Is Driving in Sweden Stressful? (I don’t think so!)

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
15
2009

After reading the blog post about buying a car in Sweden, one of the readers (who also happens to be my good friend) sent me an email ranting about how frustrated and stressed she is when it comes to driving in Sweden. I emailed her back saying that she had no clue what she was talking about, and if she wants to see what frustration REALLY is, she should try driving in Italy or Greece. And for the record, I love both Italy and Greece, it’s just that I’d rather gnaw my leg off than drive there.

Sweden is a shockingly civilized country when it comes to driving culture and behavior on the roads. Of course, as in all other places, there are always possibilities of running into (or rather, colliding with) some jerk with a bad case of road rage, but personally, I must say that such incidents are rare. For the most part driving in Sweden is nothing when compared to, say, Bangkok, or Paris.

Even some of the most notorious foreign drivers I know (like ahem, ahem, the one writing this blog post), once in Sweden, they try to fit in and do their best not to stand out. They will stop at a crosswalk (or pretty much anywhere else too) as soon as any pedestrian makes even the vaguest of motions indicating the desire to cross the street. Of course, sometimes the pedestrian might be drunk and simply trying to stay upright and on the sidewalk, but still, if it looks like he/she wants to cross the road, the brakes will screech and the traffic will come to a halt.

For the most part, people in Sweden drive carefully and have good road manners. And even those who complain about driving in Stockholm or Malmö admit that such complaints wouldn’t even register on a grander, European scale.

And speaking of driving, did you know that back in the olden days, that is, before September 1967, Sweden had left-hand traffic? Yep, the switch was made on September 3, 1967, and this day is known as Dagen H in Swedish history. A.k.a. Högertrafikomläggningen - “The right-hand traffic diversion.”
The H stands for Högertrafik – right-hand traffic.

This photo was taken on Kungsgatan in Stockholm on the morning of September 3 in 1967, after the traffic switch. Fun, wasn’t it?

Now, THAT was what I would call stressful!

 
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Position and Direction continued

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
12
2009

A couple of posts back we were talking about those little words that denote such important things as position and direction. Boring stuff, yes I know, but very useful nonetheless.

So today let’s continue in the same vein and discuss här and där. And hit and dit.
You see, in English, it’s all the same, whether you’re talking about “here” as in “come here!” and “here” as in “I’m here.”

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple and straightforward in Swedish. Here (no pun intended) you have two different words that mean just that – “here”. And that’s how Swedish distinguishes between position and direction in much more clearer fashion than English does.

Of course, it’s not just “here” that falls into this category, but “there” as well. And before I totally confuse you, and you give up reading the rest of this post, why don’t we just take a look at these words and see what they’re all about.

So, here (again, no pun intended) we go:

position  -  direction

  • Where?  -  Where… to?  -  Where… from?
  • här (here)  – hit (here)  - härifrån (from there)
  • där (there)  -  dit (there)  -  därifrån (from there)

Don’t worry, they’re not as evil as they look. And once you get used to them, you will realize they’re actually very handy little words. I promise!

  • Jag trodde att du skulle komma hit. – I thought you were coming here.
  • Men jag är kvar här i Gävle. – But I’m still here in Gävle.
  • Jag åker härifrån om en timme. – I’m leaving (from) here in an hour.

So in other words, if you are somewhere and you’re not on the way there or from there, then you use “här” and “där.” If, however, you are coming or going, or talking about changing your position, then you should use “hit”/”härifrån” or “dit”/”därifrån” depending on whether you’re coming or going.

And as somebody very aptly noticed in the comments section, it’s not just the particles that differ depending on whether they talk about position and direction, but the question words as well.

And it goes like this:

  • Expressions of position (befintlighet) answer to the question “var?” (where?).
  • Expressions of direction (riktning) answer to the questions “vart?” (where…to?) and “varifrån?” (where…from?).

I know it takes a little bit of getting used to, but in the end, it’s not all that complicated. Unless of course, you are like me, and half the time you don’t know whether you’re coming or going, or what not.  And I mean it in a strictly innocent way.

:)

 
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European Capital of Culture 2014

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
9
2009

I really don’t know what to say. Much to my disappointment, it was Umeå, not Lund that became selected as the Swedish candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The jury made its decision yesterday and when the results were announced during a press conference, I know that the good people of Lund were just scratching their heads. And I understand. Believe me, I do.

