about it and they had video of the King of Sweden waiting in line to buy a hotdog. XD

No 6 is definitely Stockholm. This time of year us stockholmers are driven around the bend by all the tourists not understanding the basic courtesy of standing to the right and to not STOP TO FIND YOUR WAY just as you get off the escalator. Please just get out of our way, don’t create a traffic jam! (Sorry, I am working my way up into a bit of a rant here.)

As a Swede living in Stockholm I HATE when people doesn’t follow the escalator rule. Especially in the summer when it’s a lot of tourists here. You can easily tell when someone isn’t from Stockholm or Sweden… but I don’t have the courage to ask someone to move:/

as silly as it may sound, Felix Kjellberg ak.a. PewDiePie is the perfect example of Jantelagen, he's the biggest RU-vidr and hugely famous, and probably quite well-off too, but he's also super super humble, very down-to-earth and just doesn't flaunt being successful.

During The Event there was a joke in sweden that "We can't wait for this entire thing to blow over so we can go back from keeping 2m distance to the normal 5m".

I agree 100% with #1 😂 i travel in Asia for business and I can’t remember the amount of times I have made a noise in the immigration and security. One time when I stopped a guy trying to squeezing past the whole queue I had the whole queue clapping….. 😅. Amazingly he looked surprised but I agree with you that “first come first served” mentality is very ingrained. Even in traffic 🤦‍♂️

I'm Swedish there's a lot he's right about. But the hockey matches against Finland feel like it was more of a 90s and 2000s thing. At least that's how I feel. Number 6 is mostly for Stockholm. I know I had to help a girl once who was standing on the left side. I said you probably shouldn't stand on that side and so I moved her to the right a few minutes later there was a group running on the left side. I remember she was going to Solna and I was going there too. so I showed her the way. gentleman here. I remember her thanking me so much for the help. It was her first time in Stockholm. This was many years ago.

Looks like I was almost in this video in that line for Comic Con. DIdn't see myself, but I definitely recognize some of those people as my fellow queuers. One of the craziest "standing in line" moments I've had in Sweden was when Neil Gaiman was in Stockholm in 2013 or 2014 (don't remember exactly). The signing wasn't until 4pm, but you had to get to the book store early, like I got there at 8.30 and there were more than 60 people in front of me. Before the store opened we basically formed a line around an entire inner city block, something like 300 people, standing in line waiting for the store to open at 10 am. When the store opened, everyone in line was given a queue number, (which was pages torn out of a day planner, which is how I know there were more than 60 people in front of me, because I got March 5th). Then, when you had your queue number, you could go about your day and return later, to stand in line again, on the ground floor of the store, while the signing was upstairs. Then the staff would call us up one month at a time, so we could line up yet again on the upper floor, to get our book signed.

The pie is in Sweden called a "smulpaj" which literally means "crumb pie" and they are very common with rhubarb & strawberry, apple, blueberry or raspberry filling. They are often more common in cafés than the typical way that, for example pumpkin pies, are made.

As someone from Gothenburg I myself talk with friends from time to time about how much we earn. So I don't think it's the subject itself but rather with who and also making sure it's not a dick measuring contest. Side note: there are quite a few people that like to flaunt their wealth through buying lots of drinks and there is also the infamous "vaska" which literally is just buying an expensive bottle of wine/champagne and telling the bartender to pour it out in the sink instead of drinking it because you're so "rich" you can just waste it

#9 cinnamon roll, apple pie with custard, and the green cake is Prinsesstårta, Princess cake - sponge, custard, raspberry jam whipped cream and marzipan, a cake you have to celebrate something, on birthdays and... In funerals 🙈

As someone with a Norwegian grandmother, born in Denmark, half Finn & living in Sweden, I totally see us as pretty much the same. Our cultures & languages, except for Finland, is not that different, especially not if you know all 3 languages & lived in more than one of the countries. Also, he got it wrong on the drunk & lazy, I take offence, Im not lazy, Im laidback ;) lol

I'm thinking a bit about when the video is from. I live in Karlstad in Sweden and during the pandemic, most people kept their distance, but now many have stopped doing so again and I have become used to keeping my distance, so for me it becomes very uncomfortable when people stand very close again. So these days I prefer to shop in stores where you scan your goods yourself so that I don't have to stand in line.

