Winter seems to be over (I very hope so!), and with that, one of the Sweden Special Super Yucks seems to be less and less.
Yeah, there are a couple of things I consider Sweden Special, for I haven’t really encountered them in other countries – some of them good, some of them bad.
Out of those, after being in Sweden for 4 years, there are a few I simply never can get used to. And probably don’t even want to, for these are the Super Yucks.
The one which was more common in the winter is that many Swedes don’t know what a handkerchief (näsduk) and/or what is it for and how to use it. In the subway, on the bus, in shops and everywhere, you can hear sniff, sniff, sniff from all the corners, every 10 seconds. And they just sit with their nose full of stuff and the idea that they could blow it, doesn’t cross their minds, not even for a second, they seem to be perfectly happy with that, kind of that’s the way we do it.
And when it gets too uncomfortable and they can’t bear their own sniffing any more, no, no, they don’t get a tissue (I don’t mean the fancy, parfumed, extra fine Kleenex, the one for 3.- SEK per a 10-pack would perfectly do) – no, instead of taking a tissue and blowing or at least wiping their nose, what do they do? They wipe it with their fingers…
That’s what I saw from all kind of people: even from the most sofisticated, upper class, middle aged ladies, fine business men, or the famously beautiful young girls, wrapped in the latest leather jacket and with carefully, perfectly painted make-up…
Sometimes, I dared to offer some of them a tissue (very politely, you know, helping your fellow), when I couldn’t take it anymore that another person was sniffing in my ears in the metro just beside me, or standing in the cue behind my back, but they reacted as if I seriously offended them: “NO, NO, thanks!!!” Few of them took it – put it away and kept on sucking their noses… (Okay, there was 2 girls who were grateful and blew their noses, relieved)
In fours years in Stockholm, I saw maybe 10-15 Swedes using a tissue, and I’m not exaggerating. Africans, yes. Turkish, yes. Romanians and other Balkan folks, yes. Hungarians, yes. Latinos/as, yes. Swedes, no…
Will someone please tell me what is this about? Here in Sweden you don’t learn this very basic hygiene tool in the nursery?
Tags: sweden special
Hi, thanks for taking your time for this reply!
I can see the point in what you write. Except:
1. There are waste baskets where one could throw the used paper hankies in each and every bus and subway wagon, close to the doors – don’t you people see them??
2. When it’s just running nose with the clear mucus because of temperature shifts and so on, it only seems to effect Swedes, but not immigrants or tourists sitting in the very same bus…
3. Economical reason? You don’t really mean that, do you? In poorer countries and for lower class immigrants here in Sweden it is not a problem to buy and use the paper tissue when one’s nose is running…
4. Using a paper tissue that you have to put in your pocket if you don’t want to stand up and walk 3 meters to throw it away in the trash bin is less hygienic than wiping your running nose with your bare fingers??
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Hmm, let’s see if I can offer some explanation of this.
This is something that touches on several levels, so I’m probably be a bit long-winded.
One reason is that many swedes doesn’t like to blow their noses in front of other people because they consider it impolite (making a loud honking sound) and/or make them look and sound silly.
This is much more prevalent in the cities though. Out in the country (I live in Stockholm but have relatives in Östergötland and Västergötland) people do blow their noses, though middle aged males and up often do it without a hankerchief.
Mind you, this is age segregated in the cities too. Most parents will tell their kids to blow their noses and/or help them do it, but once they’re teenagers and up they join the “don’t blow your nose in public unless you really have a cold” crowd.
How this strange idea that sitting and sniveling is better came about I have no idea, I just know it exists.
I know that many thinks it’s yucky to blow their noses on the train with a paper hankie because there’s no wastebasket to put the used one into and they definitely don’t want to put it in their pocket, so there’s that angle too.
Secondly, to swedes there is a very clear distinction between having a cold and having a runny nose.
When you have a cold you have an infection and that makes the snot yellow or green. It also makes you tired, get headaches and food doesn’t taste anything.
When you have that, people will blow their noses. Most of the time.
However, when the snot is clear it is either just the mucus in the nose clearing some crap (dust, spores etc), or it’s just because of temperature shifts.
It’s a fact of life for most people in sweden that going out into the cold often makes the nose drip, and going into the warm from the cold almost always makes it drip. It’s just a clear fluid and not proper snot (that is, it does contain bacteria, but only the body’s regular bacteria, not sickness bacteria that cause a cold), but it will make you sniffle unless you blow or wipe your nose.
Since you pass in and out from cold to warm and back often in the cities (especially if you commute to work) people doesn’t bother to blow/wipe until they have reached their destination.
It’s just an inconvenience you have to accept in the city, so they sniffle along until they get there.
Possibly there’s also an economical angle, since for some reason many people think handkerchiefs made of fabric are unhygienic.
A packet of paper hankies usually have 10 hankie in them. Going back and forth to work will consume at least 8 per day, if you wipe your nose every time it starts to run.
I think it’s about 15kr for a pack of 3 ten packs, say an average of two packs/week, or eight per month.
Mind you, that still only comes to 120kr so it’s not a very large saving.
However, while it often isn’t quite as unhygienic as it may seem, I personally think it’s really annoying (but not yucky
) when people sit and sniffle all the time on the subway, so on the whole I agree with you, if for slightly different reasons. 
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