# Ask the Swedish guy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 22, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659 "2008-09-22T09:16:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/41 "2008-09-23T03:26:42Z")
How are Swedish hockey players who defect to the NHL regarded in Sweden? Do you even know who Börje Salming is? And could you please tell Mats to return to Toronto? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/42 "2008-09-23T04:09:44Z")
Hey, **Priceguy** , My Uncle Eric\* came\*\* from Malmö. How can I find out more about his family? What genealogical resources exist in English? I tried doing an online phonebook search to see whether I could find example of the family name, but I found nothing. I suspect that the name was changed when my uncle came to Canada. Do most Swedes speak English? Is study of English required in school? Does Sweden plan to join the euro anytime soon? In Canada during the seventies and eighties, there was a government program called Participaction, designed to encourage Canadians to get fit and exercise. They always used to say that the average sixty-year-old Swede was in better shape than the average forty-year-old Canadian. Or maybe it was forty-year-old Swede and twenty-year-old Canadian. Is this actually true? Are Swedes in general in good physical condition? Now we need an _Ask the Finn_ thread. 🙂 [sub]\*He married my father’s sister. so I’m only related by marriage to the Swedish sector of my family. No Swedish genes. Sorry. \*\*Regrettably, I only found this out _after_ I came home from my Great European Trip in 2000 and mentioned that I’d passed through Malmö. [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/43 "2008-09-23T04:16:34Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Yes, we have a king. I don’t have to like it. Do you like it or not? If not, why not? ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/44 "2008-09-23T04:58:41Z")
Do people in Goteborg make jokes about Stockholmers and vice versa? How does each see the other in terms of sophistication, sloth, rudeness, lack of education, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/45 "2008-09-23T05:14:43Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Indeed it is, from age ten onwards. Speaking as an American how knows very little Swedish, I would like to add that I have yet to meet anyone under about 65 who did not speak English. Some better than others, but they all spoke English. > [@](#): > > Yes. We used to shoot them, but during the war rationing necessitated a switch to simple skullcrushing via heavy boot. When rationing ended, cobbler lobbyists prevented a return to the old methods. I have often told people that there are no ugly women in Sweden. If you are in Sweden and you see an ugly woman, she is a tourist. Stunning is a pretty good way to describe them. **E. Thorp** if you can, try to have your trip include June 21st so you can experience midsummer. Swedes know how to party. If you do visit Småland make sure you visit the various Glasbruks. (glass works) I am amazed every time I go at the art and beauty that is on display at the various museums attached to the various glass works. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/46 "2008-09-23T05:22:57Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > I have often told people that there are no ugly women in Sweden. If you are in Sweden and you see an ugly woman, she is a tourist. Stunning is a pretty good way to describe them. When I was in Sweden, I would be walking down the street and would see someone out of the corner of my eye and think it was one of my cousins, and turn, and of course it wasn’t them. This happened ten or fifteen times. It was very disconcerting. ---
**Author:** ![Claptree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Claptree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claptree)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/47 "2008-09-23T06:41:57Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > How are Swedish hockey players who defect to the NHL regarded in Sweden? > > Do you even know who Börje Salming is? And could you please tell Mats to return to Toronto? I’ll do one more, since **Priceguy** doesn’t do sports. In general, be it hockey, football or other sports, pretty much nothing changes. There will be some grumpiness if the move takes place mid-season, otherwise we’re quite magnanimous, and take pride in the fact that our little piss-ant country still produces the best players in the world. It often means that we Swedish fans get new teams to follow, which is always good. Many players also have great affections for their home teams. Daniel Alfredsson’s bringing the Senators over for a pair of exhibition matches against the Penguins, followed by a friendly against my home team, Frölunda Indians. Yes, we know Salming. He’s the guy with the broken face that makes underwear. Can’t help you with Mats, unfortunately. He’s been a disappointment for years, really, never reaching his full potential. I can’t help but blame the Leafs’ fans. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cider\_Depot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Cider\_Depot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cider_Depot)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/48 "2008-09-23T06:49:18Z")
How much of your diet consists of the sorts of food that outsiders may consider to be “traditional swedish”, e.g. pickled fish? ---
