QI | Sandi Rings A Random Swede 

Swede Dane

For some reason it reminds me of a sign that said "For your convenience, an elevator is located somewhere in China".

I don't get it why is so funny?

@@martinmartin3490 it’s just kind of absurd

@@TheAcdcninja Also it is incredibly typical that you instantly get put into a queue when calling any organisation.

IKR, but can you imagine this in any other country (well, apart from Iceland).

Not just that but: "Are you shopping for groceries right now?" "Yes." **

Oddly, that happens to me all the time.

Happened to me. In 1996 I worked at a music store and a game-show called while taping. The contestant had to get me to say a specific word, and I did: "parrot". I got a shirt from it and somewhat diminutive bragging rights.

What's that movie involving Jim Carrey again in that world where he grew up inside a huge designed drama set with everything planned out for him?

Was hopping someone would have said, “we’ve got that bit sorted!” 😂

If she said "I'm actually Danish with an American accent which I hide on camera as I'm a TV show host" it might have confused the Swede and the situation.

@@GaslightingIsEvil Apparently she does when she gets tired. There's a clip somewhere (not from QI). She went to the UK as a teen and adopted a British accent to fit in after she wasn't well received with her American one. 😋🙏💫

I want to see her reaction to the funny video from yrs ago about the Danes losing their accent. It's a shop owner and customer. They just end up making noises to each other.

It's this one. It's actually from a Norwegian show, they joke about that the Danish language is less and less pronounced according to how words are written, now to the point when Danish school pupils have difficulties to learn how words are spelt. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s-mOy8VUEBk.html

Yeah, that's a surprisingly witty answer considering he got caught off guard by a huge audience like that. Props to Robin!

Fact is, that the "rotten" fish is fermented (Surströmming). Only folks from the north of Sweden eats it. In the South we firmly avoid it. There once was a court order in Germany, forbidding tenants to open a can of surströmming within an apartment building.

Then you find out he's Norwegian...

@@johnnylundberg9703 that is a funny fact about surströmming

Exhibit A: “Rocky Mountain Oysters” (bull testicles) 🤷🏻‍♂️ For that matter, actual oysters... 🤮

Half Dane 😉 and didn't spend most of her childhood in Denmark.

Ladypug i dont know what you are getting at, Sandi is most certainly danish

He asked if anyone spoke Swedish, not if Scandinavians spoke English...

@@TheRealJethuty nah, her father is Danish, mother English. She may have been born in Denmark but as she didn't spend very much time herre, she doesn't really speak the language that well, she's lived most her life in Britain.. She is Danish-British.. Look I'm Danish, I would love to claim Toksvig for Denmark, but she is not "A Dane"

Ladypug except she speaks perfect danish, have family and relatives in Denmark, and stays often in her summerhouse in Jutland. Never mind the fact that Sandi also repeatedly identifies as a dane herself, on numerous occassions on QI as well. hold op med dit sludder.

Ah, so your point is it isn't truly random.

Not anyone, just anyone who signed up

​@@Sammie1053 I think his point is that it's not compulsory for the citizens of Sweden to participate.

It's been on for some time now, so I imagine the pool of people should be fairly large.

@@Sammie1053 Yes it's truly random. Just because there is a pool that does not include literally everyone in the country does not mean it's not random. Nitwit.

Hahaha yeah that's the funniest bit & had me in tears - gotta appreciate a little of the scandi culture tho I guess to really get it :)

its usually us (finns), who other nordic think we usually are drunk.

And that’s coming from someone who constantly has a potato stuck in their throat. -Me, a Norwegian.

My Danish girlfriend always used to say that about Swedish people, mainly because, pre Øresund Bridge, young Swedish tourists would get the boat to Copenhagen with it's 24hr bars, and as the bar on board the boat was already open they would start drinking, by the time the boat docked, a lot of the passengers were already drunk, if we were walking in Copenhagen and saw someone passed out, asleep in the street, she always assumed they were Swedish.

You're the sole reason they hate us 😂😂😂

No there's lots of other reason 😁 lol

Yes - and it has probably surpassed the English spoken by native Brits... -.-

@@ZeHoSmusician That is actually a fact...