I spent five years studying in Umeå, and while I admit that it was an agreeable place to live, its cultural claim to fame is rather questionable (and that’s a very delicate way of putting it, OK?), that northernmost opera house notwithstanding.

So unless in the coming years Umeå can produce some sort of a cultural miracle (which, personally, I don’t see happening), this whole European Capital of Culture bit will be nothing but a monumental waste of money. Money that could be better spent elsewhere. So maybe, in that respect the fact that Lund lost the bid is actually a blessing?

But that got me thinking. What would you say is the most culturally happening city in Sweden? Apart from the obvious choices of Stockholm and Malmö, of course.

  • Europas kulturhuvudstad – European Capital of Culture.
 
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Particles of Position and Direction

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
5
2009

Uhuh, I knew this day would come. I knew that sooner or later someone would email me asking about the difference between “hemma” and “hem” and “hemifrån”. “Ute” and “ut”, and “inne” and “in”. Yeah, you get the picture…

It’s not very exciting stuff (hey, I’d much rather write about the lovely city of Lund), I know, I know, but essential nonetheless.

So what’s the deal with those particles?
Well, just like in English, in Swedish there’s a whole bunch of little words that are used to denote position (“where?”) and direction (“where to?” and “where from?”).

The two bits that often get confused by people learning Swedish are the ones that describe “where?” and “where to?” Why? They translate into English more or less as the same words.

So let’s take a closer look at them.

Position    –       Direction:
Where? –        Where to?        –         Where from?

  • hemma (at home) – hem (home) – hemifrån (from home)
  • borta (away) – bort (away) – bortifrån (from a long way away)
  • inne (inside, indoors) – in (in, inside, indoors) – inifrån (from inside)
  • ute (outside, outdoors) – ut (out, outside, outdoors) – utifrån (from outside)
  • uppe (up [there]) – upp (up) – uppifrån (from above)
  • nere (down [there]) – ner, ned (down) – nerifrån (from below)
  • frame (in front [here]) – fram (forward, on) – framifrån (from the front)

Sven är hemma nu. – Sven is at home now.
Åsa måste gå hemifrån kl. 8 varje morgon. – Åsa has to leave home at 8 every morning.
Jag kommer hem kl. 7. – I get home at 7.

But wait, that’s not all.
Let’s say you are talking about places on a map. Then, just like you would in English, you use uppe (up) and nere (down) to describe places north and south of where you are (unless of course, you’re talking about Maine, which is always “down east” no matter where you are).

De bor nere i Lund. - They live down in Lund.
Sommaren tillbringar de uppe i Kiruna. – They spend the summer up in Kiruna.

PS. And I have no clue where my recent obsession with Lund came from. :)

 
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Anybody’s “man” - another personal pronoun

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Sep
2
2009

Since we were talking about personal pronouns the other day, and as I see, it has provoked some very interesting comments, I thought it would be a good idea to continue on the subject.

“What? There are even more pronouns in Swedish?” I hear you say.

Well, not that many more. Actually, just one more that I think I should mention on here. And depending on how you look at it, it may not even be a pronoun at all. Yes, I’m talking about “man”. Not just any man, but the one that is normally translated into English as “one”. Well, it’s translated as “one” if we want to go all formal, but normally, it becomes something like “you” or “they” or “we”, or simply “people” in English. In other words, this “man” thingie is used when we want to talk about people in general and nobody in particular.

And it looks like that:

  • Man blir trött om man sover för mycket. – One gets tired if one sleeps too much. Or more like a normal person would say it: You get tired if you sleep too much. (Though personally, I disagree with this statement. What nonsense! I love to sleep!)

Here’s another example:

  • I Sverige dricker man mycket kaffe. – They (people) drink a lot of coffee in Sweden. (Yeah, that’s for sure!)

And another:

  • Man ser sjön från balkongen. – You (we) can see the lake from the balcony.

So that’s the easy part. The not so easy part could be the objective form of “man”, which is “en”. Like this:

  • Ingen gillar en, om man skryter. – No one likes you if you boast.

But, if the object refers back to the subject, then the reflexive “sig” bit is used. Like this:

  • Man frågar sig, varför det hände. – One asks oneself why it happened. Or more like a normal person would say it: You ask yourself why it happened.

I always try to abide by the K.I.S.S. principle when discussing grammar, because that’s what most people learning a foreign language need. But if you feel the need to elaborate on this very “personal” subject, the comments are all yours. Go wild! :)

 
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