When my doorbell rings, I get an adrenaline rush. Yepp, I am a swede.

Lmao i didn’t even know that eating ketchup with pasta was strange I just thought that was something people did

I'm polish - I put ketchup on pizza. My boyfriend's Swedish - he puts ketchup on pasta. Cultural differences but we are united in profanating Italian cuisine.

When you live in a apartment complex you usually don't talk to neighbours, but if you live in a house people usually talk and connect with their neighbours

Literally eating pasta with ketchup using a fork and knife as I’m watching this... lol

Wait.... other people DONT eat pasta with ketchup? My life‘s a life

Swedes being "introvert" by culture, and making sure no neighbors are outside your door when going out - we're the masters of social distancing.

My parents were together over 30 years before they got married. Dad said: "We've realized no one else wants us so we might as well get married." He's a very romantic kind of guy lol

You do the ketchup thing at home or school at mediocre swedish pasta meals (like bolognese or meatballs) but at restaurants generally you don't get ketchup for pasta, unless you're a kid, who asks for it.

Me, an American, sitting outside in my backyard, hiding from my neighbours, while taking a break and drinking coffee: "I guess I'm Swedish."

I'm a swede and I’ve never heard about the last one. That someone comes to your house because of your tv?🤨 That sounds weird for me too. And pasta with ketchup is something I thought everyone does!😂

Wait putting ketchup on ur pasta is weird? Growing up in a Swedish house hold I never thought it was weird 🤷🏼‍♀️

Visste inte att det var syndigt att ha ketchup på pasta :D

“Sweds avoid eye contact with their neighbors. “ Trust me. It ain’t only Sweden. ya welcome to Scandinavia the capital of the anti social community. 😂 I swear I am half Norwegian and I have lived in Norway for most of my life and like. If the bus is nearly full and there is one seat left but a stranger is already sitting on the seat right beside the empty seat. And you sit down there. Boi everyone gonna give you looks. Like you don’t do that.

now I don't feel bad about not being married at 33 thanks to the Swedish people

I was brought up with "Some strangers are murderers and pedophiles" so kids are told to not strike up a conversation with people you do not know.

I think avoiding neighbors is mostly a thing when you live in apartment, I grew up in a suburb and I always talked with my neighbors.

The "TV tax" is actually not a tax, it's a TV fee (TV-avgift). But the government has recently decided to change it so it will become a TV tax instead and everyone over 18 years will pay it, which means they will not come to your home anymore and check if you have a TV. :)

Omg the checking to see there's nobody outside the appartment 🤣🤣🤣 I only do that like... Every time I go outside 🤣

Stefan: putting ketchup on pasta is wierd Swedes: no, the rest of you are wierd!

" Sweeds avoid their neighbours" correction. Sweds avoid everyone

I'm planning on moving to Swe in January from the States and I totally watched the whole series of "welcome to Sweden" in preparation. That was a hella funny scene too.

Many swedes find it awkward to have eyecontact or just talk with their neighbors and/or random people on the street. Everyone grew up learning to be polite and kind of introvert, and now it has become natrual for them/us. I acctually don't really like that you have a hard time talking to people you meet since it can become very lonely but it's hard to break a pattern so you usually just go with the flow.

The whole neighbour thing depends on where you live. I lived in Stockholm for a couple of years and I only talked to a few of my neighbours very briefly, not even sure who lived in most appartments. Moved to Örebro 8 years ago and had regular conversations with most of my neighbours (lived in an appartment building). Now I live 10 km outside of the city centre and I not only know all my neighbours and hang out with them on a regular basis I also talk allot with people from the area. Some of them go on trips and celebrate holidays together. We help out and look after eachothers kids and so on. I grew up in a small town and it felt like I knew everybody that lived there. Everytime I'm there for a visit I end up talking to old friends. Going to the local supermarket can take some time. So that "weird thing" is probably true for Stockholm (probably Göteborg and Malmö) but I'm not so sure for the rest of Sweden.

Swedes also have kids a bit later in life, men at 31,5 and 29 for women in Sweden compared to 30.9 for the US men and 26.4 for the US women. Sweden has low teenage pregnancy rates (7 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19) compared to the US (26.6 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19).

