(edit title) Swedes and their lack of basic manners Another whinge Options

[Bender B Rodriquez]

Most Germanic speaking countries, i.e. Scandinavia and Northern Continental Europe, lack the Anglo-saxon type of courtesy. A smile and a chat indicates that you have bad intentions, so people are quite sceptical of friendly people. People bump into you all the time without saying entschuldigung, unskuldt or förlåt...

But in my experience the worst countries by far are Pakistan, India and China. Leave a gap of a few centimeters to the guy in front of you and someone will squeeze into the queue. Also, staring, spitting and other bodily functions. Sweden is nothing compared to those countries in that department. Actually, include the Middle East too...

[sometimesinsweden]

Most Germanic speaking countries, i.e. Scandinavia and Northern Continental Europe, lack the Anglo-saxon type of courtesy. A smile and a chat indicates that you have bad inten ... (show full quote)

Most Germanic speaking countries, i.e. Scandinavia and Northern Continental Europe, lack the Anglo-saxon type of courtesy. A smile and a chat indicates that you have bad intentions, so people are quite sceptical of friendly people.

But in my experience the worst countries by far are Pakistan, India and China. Leave a gap of a few centimeters to the guy in front of you and someone will squeeze into the queue. Also, staring, spitting and other bodily functions. Sweden is nothing compared to those countries in that department. Actually, include the Middle East too... ... (hide full quote)

Bang on agree with that. Hong Kong is a shocker dodging the gob on the pavements and getting barged out the way in queues. Just have to ignore it and laugh. Great experience though.

[Bender B Rodriquez]

Don't forget the staring. Swedes look, in Asia they stare. If you think you are being stared at in Sweden you have never experienced true staring...

[Opaline]

What really gets my goat is the pushing and shoving.

For example, if I'm walking down the street and someone walks into me, they give me evils and carry on walking. I just feel like "Bitch, YOU walked into ME!". I've also had more Swedes push past me in crowded areas than I ever had in London.

The worst, though, is how they handle disabled people. I was in Malmö the other day, and I saw someone going down a moderatly crowded highstreet in a wheelchair. Now, there was enough room for people walking towards this bloke to move out of the way without knocking into other people. Despite this fact, young adults, children and adults alike were walking straight at him and wouldn't move out of the way for him. They seemed to have no concept of "it's harder for him to move out of the way than me". I was walking the same was as this guy for a few minutes and I could see him having to wind through the crowd so as not to get hit by shopping bags and people a like. It's disgraceful. There's no common courtesy.

[byke]

Now in the times of the dinosaurs or during the ethnic cleansing era of the celts ...
now they clearly had much worse manners.

..... Not that I am trying to deflect attention away from home.

[Gamla Hälsingebock]

I know, it's a repeat...but!

The subject of Swedish manners or the lack of them comes up quite frequently and I find it amusing to post this again...third time now!

People! The Swedes aren't complaining...why should you!

Enjoy!

The Hälsinge Kuriren, Norrland's most prestigious newspaper, reports the following:

It has been reported that the outbreak of bumping into people and not apologizing has gone worldwide!

As you know this quaint Swedish custom is now all the rage, and everybody is doing it!

People are organizing such events as "bump into a neighbor", and of course the ever popular "bumpinto a stranger" is so compelling that people are even traveling to other countries to participate.

This joyous custom has brought peace and unity to our world, and has, tuned our planet into a global village.

Little Sweden's influence is truly a blessing to us all.

On a sadder and darker note, the English, (you know how those people are!) have filed protests with the UN.

They claim that bumping and not apologizing has been an English habit for centuries, and that Sweden should not get any credit or recognition for its' now worldwide acceptance.

Invasion and colonization plans are being drawn up, as we speak.

More to come.

[Vstrommer71]

Αnyway,I too have observed that in the bus seldom one frees his beloved seat for elderly people.I always let elder people have my seat,not because this is for the shake of good manners but it's just plain common sense.
But generally I see that Swedes are kind people

[blackswedishbloke]

On the bus/tram, free up your seats only for the weak elderly ones not the ones that still look strong with some stamina.
Did that for the latter group (strong with stamina) a couple of times and got turned down "nej tack, vi står". I also witnessed the same thing on different occasions happen to other people who were trying to free up seats for this type of group.

I totally agree with the OP, these folks lack BASIC manners but vad ska man göra...?
I just came back from london and what a BIG difference it is. These folks have a lot of home work to do on this.

[Yorkshireman]

I totally agree with the OP, these folks lack BASIC manners but vad ska man göra...?

But is it rudeness when 1 Swede to another?

[byke]

Ah ok, we need segregation
What was I thinking ?

Arians on one bus ...

[blackswedishbloke]

.

[blackswedishbloke]

But is it rudeness when 1 Swede to another?

Rudeness or not, I dont really care about how they feel about it for each other.
I had a swedish friend who banks with one of the leading banks in the country and she complained to me how some of the bank staff at her branch are soo rude to her whenever she goes there and I laughed so hard like "so this happens to you who is even a real swede uh".
The lack of basic manners is obvious, so when one comes from a background where simple and basic public manners are kept then you will most definitely have a problem with these folks.

[Rick Methven]

I know, it's a repeat...but!The subject of Swedish manners or the lack of them comes up quite frequently and I find it amusing to post this again...third time now! ... (show full quote)

I know, it's a repeat...but!

The subject of Swedish manners or the lack of them comes up quite frequently and I find it amusing to post this again...third time now!

People! The Swedes aren't complaining...why should you!

Enjoy!

The Hälsinge Kuriren, Norrland's most prestigious newspaper, reports the following:

It has been reported that the outbreak of bumping into people and not apologizing has gone worldwide!

As you know this quaint Swedish custom is now all the rage, and everybody is doing it!

People are organizing such events as "bump into a neighbor", and of course the ever popular "bumpinto a stranger" is so compelling that people are even traveling to other countries to participate.

This joyous custom has brought peace and unity to our world, and has, tuned our planet into a global village.

Little Sweden's influence is truly a blessing to us all.

On a sadder and darker note, the English, (you know how those people are!) have filed protests with the UN.

They claim that bumping and not apologizing has been an English habit for centuries, and that Sweden should not get any credit or recognition for its' now worldwide acceptance.

Invasion and colonization plans are being drawn up, as we speak.

More to come. ... (hide full quote)

After 2 weeks spent in the UK, I can confirm from personal experience that GB has alongside the Olympics, regained the Gold Medal in bumping into people without apologising.

Some expert pundits who have analysed this disturbing increase in people bumping into others have suggested the reason might be because:...

A ) the influx of the hordes of Swedes who have flooded into the UK in the past couple of weeks to cheer on the hundreds of Swedish athletes who are winning all the medals at the Olympics.:

B ) The advent of the iphone, which means that half the population of the UK now walks around with eyes glued to the iphone/ipad instead of looking where they are going.

C ) the downturn in the British economy which means that many Brits are not seeing properly because they can no longer afford to go to Specsavers to get new spectacles.

[skogsbo]

or

d. The breakdown of Cameron's big society, where nobody really give two turds about anyone else, where everyone is on their own agenda.

Personally I've never thought that it's any worse here than the UK, the only difference is Brits generally respect a queue, say at an airport. But perhaps this because Swedes are not used to queuing they have a number to wait for, so they presume if there is no number ticket machine, then it's a free for all, a survival of the fittest (or sharpest elbows).

But, have you ever seen Italians or Spaniards respect a queue either?

[queenS]

To give you advice that you don't want to hear: it is not them, it is you. This is how you see Swedes and with your own beliefs you attract only those rude people into your life.