The only time I've bought drinks for a friend is if we're out and too lazy to both stand in line. I buy one round and he bought the next but if I'm with a group of friends we all buy our own drinks

Jante law - it's Danish. First appeared in a novel about life in a tiny town (forget the author - can look him up if wanted 😊).

there a a few things isort of disagree with such as the buying rounds thing, its mostly true but not really a unwritten rule.. it sort of depends if you are out with friends or new acquaintances. and as for the swedish, norwegian, danish and finnish part: we are more like brothers or sisters, very much alike but also very much our own. and as you can probably tell from the video we love teasing eachother but we still love eachother

The escalator thing mainly happens in cities where escalators are somewhat common. If a city is large enough for this to matter, you’d likely notice it by the fact that the train station has escalators. Usually, if you don’t find an escalator at the train station, you’re unlikely to find one elsewhere in the city, though it isn’t a hard rule.

Most common dessert pies in Sweden are apple, blueberry, or rhubarb. It can also be lingonberry, raspberry, cloudberry or any other berry that you have on hand. Custard is mandatory, the slice of lemon/orange I have never seen before. Maybe it is a lemon pie?

That fika you wanted is I believe Apple pie with vanilla cream.

As a Swede I think it’s the exact opposite, I hear all the time people boasting about the expensive things they own and how much money they make. I think it’s absolutely horrible that some people think jantelagen and being pc is something bad. Like seriously? Not wanting to be an absolute a-hole is something bad?!

Whilst it is not acceptable to ask someone about what they earn, people’s earnings is actually considered public information, so you can request that information from the relevant government department. It is actually considered important as a protection against corruption for public officials. In fact, there is a book called the ‘Taxeringskalendern’ published each year with everyone’s earnings in it, each volume is 331 Sek, there are quite obviously quite a few volumes in it, split into different areas/regions. If you make it to Malmö, let me know, maybe we can meet up

About stand in line we are so afraid to go front of someone that come there before us that we often need ask people where the line starts or if it is unshure if someone wait or not (beacuse we stand not close) we also tend ask before found our place in the line. But sometime we dont ask and wait long time to find out that the person we stand back is not waiting in line. 😂😂😂 When wait for toilets this even is so that we can tell the one front that one toilet is empty if he/she did not recognize that. We dont go before even if the one front donf se the free toilet. Yes the lines are kind of holy!

Yeah, quite accurate! There is one other things to that is very important, too, if your buying things in a grocery store, when your going to pay everything, and put it on the band, place everything in a line, and don't put the stuff on each other (like a mountain).

the round of drinks depends SO much o whom I'm with. It's everything between what this guy is describing (I haven't experienced the buying a round thing in large companies unless there was a rich show offy person) but with good friends we sort of want to take care of each other. Recently, I've drunkardly fought my friend to pay the bill for example(I won hehe). I think it has a little bit to do with the expensive booze and who deserves our assets

I think the only time it's semi-ok to cut in line is if a group of friends have saved you a spot or if you had to step out of a line to get something (or use the bathroom in the case of long lines like for conventions/concerts/boarding a plane) and you either have friends holding your spot or ask the person behind you.

Btw, I can recommend cinnamon bun, cardamom bun and rhubarb or apple pie with vanilla custard, if you visit a café. Especially if it’s a stone oven or wood fired bakery. Or gingerbread in winter. The quality differs alot between cafés. If it looks too touristy it probably has bad goods.

Love your calm humble energy!!!!!!!! :D

*Coming from a native Swede living in Sweden* Nr. 9 - It was an apple pie with vanilla sauce

That green cake is my fav. Inside icecream, on a top of it is almond thing colored green. Inside is also rasberries.

If you want to be nice to swedes at a bar/pub ALWAYS ask before if it is okay you buy one round.

I have never thought about the escalator thing. I guess I'm a moron or something . I stand wereever I want in it. There are a story about queing. I man went in front of a long que to a closed shop and got kicked away. He tried again and the same thing. The third time it happend he told them that they would never come into the shop unless they let him open it.

As Swedish scout, we can get very loud at our camps, Idk how it is with other scouts, but when we have our camp fire, we have "scoutrop" which means "scout-screams", we scream in "choir".

I think the real differences in the nordics is more north-south than nationality. Upper haft of Finland is more like the north of Norway and Sweden. Then things turn agricultural the farther south you go. Just a thought. I think it is the climate that shape us in how we live etc.

