I think there’s a sort of love-hate relationship the other way around as well, but perhaps a little less hate from our part? 
I think in Stockholm, nobody would have cracked up at your accent, as we are probably way more used to finns here. In fact most of my friends are of finnish origin (one or two finnish parents), and even though my friends speak perfect Swedish, I hardly even notice a finnish accent.
Pitching in here as well with a Swedish-speaking Finn perspective, hope you don’t mind.
Four of my aunts and uncles emigrated to the Greater Stockholm area in the fifties, about half of my extended family. All of them adopted what is known as the Rikssvensk (the Swedish standard language in Sweden, as opposed to us who speak what the linguists call East Swedish dialects) accent over time, to the extent that it sounded weird and theatrical if they tried to sound like something else. Those of my cousins who were born in Sweden all speak with the local accent, and the cousin who was born in Finland and went to university in Stockholm still speaks in a way I can recognise as Finnish-Swedish.
For the Swedish-speaking Finn, the love-hate relationship between Finland and Sweden may be tinged with a dash of irritation if people don’t get that you’re Finnish in all the ways that count except for language, that your grandparents and greatgrandparents lived in Finland all their lives, that no one is going to understand the concept of “so, when are you going to move back home” and that you don’t speak as you do because you have a Finnish accent, but because Swedish spoken in Finland (even the standard “High Swedish” that I suppose is my general accent) has a different intonation and way of accenting words. Though I will gladly confirm that you don’t often get ignorance like that any more and that people on the East coast of Sweden are positively enlightened.
It’s usually a source of much amusement when Swedish newsreaders pronounce the names of Finnish politicians. The surname of President Halonen is not supposed to sound like hallonen, “the raspberries”, but nevertheless, she remains Tarja The Raspberries.
By the way, Priceguy, how do you feel about snapsvisor? Should they be put in Room 101 or are they a legitimate means of jollification at parties?
Colour me educated! I thought that Commons bills had to pass the Senate, but Senate bills didn’t have to pass the Commons.
</end of Canadian political hijack>
Sweden is endlessly confused with Switzerland in the US. (As in, I have to say, “No, I don’t spend my summers in Sweden buying watches and climbing Alps.” I do eat chocolate though, can’t argue that one.) Do you Swedes ever get that confusion in places other than the US?
Also, do you own a pair of Chuck Taylors? I swear that every 3rd youngish person in Stockholm was wearing them this summer. Have you noticed this too? What is the fashion difference between Stockholm and other parts of the country?
What are your thoughts on Allsång på Skansen?
I was in Germany in 1989 and they kept confusing us with the Swiss too. Haven’t noticed it since, though.
No. Didn’t even know they were called that. They are very common, though.
No clue, I’m afraid. I don’t notice fashion.
I think it’s very nice. I don’t watch it on TV, but I went there with my then-girlfriend when we were in Stockholm and had a great night. It’s immensely popular; you have to be there hours in advance to have an outside chance at getting a seat.
Chuck Taylors for the win! (Referred to just as Converse here though).
They are hugely popular, amongst very diverse types of people.
Snapsvisor are ok, at a time and place, the swedes inability to have spontaneous fun is however less appreciated, and snapsvisor (complete with pre-printed lyrics sheets) are a symptom of this.
Allsång at Skansen (a wildly popular nationally televised sing-along on an outdoor stage weekly during the summer) is nice, I prefer Allsång at Debaser though, indy-sing-along.
I love finns and finland-swedes (note though, I am not swedish) especially the pronunciation which I have wrongly been calling accent. Mark Levengood is a perfect example, what a lovely manner of speech!
Edited cos I forgot my original point: Somone asked where Priceguy would go on holidays. For thousands and thousands of swedes the answer would be Thailand. This is one of swedens most popular destinations, which is also why so many swedes were affected during the tsunami in 01. 543 swedes died, and 1500 were injured badly enough to need emergency medical treatment.
It should be noted that the Swedish words accent and dialekt do not mean the same thing as the English words accent and dialect. In Swedish, accent is reserved for the influence of one language when speaking another. Local variations within a language are always dialekter, even when the variation is minor.
A weird question for you, if I may: in Swedish as spoken in Finland, is the word väninna in current use?
I asked about the suicide rate because I’d always heard that Scandinavian countries had more of it, but it seems not. Not enough to have a reputation, anway.
Do I have to eat loganberries if I go there? And what do they taste like? How about cloud berries? (I think it was Logan berries…)
I don’t think it was… the loganberry is a hybrid from California. Cloudberries, however, are genuinely Scandinavian. It’s a bit of an special taste, certainly not to everybody’s liking. I think they’re okay. Vanilla ice-cream with cloudberries is mmm-good, but I rarely have it. Some people worship them.
You should definitely try cloudberries if given the opportunity. Fresh with ice-cream.
I for one love snapsvisor. They were a large part of the party culture at university, and I find they help the raise the spirits at parties, especially large dinner parties. hah, I made a funny!
You may be thinking of lingonberries, eleanorigby. I think they’re more typically Scandinavian. Priceguy is right about cloud berries. Delicious with ice cream! I once had cloud berry sorbet, and I drool thinking about it.
Definitely. Meatballs, mashed potatoes, thick gravy and lingonberries is a heavenly dish that’s raised generation of strapping Swedes.
