Posts in September 2008

Swedish Customer Service

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
17
2008

Few topics can fire up an expat living in Sweden as much as “Swedish customer service.” Or not even an expat. Swedes, who lived abroad for an extended period of time, like to discuss it, too. Really, it’s one of those ever-green subjects that can go on forever. And just what is it about the Swedish customer service that’s so interesting? Well, that depends on which country you’re coming from.
People, who moved to Sweden from Eastern or Central Europe, can’t get over how pleasant the sales people and check-out clerks are, how civilized the phone customer service representatives are, how helpful the bank staff is, and so on.
People, who moved to Sweden from the US or Canada, can’t get over how bad the customer service here is.
And people from all other countries fall somewhere in between.

Why am I writing about it today? Because I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s “Neither Here Nor There” and this is how he summed up the level of customer service in Sweden, and here I quote, “No wonder so many Swedes kill themselves.”

Wow! Is it really THAT bad? I sure hope that things have improved slightly since the time Mr. Bryson visited Sweden. Or am I so used to indifferent shop assistants, unhelpful bank clerks, and rude phone help-desk people that I simply don’t notice it anymore? Because I wasn’t sure myself, I decided to poll my foreign friends, and the general consensus is: things ARE getting better. The last four years have seen the greatest attitude changes in the service sector. And I even have proof of it.

On Monday I prepared a packet of documents to be sent to a client in Vienna. I took it over to the courier company, and after paying the equivalent of 75 euro for next day delivery, my packet was on its way. Afterwards I went to the library, met a friend for fika, did some shopping. Then I came home and almost got a heart attack. The most important document of the bunch was still sitting on my desk.

Here I need to explain something. There aren’t that many courier companies in my town. And even those that do operate here, don’t offer next day European delivery, simply because our town is rather remote. If you want your package to be somewhere in Europe by tomorrow, you need to bring it to the courier company’s office by 3PM. It was already after 4.

I grabbed the document and my friend, because somebody had to drive while I was frantically calling around to find out how we could get that paper to Vienna overnight. The other delivery company, I’m not sure if I can use corporate names here, so let’s just say it was the one made famous by Tom Hanks in that desert island movie, anyway, the guy on the phone from that company just barked “you need to be in Stockholm to do it” and hang up on me. I began to seriously consider an emergency trip to Vienna.

We arrived at the shipping office of the yellow-truck-with-red-logo company. The girl at the counter remembered me from a few hours ago. She explained that the last plane just left at 4PM. “Then I have to go to Vienna,” was my answer.

“Wait a second,” an older guy sitting at a desk further back said to us. “Let me make a few phone calls.”

In the meantime, the counter girl checked the contents of my packet, officially sealed the envelope, put security stickers on it, and asked for the equivalent of 75 euro.

“Can you be at the airport in 15 minutes?” the old guy asked, “there’s a normal flight leaving at 5:30, they will take your envelope and pass it on to our people in Stockholm. Don’t worry, it will be in Vienna tomorrow morning.”

I was ready to hug and kiss him, but he simply said, “I’m just doing my job.”
I was impressed. This was something that had not happened to me here before. And my friend added, “Wow! American style customer service! Didn’t know it existed in Sweden.”

So yes, I’m happy to report that things are indeed changing. Now if those customer service people could also attempt to smile every once in a while, my life would be complete. But one thing at a time.

Words for today:

  • kund (def. kunden, pl. kunder, pl def. kunderna) – person som köper något = customer, client (a person who is buying something)
  • kundtjänst (def. -tjänsten, pl. -tjänster, pl def. -tjänsterna) – avdelning som sysslar med att hjälpa kunder = customer service (a department that deals with/works with helping customers)

And of course, kundtjänst can be either “bra” (good) or “dålig” (bad).

 
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Swedish Verbs, part 1

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
12
2008

Long, long time ago, I think in one of my earliest posts, I said that Swedish verbs are easier than English. And for the most part, that is indeed true. There is no goofy “–s” in the third person singular, no irregular “to be”, the auxiliary “do” is gone altogether, and “have/has” is simply “har”. Easy peasy. For the most part.