**Author:** ![Coil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Coil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coil)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/49 "2008-09-23T07:14:38Z")
> [@Cider\_Depot](#): > > How much of your diet consists of the sorts of food that outsiders may consider to be “traditional swedish”, e.g. pickled fish? Very little. Herring (Sill in Swedish) is mostly eaten around some holidays (Midsummer, Easter, Christmas). Very few people I know eat it regularly. Meatballs on the other hand are very common at least for people with kids. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/50 "2008-09-23T08:10:30Z")
> [@Southpaw](#): > > Lutefisk - Yea? or Nay? I’m not a fan. > [@Leaffan](#): > > How are Swedish hockey players who defect to the NHL regarded in Sweden? As far as I know, there’s no resentment or anything. Good on them. > [@](#): > > Do you even know who Börje Salming is? Yes, certainly. > [@](#): > > And could you please tell Mats to return to Toronto? Him I don’t know, I’m afraid. Maybe I’d recognize his last name if you said it. > [@Sunspace](#): > > My Uncle Eric\* came\*\* from Malmö. How can I find out more about his family? What genealogical resources exist in English? Gee, I don’t know. I have a relative who was into genealogy for a while, I could ask. Do you know anything beyond his first name and Malmö? Year of birth, year of departure, where in Malmö he lived when he was born, anything like that? > [@](#): > > Do most Swedes speak English? Is study of English required in school? Yes. > [@](#): > > Does Sweden plan to join the euro anytime soon? No. We had a consultative referendum on it in 2003. A short while before the referendum, the foreign minister was murdered. To honour her memory, the politicians pledged to stick with whatever the referendum said. It said no, by a slim margin. I doubt we’ll be joining soon. > [@](#): > > In Canada during the seventies and eighties, there was a government program called Participaction, designed to encourage Canadians to get fit and exercise. They always used to say that the average sixty-year-old Swede was in better shape than the average forty-year-old Canadian. Or maybe it was forty-year-old Swede and twenty-year-old Canadian. Is this actually true? Are Swedes in general in good physical condition? I know little about the physical condition of the average Canadian, but I have learned from all the running/workout threads that physical education in school is way more intense in Sweden than in the US, which I suppose would lead to better physical condition overall. Where Americans run a mile, we run five kilometers or ten kilometers. It’s also very common for adults to keep doing some kind of sport - football, a landhockey-reminiscent sport called innebandy, running. I guess we’re in good shape, but we have plenty of obese people too. > [@Cunctator](#): > > Do you like it or not? If not, why not? No, I don’t. The monarchy is an archaic, anti-democratic institution and a money sink that only survives because people happen to think that the current batch of inbreds are kind of nice. The argument is usually that if we get rid of the king we’ll have to get another figurehead, because every country has to have someone who has the formal power and someone who is a figurehead. My response is that a) it would still be better to have an elected figurehead and b) the US seems to be doing okay without one. > [@movingfinger](#): > > Do people in Goteborg make jokes about Stockholmers and vice versa? How does each see the other in terms of sophistication, sloth, rudeness, lack of education, etc? There is a range of jokes about people from Göteborg and there is a range of jokes about people from Stockholm, but they’re told by everybody, not just by one city against the other. People from Stockholm are either spoiled yuppie brats who get a new cellphone three times a day or rich fancy ladies with huge houses, hired help and no contact with reality. People from Göteborg - damn, this is difficult to describe without using Swedish. They’re bluff middle-aged men who don’t complain as long as they get to eat sausages and fish. There is more of a cultural rivalry, I think, between Skåne (the southernmost province with Malmö in it) and Stockholm. Skåne is a rural patch of wilderness populated only by two-digit IQ farmers and cows. Of course, in reality, Skåne is the most densely populated province, but hey. > [@Cider Depot](#): > > How much of your diet consists of the sorts of food that outsiders may consider to be “traditional swedish”, e.g. pickled fish? Very little. Pickled herring is eaten at Easter, Midsummer and Christmas. I’m sure there are herring fanatics who eat it outside those holidays, but for the general run of Swedekind it’s a three-times-a-year food. I’m not entirely sure what other foods would be considered traditionally Swedish. Meatballs are common; they’re served in both restaurants and little burger bars and are a fixture of the kid’s menu. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/51 "2008-09-23T08:38:50Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > 1. Your tax structure is quite odd if I recall (and I might be confusing this with Denmark) but someone told me taxes could be as high as 80% of your gross income, but it was factored in - thus if you ask someone what they earn in gross pay, you will think they are rich, but after taxes, it is probably the same pay as most Germans or Americans. Another one chipping in 🙂 It could be that they are also factoring in other taxes in those figures. The VAT is 25% on most things, real-estate tax is also there (0,75% of the tax-value of the estate) and some other taxes that all add up. Not sure if they get to 80%, but pretty close if you put it all together. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/52 "2008-09-23T09:13:04Z")
