At the end of today we got a lecture about the Swedes and the Swedish culture. This was after two introduction days and our own adventures in the cities Eskilstuna and Västerås of the last days. The lecturer was Jonas Stier, also my teacher for the first course starting tomorrow morning. He’s a great guy, very good in explaining and giving nice examples of how the Swedes ‘are’, a bit exaggerated of course.
He told a story about a Japanese exchange student at Mälardalen who went on the bus. The bus was empty except for the driver and one other person. She went to sit next to the other person and later at school described how the person next to her was rather scared of her. Just as in the Netherlands – and many other countries I guess – the Swedes will pick the chair most far away from the other people. And here it might be more a case of ‘lagom’.
A new word he learned us was ‘lagom’. Swedish don’t take too much of it, but also not to less. Just about enough. Lagom means that you don’t take the space of someone else, don’t take up too much space for yourself, don’t eat to much at a party, just enough.
Yesterday afternoon we also got our first – well, mine at least – fika. Swedish coffee with a bisquit. I gave the coffee a fair try (I never drink it actually), but quickly switched back to tea again. But the fika itself is nice as it is more than only coffee (/ tea). It is a source for new ideas one said. I compare it a bit with the ‘retreat’ I do as an (interaction) designer; when you start doing something else – take the train, walk at the beach – thén, the ideas get born. And the fika is then also about meeting people, which get your mind thinking about things you normally didn’t thought of.
The first day at the university was nice. Although the presentations were not that interesting when you had read some documents of the universities web site before. The air is rather expensive here and they have a very nice interactive story of images on the wall here, which always ends with death though.
The academic system is really like the Montessori and the system of the HKU I know; a lot of responsibility is laid at the student with max. 10 contact hours per week, the rest is self study. By the way, I saw a Montessori (high)school here yesterday!
The Swedes are on time. Actually it is really funny to notice that this is the first time ever that at a school or conference we haven’t got a delay in the schedule. Instead, we’re ahead of the schedule!
The train trip from Eskilstuna (apartment) to Västerås (university) is very nice. I’m very happy with my choise of staying in Eskilstuna while studying in Västerås. Especially as I have much extra time after the train arrives and before the course starts.
Tags: culture, education, fika, interaction, lagom, swedes, swedish way, time, train, traveling
Categories: a cultural journey
Lode we genieten heel erg van je verhalen. Alsof we zelf meekijken. Het voelt alsof jij ook geniet. Wat een ervaring doe je op. Ander land, andere universiteit, nieuwe mensen en vooral ook wonen op je zelf.
Liefs vanuit Friesland waar het nu dooit.
Henk en Mia
[...] Blogg Lode in Zweden « The Swedes and Swedish culture [...]
[...] This evening we had the welcoming diner. They divided us into groups, we had to sit at certain places, it was an awkward situation. At my table the conversation didn’t really came to life. Most of the time – after some first introduction talks – we looked away, to other things, tables. Was it my dummy on the table? That got some conversations started though. Were we all thinking of talking to that person at the other table? Or the few empty chairs at our table which created some physical gaps? Or the lagom? [...]
[...] me again, worrying a bit too much :) So I got rid of must of the stuff and got rid of more stuff.. (lagom anyone?) And still I got more food than I really needed. But that came in handy when another [...]
[...] Lode added an interesting post today on The Swedes and Swedish cultureHere’s a small readingAt the end of today we got a lecture about the Swedes and the Swedish culture. This was after two introduction days and our own adventures in the cities Eskilstuna and Västerås of the last days. The lecturer was Jonas Stier, … [...]