It’s used, but it isn’t common. A bit old-fashioned and twee, as if you were born middle-aged or were young in the forties and fifties. In the romantic sense, it’s what I’d expect my ninety-year-old grandmother to ask me about if I were male, since it doesn’t appear that ‘girlfriend’ is part of her vocabulary. But I’d certainly not use it together with people younger than fifty.
Cloudberries are the sex (hjortron). Lingonberries are the blegh.
Lingonberries are for making jam of and having it with your meatballs.
Cloudberries are for making jam of and mixing it up with whipped cream between layers of thin pancakes. Drooooool… Hot cloudberry jam…
About the same as in Sweden then :). Those Finns I heard using it were not native Swedish speakers, and so hardly reliable indicators of usage, but it made me wonder if the word was more current in Finland than here.
For those who don’t know Swedish: väninna esentially means “friendess”.
Edit: Actually, now that I’ve brought it up, are you aware of any notable differences regarding words, phrases, whatever?
(In case you can’t tell, I’m a language geek :).)
Technically he’s not still playing. (Mats Sundin, that is.) He’s not under contract and hasn’t decided whether to return to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have offered him something like $7 Million for one year, or to sign with one of a few other clubs who are rumoured to be offering $10 Million a year for two years, or to hang up his skates and retire.
It must be really tough for poor Mats to decide what to do. 
Anyway, he was still a point-a-game man last season and is very well liked in Toronto.
There are several, of two broad categories - older words and expressions that have become obsolete in Sweden but are still in use in Finland, and loan words and calques from other languages, mostly Finnish but some Russian as well. The Wikipedia article on Finland Swedish presents the differences in general terms, while the Swedish article actually lists most Finlandisms. If you want spoken examples of Finland Swedish dialects, there’s a nifty link at the very bottom of the page. Moreover, the research institute for the languages of Finland has collected ten years’ worth of language guru Mikael Reuter’s columns on correct Finland Swedish here.
The classical cautionary tale about being separated by a common language is about the Swedish-speaking family from Finland who called room service in their Swedish hotel and ordered semlor with ham and cheese. The hotel gamely complied, although they found the combination rather odd. (So did the guests.) Explanation for foreigners: In Finland, a ‘semla’ is your usual common or garden bread roll, while in Sweden, it’s the traditional Shrove Tuesday pastry - a sweet wheat bun spiced with cardamom and stuffed with almond paste* and whipped cream. Finns would call it ‘laskiaispulla’ or ‘fastlagsbulle’, depending on language.
*Actually, these days it’s becoming a problem to find the almond ones on Shrove Tuesday afternoon. Several bakeries have gone over to the Dark Side and started to put raspberry jam in their buns, and the stores always run out of the ones with almond paste first. The dilemma the purist faces is the following: Should I buy my bun during my lunch break and risk that the cream goes bad, or should I take the risk of waiting until after work and hope that there are still almond-filled buns left?
I suppose another “Ask the Straight Dope Swedes” question would be: Is Sweden the promised land where semlor with almonds, as God and Cajsa Warg intended them, are available even after noon on Shrove Tuesday?
And the answer would be “yes”. Your post is the first I’ve heard of semlor with raspberry jam filling.
Are you a fan of Jens Lekman? He is fairly popular here in America and I assume he is even more popular in his home country. Also, do you listen to death metal? Why are the Scandinavians so into death metal?
I’m not, but he’s gotten great press and seems to be selling OK. However, I am a fan of some Swedish death metal, like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.
Why we’re such fans? This is going to have to be done in two parts, separate but equal. cough
Firstly, I’m not sure we are such fans. I know there are lots of metal bands in Scandinavia, I’m just not convinced the amount of fans is unproportional. I know anecdote does not equal evidence, but that’s all I have to offer at the moment. In my group of friends (a very large group, obviously) the metal heads make up 5-10%, at most. We’re all in our early thirties. Now, 10-15 years ago, that number would have been double or triple. Still the same people, for the purpose of this answer.
Which leads to part two. Back then, I’d estimate 40% played an instrument, usually the guitar, but a few drummers and base players aswell. Bands were everywhere, man! This, in combination with the fact (myth? I think not) that we Swedes never do anything poorly, means you have a sea of talent to pick from, most of whom play metal, since that’s what they like to listen to. Plus, it’s cooler.
So there you have it. An answer made up of equal parts anecdote and hyperbole. Man, I belong in GD.
He is popular, but not very. I think he has more success abroad than here. Personally, I’m not a fan. Couldn’t name two songs of his.
I don’t like death metal. I had a period in my teens when a couple of my friends were into death metal and black metal so I tried it but it was never for me. Sounded like a lot of shouting and angst to me, even as a teen.
As for the “why”… dunno. If I can get all socio-psychological I guess it has to do with rebellion. We’re secular and have what I would call a lukewarm political system; you can’t rebel by being atheist or socialist, you have to want to murder all Christians or burn all rich people alive. Death metal is as far away as possible from mainstream music and you’re pretty much guaranteed that the stuffy establishment will never get it. It comes with a range of outrageous clothing to further freak out the squares. With death metal, a further bonus is of course that its practitioners actually kill people sometimes, not just sing about it.
Shrug. I’m probably bullshitting, but it’s all I’ve got.
Claptree: I agree that we’re not in general big fans of death metal, but it’s a lot bigger around here than anywhere else I know of. You seem to be talking about metal in general, or you have a strange collection of friends that includes 10% death metal fans.