Welcome to a beautiful country with beautiful people.
A place where cities are small, clean, well-organised and unpolluted.
Where people are peaceful, helpful and trustful.
A Swede may often be reserved, hardworking, well behaved, well organised, calm, shy, efficient, pragmatic and serious.
People come from all around the world to admire Sweden's pristine nature.
Swedes themselves are quite beautiful, and that keeps many of us here!
The welfare system is one of the world’s most generous
and provides the very best family support.
In the traditional Swedish culture, everyone is considered equal and little social classes exist.
There is a strong feeling of community
where everyone is expected and willing to contribute to society.
People respect each other, it is a peaceful place with little aggressiveness and traditionally very low criminality.
But a few things make it challenging for foreigners to adapt.
The climate, connecting with Swedes and understanding the social norms and values.
What makes it even more difficult for foreigners is that Swedes often do not realise how their culture is different and often do not want to talk about what is expected in Sweden and what is inappropriate. Yet, they want to help and did welcome many foreigners to live with them in Sweden, sometimes forgetting that culture affects the way people think and act.
When Swedes are sober, rigid norms frame their social interactions.
If you do not obey these unwritten social norms,
you may easily end up not succeeding socially.
If many foreign do not manage to socialise and befriend Swedes, they may isolate in their own cultural communities and do not blend with the rest of the society.
This may create huge challenges.
We published two books that help Swedes understand how different their culture is and how difficult it may be for foreigners to understand the expectations of society. We describe the cultural peculiarity of social interactions, social norms and the work culture.
As a Swede, you need to understand how your own culture is peculiar and different if you want to live in harmony with people coming from other cultures.
"The Swedish Toolkit" will help you understand how different Swedes are.