The biggest and probably most confusing difference is that in Swedish, the infinitive form of a verb (that would be the form preceded by “to” in English, the basic form you’d find in a dictionary) is actually different from the form you would use when combined with a noun or a personal pronoun.

It works like this:

  • att jobba – to work

but

  • Jag jobbar. – I work, or - I am working.

It’s fairly easy from here on – you, he, she, we, you, they – are all followed by the same form “jobbar”.
And as you can see, there is only in present tense, which could be translated as either present simple, or present continuous (the one with the –ing form) in English. It does make things a lot less complicated, wouldn’t you say?

For many, many verbs that’s all you need to do to make their present tense forms. Just stick an –r at the end of the infinitive and your work here is done.

And quite logically, such verbs are called “ar verbs”. And they are mostly nice, regular verbs in all other tenses.

There is another group, which through some very odd coincidence, for the most part (but not always) corresponds to irregular verbs in English. You know, those that get all funky in the past tense, like buy-bought-bought, for example.

Those verbs in Swedish behave like this:

  • att köpa – to buy

but

  • Jag köper. – I buy, or – I am buying.

See? Instead of tacking “r” at the end, first you remove the “a” of the infinitive, and then add “er”. Tah-dah! Done!

Again, quite logically, these verbs are called “er verbs”. And for the most part, they are nasty, irregular little suckers in the past tense.

There is a third group of short, little guys that behave in a whole different manner, and we will talk about them next time. For now, this is what you need to remember:

  • Some verbs acquire “r” at the end of their infinitive form and become “ar” verbs in the present tense. (“AR” VERBS)
  • And some verbs, FIRST drop the “a” of their infinitive form, and THEN add the ending “er” in the present tense. (“ER” VERBS)
 
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Finland Swedish - Finlandssvenska

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
9
2008

I’m sorry this post is a bit late. But I have a good excuse. I’ve been away. I went to Finland! Oh yes, I can just feel your excitement in the air like static electricity.

But wait a second now! There is a reason why I am writing about Finland here. You see, they also speak Swedish over there. In fact, it’s one of the country’s official languages, the other being Finnish, naturally. Finnish itself is a totally incomprehensible oddity and to me sounds like Klingon spoken backwards. Or, as my friend who lives in Finland says, “I’ll let you in on a little secret, it IS Klingon spoken backwards.”

Fortunately, quite a few people across the Bay of Bothnia do speak something more understandable as their mother tongue. Swedish! There are even several municipalities in Finland that are totally mono-lingual, where the inhabitants speak Swedish and nothing else. The most famous one is Hammarland on the Åland archipelago, and the other is just down a spit across the bay from me – Korsnäs. Korsnäs has the distinction of being the most Swedish municipality in the world, percentage-wise it has more Swedish speakers (around 98%) than any municipality in Sweden. If that’s not impressive then I don’t know what is.

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Real Gender Specific Nouns

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
4
2008

In my last post, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I showed you a Swedish noun with a “real” gender. A noun that has both a male and a female version. That word was “skådespelare” which means an “actor”.

This is actually a bit similar to what happens in English as well. We have an actor and an actress. A waiter and a waitress. A priest and a priestess. An emperor and an empress.

While this not exactly what happens in Swedish, the concept is indeed somewhat similar. The difference is that there are many more words in Swedish that have both a feminine and a masculine version than in English.

You’ve seen that already happen with words describing nationalities, or at least regional origins of people.
Remember “skånska” - a lady from Skåne? And “samiska” – a female Sami?

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A Little Bit About Greta Garbo

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
2
2008

I had to go to Stockholm recently to take care of some very boring business. But because I arrived there about 5 hours before my meeting, I decided to visit Skogskyrkogården – the Woodland Cemetery. Why? It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and if that’s not enough for you, then Greta Garbo is buried there, too. And it just so happens that I’m a fan.

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