Having kids before marriage is because we are some of the most atheist people in the world. Most Swedes consider religion a thing of the past. Thus, you don't need marriage. If you decide to have kids and live with someone that's a decision you make without the need of marriage. The morals are still the same, but we just have a different perception on the whole marriage thing being somewhat of an unnecessary religious ritual. Regarding the TV-license; there is actually a motion to be voted for soon if this should be changed to a tax instead. The reason it hasn't been taxed before is because the funds are meant to pay for a media independent from the state. If this were a tax, it would mean the government could control the media, which is the whole point it is meant to avoid. The legislation to be voted for this fall, if it passes, will change this into a small tax instead which the government cannot touch. Most western European nations have similar systems for an independent media (BBC in the U.K. has the very same system of TV-licensing fees with random home visits).

One more fact Ketchup works to everything in sweden ;)

To be friends with your neighbors means: You can never relax because Nordic people are so polite and helpful, they can't say no to exploiters. That's why they need to disconnect and the only place to do it is in their homes.

I talk to my neighbors like 2 times a year lol And yes I’m a swed

In smaller places neighbors are mostly really close

I am from French Polynesia and I live in France... I never felt at home in France, people laughed at me when I put ketchup on spaghettis, take cold showers, want to go camping, be patriotic, have a taste for adventure and respect for people... I was probably a Nordic people in a past life 🙂. You are amazing people. Thank you for making those videos, I love them

I must be Swede, I am a Zambian living in the USA, and I avoid my neighbors.

I started laughing a lot when you mentioned the ketchup on pasta, I'm Italian and I am pretty open to new things when it comes to food but the "I think it's disrespectful to the pasta" hit me 🤣

I actually laughed at the pasta because I've been married to an American for 5 years now and he still has to look away when I put ketchup on my pasta because it kind of freaks him out and grosses him out which I find pretty hilarious still. The TV tax is dumb. Once upon a time there was a commercial about it that if you dont pay you will get a snail on your eye and I can never forget that dumb ugly commercial that was so ridiculous. The food on the go culture has given me way more digestive issues, it is definitely not healthy to eat in a rush, even though it is convenient. The marriage and kids thing I have never reflected on but you are so right. My husband will ask "are they getting married?" "Will they get married?" And I never connected the dots that it was a cultural difference thing. Like no, they are just having a kid. He must feel like it is so backwards. One thing though that I find kind of insane with USA is the legal driving age of 16 since the human brain is not full grown until 25. Sweden has 18 and I still think it's almost too young but at least then the brain is a bit more equipped for such a responsibility so it's something I wish was different. It also took a while to get used to puppies in pet stores. And all the cool classic cars, the yellow lines on the road, the signs, the way you open or lock windows, the flushing on toilets.... it all was so weird at first!

The point on using a fork and knife to eat everything reminds me of an episode on Seinfeld, where ‘cultured’ people eat their Mars bars with a fork and knife.

Seriously didn't know any of my neighbores names in the last apartment I lived, lived there for over two years and the silence was great. 5/5 would recommend

As a Swede I honestly love watching your little videos because you’re often pretty spot on haha (while also not being disrespectful to life here, or otherwise) 👏🏻👏🏻

Well nothing is weirder than seing guns being sold in supermarkets 😐 I know you’re not criticizing but none of that is over the top

In Nordic countries you don’t need a ton of money to start a family, so the order isn’t that important.

The neighbor part was so spot on, never talked to my neighbors except for an occasional greeting. That was until they got a small, cute dog. Now it's practically daily interactions ;p

I legit had no idea pasta with ketchup was something weird to Americans. I've been doing that ever since I was a kid so I just kind of assumed it was an international thing that everyone did. I always find it exciting in some weird way to learn something I see as just natural is actually a Swedish thing. As for the knife and fork thing, I can't speak for others but personally I only eat stuff like pizza and chicken drumsticks and stuff with my knife and fork if I'm eating with other people, because I don't want to be gross and messy with the sauces and stuff. When I'm alone I eat them with my hands like a proper human being (though I do cut them with a fork and knife like you say). Eating hamburgers (with buns I mean, I'm assuming you do) with silverware is just weird though, I've never seen anyone do that. As you brought up the whole food to go thing, I realized that as for me, even when I do rarely buy stuff like a burger or a hot dog for a stand, I'll take it home or go sit down on a bench or something when I eat. So even when I'm eating on the go, I'm not actually eating on the go XD As for kids before marriage, let me put it this way: I was old enough to be a junior bridesmaid when my parents got married.