Most of these ""What not to do in Sweden" videos are a bit outdated, they kinda still work but Sweden has changed a lot in the last 10 years or so.

The escalator thing is VERY Stockholm. It's not uncommon for people from other places to deliberately stand in the middle of the escalator to just be in the way, because rushing others because of your own mistake (Being late, etc.) is also rude and unacceptable.

Haha i was in that live! It Wars several blocks and no one cut in line

The video is pretty on point. I don’t care at all about hockey, I don’t know anybody who does. Loud people are so annoying, especially on public transport. Never talk about money and how much people earn. Never, ever. Avoid politics and religion when talking to people that you don’t know well. Otherwise, you can be pretty open - but as always; you have to have some social skills to judge if you can talk about a special topic. But we’re not that shy talking about “sensitive issues”.

Wow. As a suede I took many of these things for granted, didn’t know they’re so specific to Sweden

Long post from my Swedish thoughts... 10. Buying a round at the bar it's not common to do -but in my experience most of the times the one who does it says "This one's on me" and won't expect the rest of the table to do it. This mostly goes for shots or beers/ciders though.. if you're having cocktails it almost never happens. And most of times it's done due to convenience because we often have (in smaller groups) one person taking the bill and the people at the table just transfer the money of the things they ate/drank to that person afterwards.. The drinks that they said were on him/her are counted as a gift and we just think that the people at the table will return the favor at some other time. 9. Looks like an apple-pie -but I've been cutting out sweets from my diet for many years.. don't understand the orange on everything.. but yeah.. looks like apple pie with vanilla cream. Nobody should ever ask about money (or politics). I once got that question in a group and a co-worker who've worked two years longer than me answered (and he had a lower salary than me) so I said I made along that as well.. It's a big no-no and will only lead to the person feeling bad if they make less than you for whatever reason. 8. Yes.. no boasting. Success is in your charector not in your achievments. Your achievments are great -but if you're not humble you won't be respected. 7. All the countries in the north are so different but still the same.. we are siblings and even through all the wars we still love each others. 6. Yes.. the right is for standing and left is for walking. It's also a "jante" thing where you don't want to disturb other people who are on the move. If you stand on the right you allow the people in hurry to walk past you. 5. Spirituality is on point.. through out my years it's been the same.. christianity is the main religion but most swedes are agnostic -but say that churches are nice and can go there for the music, weddings, funerals etc.. we would be against tearing them down. I fully agree on the statement of "live your life as if god exist -even if you don't believe it". 4. True.. I hate speaker-phone with a vengeance.. and today many people using it holds there phone up to their ears with their phones mic instead of their speaker.. am I totally wrong from thinking that they're simply stupid by doing this? It goes together with "jante".. don't disturb anybody if not needed. 3. True. Before Covid and during Covid nothing changed about the personal spacing.. perhaps the only thing I can think of were the stickers on the floor that gave information that "you should stay here while queueing" so that you were further away from the person next to you -but most Swedes were thinking "oh, that's a little closer than I prepared to stand" :'D The part with public transports and seatings are so deeply coded in us all and true. If you sit next to us when there is another seat or stand to close we think "what do you want?".. also if the transport is packed and a seating is cleared most of us move over to that seat (unless we see somebody older, disabled or kids entering) 2. Hockey are so big in Sweden that we both have the Olympics, World and european championchips -but also our special that's called "Finnkampen" (finn as in Finland) where the Swedish team face off with Finland to see who's better this time... with Norway we don't go that hard but it's always a competition in different skiing sports. 1. Yes.. NEVER cutt the line!! Lucky for us -many stores have a place where you can take a number-tag where you can get a ticket with your number and there's a display at the store that shows what number is being served -so you don't need to stand in line. So.. yes he's on point and I agree.

Don’t hug someone you just met. It’s violation of personal space and we don’t know you well enough yet to do that. That’s something we do between friends, family and relatives.

Haha the space between people in the line is actually not that big, it's a little too close than an average line 😅 especially at the ATM where we stand mostly about 3-4 meters apart if it's a line 😁

About that cutting in line thing though, is that it's pretty much only in Stockholm that even forming a proper queue for the bus at a bus stop is a thing at all. In the rest of the country if you are at a bus stop you don't need to bother with keeping track of who is first in line to go on the bus. It's not an issue. But in Stockholm that's a deadly sin so be aware. Similarily with the distance thing, people in Stockholm are whenever possible (and it's not too crowded) way more fussy about personal space than people anywhere else in Sweden, but in a practical way, in rush hour people in Stockholm will also be way more relaxed with having to share space with strangers. But still the first time I saw a queue with people keeping distances was when I moved to Stockholm, before Covid-19 such a thing was not a thing anywhere else in Sweden. Also the escalator thing is mostly Stockholm too.