@@ZeHoSmusician Oh, definetively! Or is that Tivoli... Nå, hva' fa'n ka' jeg sige til det?

@@navelpicker Tivoli er fandme også bedre end hvad de har derovre

@@noahmay7708 And that- as they themselves might put it- is a fact. Eller noget i den stil...

I am not Swedish, so I'll answer in the case of Danish, which is very similar to Swedish: You're correct, we don't really have the same inherit understanding of "What do you do?" meaning to ask someone about their occupation, so if you're not familiar with that phrase, it does indeed become understood as "What are you doing?". When asking about someone's job, we'll use more direct words to describe what we are asking about. So usually some varation of "What is your job?", "What do you do for work?", "What is your occupation?". Bonus fact: The phrase "What do you do for a living" also doesn't really have any equivalent in the Danish language, that doesn't sound really awkward in normal conversation.

@@VKattou Thanks, that's interesting. I suppose it's a sad reflection on our society that if someone asks "what you do" we assume they mean "what is your work". There's a lot more to do in life than that.

As a Swede I agree on what VKattou wrote. I would like to add though ... Regarding speaking Swedish we are very, ... efficient? We usally use the same words and sentceses, for different reasons/situations. And many times with very few words. One of the reasons Swedish is very hard to understand regarding speaking/listening. Well ... I am told from nonSwedes I know.

Yikes thats tough. It's not even that bad in DK

Squid is used as currency? What is the value of a quid?

@@GenePalmiter quid is the English equivalent to Bucks - slang term for the main currency, so Punds. 7 Pounds. That might also be why they are getting drunk while viseting Denmark ;-) Hygge herfra

Yeah it's not instinctive to reply with your profession if it's not your first language

HUNKragor Hell, many native English speakers I’ve met respond to “how do you do?” with “I’m fine” or other like sentiment.

​@@barbarajoseph-adam8337 What do you do, and how do you do, are very different questions.

Baba Wethu I think what I was trying to say to HUNKragor was that, even when someone’s speaking in his first language, he could still end up giving ‘off’ answers. But I’ve spent the last 3 hours inhaling on a mint nargile so my brain is (very likely) not all there.

@@barbarajoseph-adam8337 “how do you do?” isn't really used anymore, at least in the U.S. I usually hear it on I Love Lucy reruns.

*Swede :D

This is a very underrated post

Matthew Watkinson indeed, I nearly had a heart attack laughing

@@mattw65 Americans call them rutabagas, so they might not get it.

That would be sweet... you'd have to vet the applicants for trolls though. I worry what they'd say.

Don't we actually have a hotline already where you can chat to the elderly? I'm pretty sure I see it advertised all the time.

Thats because we're all Germans...

@@2490debrick or Welsh or Scottish.

Honestly, is there a single nation on Earth that thinks it's habitants are drinking too little?

Better with Sandi... Just need to retire Alan!

Nothing against Sandy, but there's no debate to be had. It will always be Stephen's show.

Does one need to be better?

I actually prefer sandi, something about her hosting makes QI feels so cozy and comforting to me (and funny too of course)

I can. Sandi!

As long as you could sign up or opt out this would be awesome

And be greated with a Haka - not sure i could handle that =D

They still do it together with Norwegians. At least in Northern Jutland where port towns like Hirtshals and Frederikshavn has got an unusual amount of bars, restaurants and pubs aimed towards tourists from the two, neighbouring countries.

LOL can you imagine...?

What reason is that?

they should have one just for florida

@@ethansmithweiss6170 "call Florida man"

Yeah, the Americans would be surprised that there was a world of people beyond their borders.

ree

"Gag" is the right word for it

It's a trap!

Yeah, but IKEA and Volvos are nice... Why would you do that to yourself?

I shop at IKEA frequently, but to my knowledge I'm not Swedish.

@@TWX1138 I didn't say that non-Swedes don't shop at IKEA. I was just (jokingly) stating that it is a Swedish thing to do. In truth, I really don't know either why we eat rotten fish. I personally don't eat it.

Nah shopping at IKEA and owning atleast three Saabs is the way to go! 🇸🇪😝

It’s actually not rotten, it’s fermented. And it IS delicious!

This would explain things: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s-mOy8VUEBk.html

That was my first thought. She'd understand him, but would speak English back.