Could you give a review on "Welcome to Sweden". Great I'd say! I'm myself from Britain however, I've lived in Sweden since I was 7 (16 now). Love your channel! Cheers lad!

“Disrespectful to the pasta” words only Italian blood could say 🤣

Eating spaghetti with tomato sauce, what that’s not weird? Eating spaghetti with ketchup, oh that’s so weird like! Me: 🥺

That’s so weird because I lived in the US for a year as an au pair and my hostmom cut the pizza at home with scissors and I had never seen that anywhere before and thought it might be american 😂

i’m 17 (born 2001) and my parents has been together since 1991, engaged since 1997 but last weekend they celebrated their one year anniversary as married. i know it might sound weird but it’s actually super common here in sweden

I'm surprised by ketchup on pasta being a weird thing, but no mention of lingon jam? All my UK friends think we're insane for having lingon jam with our meatballs.

I wanted to know 5 weird things about myself so i watched this

Greetings from Finland once again! Like i have commented on your videos before, all those things are just about same in Finland again. And yes we put ketchup on basic macaroni & spaghetti dishes. If the dish is something more of a "culinare" stuff, then we won´t use ketchup either. For knowing neighbours in compartment building ain´t common if you live in a rental apartment, but if you live in your own apartment and everybody else in the building too then it´s more normal to know your neighbours. That is basicly becous in rental apartments neighbourgs change alot, coming and going, but if everybody owns apartent most are going to live there years without moving so that makes sense. Yes we eat with knife and fork almost everything. I´ve seen people eating even tortillas with knife and fork (i don´t, it´s impossible, messy and dumb). But yes, i eat pizza with knife and fork also, at least in restaurants. It´s civilized way for eating food. Ofcourse if there are hot dog stand you can grab a one with you on the go and eat it on the way, but mostly eating is such a holy moment that most of people calm down and eat. People wants to enjoy what they are eating and also prevent from making a mess with the food or axidently drop the food on the grownd (that would piss off and make anyone sad). Like wise we don´t understand the rush to get married like in US. Most of early relationships are doomed anyway so why in the hell to get marry at young age?! It´s alot of bureaucracy when you have to divorce from someone. Much easier this way. It is very rare that young couples lasts more than 5-10 years together if even that long. But when we realy think she or he is the one for sure then we might marry that other companion. Advice to everyone: Don´t get married if you don´t have to.

A weird thing Americans do is that they say that they are like Swedish for example when they’re born in America. When I was in America and mentioned that I was Swedish, a lot off people were like. “omg me too! I’m also Swedish!” Even tho they were clearly born in the US. Like my dad Is born and raised in Norway and my mom in Swedish. But I was born in Sweden, so I won’t say that I’m Norwegian. I would just say that have family in Norway. Dose this make any sense?

I am so happy I found your channel!! I'm obsessed w the Swedish culture & I love Stockholm.❤ I cannot wait to come try it out for a year. Thanks for all the info!!🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

#1 is quite accurate! And those of us who don’t have a peep hole in the door (me) stop and listen to hear if there is someone on the other side before going out... Why? Because unplanned socialisation is horror movie material. Besides, one wishes to save all that social energy for the people who matters the most to one self😌

In Sweden we often get married because of love and because we want a big party celebrating that love. Not because some old book says so or our parents force us. :P

Det är så intressant det här med giftermål i olika kulturer! Jag skulle säga att det nu för tiden är vanligare att skaffa barn först och sen gifta sig. Jag känner många som inte gift sig förrän dom närmar sig 50 och barnen är vuxna. Och många gifter sig inte alls. Jag kan själv tycka att trots att det är fint att gifta sig så känns det lite gammaldags.

I'm new to your channel, but regarding #2 - my great-grandparents came from Sweden. When my grandmother told her parents about what her Italian immigrant friends had for dinner, my gamla mor-mor tried to replicate it by pairing Campbell's tomato soup with pasta and hot dogs. It's been passed down the family and it's a comfort food for me now.