I think the escalator thing is mainly at tube stations when people are going to work and in a hurry (or switching between different trains). As far as I know Stockholm is the only Swedish city with a tube so that's why it's mainly only there. And then as people in Stockholm are used to the standing on the right rule it will be followed in other places as well

I was born and raised in Sweden. I may have some German blood mixed in from the 16th century. I am loud and talk to all people in almost all situations. AND the absolute majority of people I meet are extremely happy about it. I often stand and talk for a long time with people I meet for the first time. And now and then it happens that I end up at a cafe or bar with them. I think we Swedes suffer from social constipation. But most Swedes basically yearn for someone to break the ice. Maybe it's the cold.❄️🐻‍❄️ Take care, live well. /S

The cakes,took 1 look,it´s a slice of princess cake,most likely a cinemon roll and a slice of maybe an applepie with vanilla cream on it,so much cream that its hard to tell

I talk about salaries at work all the time, wtf 😅 How else do you know if your employer is trying to stiff you? That one is probably dependent on context Edit: I gave never met anyone who gives a sh*t about Hockey. Far as i know, we're football country.

Standing in a queue in a groceryshop and an older customer comes by, with one or two things in their hands, we often let them pass true in line. That's respekt for them, so they don't have to wait to long in the queue. As a Gothenburger, I always stand on the right side of the escalator, especially if I visit Stockholm.

If you come to Sweden come just after Midsummer and up to mid August when all the summer events etc are in full swing!

Im a younger gen swede I've found that it is excepted to talk about your salary so we can work towards equality. and talking about what you get back from taxes is a high point to talk about things like oh good on you:) u r so lucky :P I have to pay this year:'( even with older people but I don't live in Stockholm?

Pretty accurate, greetings from Sweden

the rivaly is this , hockey its finland , and windersport (mostly crosscontryski) its norway, and soccer its denmark :)

#10, always bying my friends with a round of beers, always getting it back, it's common in Sweden.

#6 not noticebel in gothenburg, guess having public transportation on groundfloor helps. And if I'm in stockholm, I stand on the left just to avoid being passed, and if they complain, I tell them to use the stairs instead.

4:18 I'm pretty sure that's a pie with cream or vaniljsås(vanilla sauce), the green if you don't know is marsipantårta(marzipan cake) or prinsesstårta (princess cake) idk the other one, the one in the left upper corner. I have often (-the corna times) have ended school in church idk why and I don't live in a big city either- but yeah. We only and I mean I have never seen a swede have sound on their phone unless they are young or know something important is coming, and that's from my experience, I only have it att home

I think for me and many others we hold the Finnish in very high regard. They got "sisu" which is basically honor in hard work. Hard work is honorable for sure😄👍 im Swedish btw, solid list this👍

9:58 All of Sweden but mainly in the big citys/towns

4:30 That is probably an apple pie with vanilla custard. Delicious.

These are true however, the escalator thing is a big city thing, in smaller cities escalators are not that crowded. About the headphones, sure in public transportation, but in you own car or at home speakerphone is nice espescially when in a phone queue.

It's a crumble pie with custard. My guess is rhubarb.

You must be a swede in disguise! You seem to agree on almost everything. 😎

We used to have TV-licenses is Sweden, until a couple of years ago, when the national TV company switched to TV-tax. The difference being that with the licence, you should only be forced to pay it you actually have a TV. With the tax, on the other hand, everyone pays! Regardless of if you have a TV or not. It's like you should be forced to pay for a car-tax, even if you don't own a car! Or property tax, if you live in a rental apartment! Also, only ONE company (the state owned one, of cause) gets all the money. All the other TV companies get nothin'! How's that for fair competition?

17:34 was about to say just that , queues and Asians don't mix well .

a press pass is basicly journalist pass to get in and do a short segment about the thing. most of those passes are work related and your not typically permitted to peruse, purchase or interact with people inside the avenue unless your to interview or talk about what kind of things people do, sell, buy etc but ya know... people do personal stuff on work times aswell sometimes and mostly its fine as long as you behave

If you whant to ask about peoples salary ask: May I ask what you'r making? Or just call the city office and check. Salarys are public domain. That can be good to know if you're looking for work in Sweden.