If Robin is from Southern Sweden he could probably understand some Danish if he isn't that young since Southern Sweden had Danish television available back when there where only a handful of channels and not everyone where cordcutters. With a name like Robin is is likely born in later half of the 80-ies so he probably have had some contact with Danish.

There is an episode called North Norse, in that one Sandi speaks a bit of Danish.

There used to be a Swedish version but it only ran for four seasons and ended in 2015.

Denmarks Radio did a show similar to QI called Quiz I en Hornlygte. It wasn’t successful.

Does it taste good?

@@SlimThrull It's tastes like pickled herring but a little more sourish. Not so bad.

@@sspito I'm afraid I've never had pickled herring either. It's basically aging fish like one would age a cucumber to make a pickle? Perhaps I'll have to try and find some and see for myself.

I guess it’s like kimchi (fermented cabbage) they eat it all the time in Korea, it’s smelly and an acquired taste.

@@SlimThrull Try IKEA. They have swedish food

A more difficult question would be "Are you still doing Brexit?" to which the response would be "Not sure. I haven't read the news for the last few minutes."

@@andymcl92 I ask that question daily too..

And we'd have the same answer: British people ask the same question.

Everyone in europe understands Brexit.

Sürstromning is nasty but Icelandic fermented shark is so so much worse

English language teaching in Sweden primarily focuses on learning "Standard English" - it doesn't really cover colloquial language and idioms. Most of the Swedes who signed up for the initiative did so because they wanted to practice their conversational English skills.

@@gwishart This isn't really colloquial. It's a distinction between continuous aspect and habitual aspect in standard English.

I know right, I pretty much never answer the phone if it's a number I don't know

@@ngvot En miekään.

It was a limited time campaign. It was only going for like 2 months

What

What?

Song of hers #SevenRings , based on the melody of Favourite Things by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music

she said it was a Danish-Swedish thing, presumably like how English ppl call Welsh ppl sheep shaggers

Don't you know anything about Scandinavia? That's always one of "those things" between the countries. They all make stereotypical jokes about one an other.

It's just friendly rivalry which thankfully still exists in this world. We love the French; which is why we make up stereotypes about them which have little basis in fact and always expect them to fire shots back at us.

@@CorvusCorone68 Yeah, but it's just strange seeing how Swedes go to Denmark in order to buy alcohol since Sweden taxes it more.

Because she's Scandinavian: Danish and speaks perfect english

Well sure, but she grew up in the US and later the UK. The parallel didn't strike me.

The service is all in English. Most of the Swedes who signed up saw it as an opportunity to practice their English skills.

It was a genuine service launched by the Swedish Tourism Association. From the Guardian 8th April 2016: A Swedish tourism campaign is inviting people to call a random Swede to celebrate the country’s 250 year anniversary of abolishing censorship. “To honour this anniversary, Sweden is now the first country in the world to introduce its own phone number,” says the Swedish Tourist Association (STA). “Call today and get connected to a random Swede, anywhere in Sweden and talk about anything you want.” The international number connects a caller with one of an unspecified number of volunteer Swedes who have downloaded an app. There are no restrictions on what they talk about. “It’s like when Swedes travel the world. You don’t know who they’re going to talk to and what they’re going to say,” Magnus Ling, the head of the STA said. The opportunities for knowledge sharing are great. “Talk about northern lights, meatballs, politics, skiing,” it suggests. “Love, hiking, feminism, snow, gay rights, parental leave, suicide rates, the Nobel Prize, technology, crime novel, darkness, fashion, anything.”

I don't get what you're saying Are you insinuating that this was all set up?

They selected at random among the Swedes that had signed up to be part of this. The fact that they didn't select among all Swedes does not makes it less random.

"Swede" is short for "Swedish turnip". I think that Swedes and turnips taste quite distinct. I love turnips, but am not as keen on Swedes. It took me 20 years living in the US to figure out that Americans called Swedes "rutabagas". American humorist Dave Barry declared "rutabaga" to the silliest sounding word -- and then I looked up rutabaga and learnt it was just a Swede.

As an American, I never knew that Brits called rutabagas "Swedes". Of course, I've also never eaten either one.