> [@WormTheRed](#): > > Another one chipping in 🙂 > > It could be that they are also factoring in other taxes in those figures. The VAT is 25% on most things, real-estate tax is also there (0,75% of the tax-value of the estate) and some other taxes that all add up. > > Not sure if they get to 80%, but pretty close if you put it all together. We were at a bar (surprise, surprise) and talking with locals. We started to talk about how much people earn. They all said outrageous sums (for us at least) like $200,000 per year…but after taxes, about $40,000. We were shocked, and the next time I went up north, I asked the same question and got the same answer. Granted, this was in the early 80’s so maybe things have changed. I believe back then the singers in ABBA were given special tax breaks so they wouldn’t leave Sweden? Speaking of which, is it true that at one point in time, ABBA records were the major export of Sweden? ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/53 "2008-09-23T11:03:40Z")
So. What’s with surströmming? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/54 "2008-09-23T11:09:45Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > So. > > What’s with surströmming? 😛 It’s disgusting, nauseating qualifies-as-food-only-because-people-eat-it trash whose smell is indistinguishable from that of a well-used and seldom-cleaned public gentlemen’s toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/55 "2008-09-23T11:20:14Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > So. > > What’s with surströmming? 😛 This is where we divert your attention by pointing at the Icelandic dude nomming his [hákarl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakarl). ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/56 "2008-09-23T13:37:27Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Now we need an _Ask the Finn_ thread. 🙂 Meh, I had [nothing else to do](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=484608). In Finland, the Finland-Sweden relationship is regarded as a kind of love-hate relationship, with a slight emphasis on “hate” because Swedes keep beating us at every sport I suppose. How is the Sweden-Finland relationship? Do you even care? (I don’t even care, but the generic Finn evidently does.) Have you ever spoken Swedish with a Finnish-Swedish person? I talked to some guys from Göteborg this summer and they kept cracking up at my accent. How easy is it for a (generic) Swede to understand a Finnish-Swedish person? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/57 "2008-09-23T13:41:40Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > In Finland, the Finland-Sweden relationship is regarded as a kind of love-hate relationship, with a slight emphasis on “hate” because Swedes keep beating us at every sport I suppose. How is the Sweden-Finland relationship? Do you even care? (I don’t even care, but the generic Finn evidently does.) Personally no, I don’t care. I never care about stuff like that, at any level. I don’t _think_ other Swedes care either. Finns come in two varieties to us: stereotypical comical characters who talk funny, drink a lot and spend half their waking time in saunas, and knife-wielding maniacs, but I’ve certainly never heard anyone taking it seriously. > [@](#): > > Have you ever spoken Swedish with a Finnish-Swedish person? I talked to some guys from Göteborg this summer and they kept cracking up at my accent. How easy is it for a (generic) Swede to understand a Finnish-Swedish person? Very easy. I find it much easier than understanding Danish or Norwegian. The accent is very funny-sounding to Swedish ears though. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/58 "2008-09-23T13:51:56Z")
Are Sweedish woman all insanely good looking? Are there really saunas everywhere where they all go topless all the time? Just say yes please. I would like to believe that there is a place like this. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/59 "2008-09-23T14:03:01Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Are Sweedish woman all insanely good looking? > > Are there really saunas everywhere where they all go topless all the time? > > Just say yes please. I would like to believe that there is a place like this. Yes. Don’t read the spoiler.[spoiler]Lots of foreign visitors say Swedes are beautiful. Having lived here my whole life it’s hard for me to say. I’ve had similar reactions on visiting Russia and the Czech Republic. As for the saunas, well… there are saunas, and people are topless in there sometimes, but since they’re virtually all single-sex I doubt they’d do much for **Zebra**.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659/60 "2008-09-23T14:42:19Z")
Did you know that your bikini team is well regarded in the US? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-swedish-guy/464659.md?page=4)