As a Sweden i can say i agree with 5 of those 10, as good as these videos are in giving tips they are far from rules on telling what to do or not. Many things only apply for certain regions in the country.

16:18 From my point of view see the Sverige Finland 6-5 VM 2003 . But Sweden and Finland in ice hockey is like a tug war between two brothers . No one want's to be second !!!

I wouldn't think it would be strange if someone invited everyone around the table. Here we have something called: “Bjuda laget runt” so I think people here should be happy if someone should ask to buy beers or drinks to the people around a table. But this is probably also something that is different depending on where in Sweden you are. In Stockholm I think it is like he said in the video.

As a swede and a huge hockey fan there is no team we want to beat when there is a national game, Finland, does not even matter if it is a minor tournament during the year or during the olympics, at least that is what the surroundings and the tension around the games makes it feel like, partially maybe because when we face off against Finland it is quite often an important game for a tournament win or advancement or such... but he is definitely right in my experience with the hockey point, especially now since Finland has been doing good and we've done not so good in the tournament these last years.

Standing on the left is a thing in Malmö to. We hate when people from the small city’s come in to Malmö and stand on the right side, but we don’t say anything!

#9 shouldn't be rude. It would be much better to openly discuss it. To keep it a secret only favours the employer.

# 1 The worst thing you can ask a Swede is where he plucked his chanterelles 🤣

The escalator thing is a national thing not just Stockholm.

About spiritual vs religious i have some guesses about why we swedish act the way we do. 1 we have sufferd under hard protestant controll during long time of history and before that we did have a while olther belifes. And in many case the christianity was forced upon us. And to chnage from catholic to protestant was forced too. 2 If religious people consider you to dont think yourself and to have kind of closed mindset opposit as spiritual you seen as openminded and searching for meaning in life that make you look more like you think yourself and follow what you find be the best road and is considered more intellectual and smart.

You can probely get at press pass to comicon in sweden ust by having a youtube channel.. and a really good exuse.

#3 was a meme in Sweden... "I can't wait for covid to end, so that we can go back to 3m distance between each other."

About the soft speak, I feel like atleast in the south we are a bit more loud but I could be wrong :P

The thing about the escalator. In the capital city for sure, but in Gothenburg, for example you can stand were you want. If you want to go, take the stairs. My personal opinion is that people in Stockholm is more stressed then the ones in Gothenburg 🤷‍♀️ For example, they run to the subway even tho the next one comes within 5minutes 😅 I think thats hilarous.

The whole point of lines is that first come first served. skipping linens is the opposite.

take the øresunds train and you will find some people that lives in or around malmø haveing their phone out blasting music or talking loudly in the speaker or can´t seem to shut up in the quiet area.

The piece of fika pastry is a an apple or rhubarb pie with custard im sure. And for some reason there's an orange-slice for garnish I guess Boasting and trying to show off feels like a distinctly American thing to me. I could be wrong or overly reliant on pop culture, but that's how I've experienced it.

How in the flying f-k does bro have 10k and not 100k? (Btw I’m Swedish! Love this channel! :])

winter is over when my team ends their season... and winter starts when the season starts again :) and we are happy if we beat the fins even if we loose all other matches :)

Omg alcohol rounds sound like a social nightmare to me. I get that it is done to be nice, but nah, no rounds for me. I can barely afford myself, much less a whole group. If someone tries to start a round I will just escape and leave before it starts.

The Swedish monarchy is also deeply tied to the Church, to the point where the Swedish Church has some minor constitutional roles (such as being present at the opening ceremony of the riksdag). It’s more of a tradition thing than a religion thing, though. In the first place, the leadership in the church of Sweden is elected by the members of the church, so it’s a whole lot more reflective of Swedish society as a whole in that way. Even our Christian Democrats talk a big game about Christian values, instead of you know, actually being Christian. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of genuine Christians in those groups.

We swedes are really happy that the horrible 2 meter distancing is finaly gone from the covid years. Now we can return to the original 4 meter distancing. + If you are somewhere and a line of people all of a suddern are formed. It's most likely swedes.

the escalator thing is mostly in stockholm.

#9 I think it's some kind of pie? Blueberry maybe?