Man, I had no idea how similar Brazilians and Swedes were! Aside from avoiding their neighbors, a lot of the things described in this video are behaviors that I've noticed a lot of Brazilians displaying. I honestly believe that most people from most countries and ethnical backgrounds are more similar than they are different.

As always it's very interesting hearing your perspective on our Swedish norms Stefan. It's easy to take things for granted when you're used to it everyday. Here's my response to your 5 weird things. 1. From my experience this is most common in apartment buildings, in the suburbs and on the countryside people tend to be more social and friendly towards their neighbours. 2. Most Swedes do this, but I think some other countries do it as well, just not as common. 3. It depends on the restaurant and occasion, generally we eat hamburgers with our hands and use knife and fork for pizza. Swedish "pizza" is also more similar to Italian pizza, with thinner crust compared to standard US pizza. If you order american pizza you get it pre sliced most of the time. 4. One of the reasons why marriage is not a huge deal in Sweden is because we are very progressive in terms of relationships. This also accounted to the fact that we´re one the least religious countries on earth. In many aspects we're far less traditional than americans. 5. Many people just ignore paying the fee, or lie about not having a TV. As many comments have already said, the rules for the tax will change soon.

What do you mean????? Everyone puts ketchup on pasta🍝

Now in 2019 they will actually just start to tax everyone for the TV

Det är verkligen kul att kunna relatera till alla dessa saker! Har bott i Sverige hela mitt liv så vet exakt hur det är och att vi är rätt knäppa ibland😂

In sweden if you live on the countryside we actually help eachother all swedes aren't that social

Det GÅR INTE att äta pasta utan ketchup

You really got it when it comes to the neighbor thing. I have a house in a middel class region and lived here for 23 years and don't know many of my neighbors. Just one, living next to me have visit my home and helping me alot. He's interesting in gardening and take care of my garden just like that and give me free, awesome stuff from his garden. I have a friend family living in a fairly welthy area south of New York and they was very surprised when they moved there. Many of the neighbors was visiting them from the beginning and welcom them. They got many friends from the beginning, they have parties together, etc. They also have a child born there, so she's an american citizen too. :) Whe one of their kids get serious sick her school stand up for her and later a large part of the society stood up for her, did collections etc. The neigbors was very helpful and helped the family in many, many ways.They even had a city race (stadslopp) with thousands av participants for the benefit of her. Tragically, she died after a long illness. (Brain Cancer) I don't think something like this will happen in Sweden.

Well, I'm an American and I also live in the Midwest. I live in an apartment complex and I don't know any of my neighbors. At the most people just say hi in passing, no one introduces themselves to anybody or attempts to befriend them. Even in the fitness room, people who aren't together don't talk to each other. I do, however, make eye contact when we pass. I don't always say hi, sometimes I just smile and nod at them, but I almost always acknowledge them. There's just no attempt to form a relationship.

The "tv tax" is avoidable. 1. In the call the "tvagents" make to you, simply lie about not having a tv. 2. If the "tvagents" knocks on your door, you have the right not to let them in no matter if you have a tv or not. Make sure it is shut off and not visible in the dorrstep when you having those "agents" on your doorstep. 3. Never buy a new tv from the store. The tv sales stores are obliged to report their sales on each tv sold and to who they sold the tv to, to the "tv authority". Allways buy used tvs from others. 4. When changing tvs send an email to the "tv authority" you tossed away your old tv to the local city dump, but don't mention you bought a new tv in it. From there the "tv authority" will remove you from the list of tv owners and you no longer have to pay them. 5. After doing all of this the "tv authority" will send you a letter in the post asking if you riecently bought a new tv. You will get those letters every now and then. Throw away those letters to the garbage. Have a great life saving monnies! :D

Actually, starting from 2019, everyone will be charged the TV tax automatically when you do your taxes each year. Also, if you make more money the fee is bigger.

I was 9 years old when my parents got married. So they had me, waited 9 years, then they got married.

Several of those issues are generalized throughout much of Europe. I've been in France twelve years and have enjoyed the differences. I certainly don't think of them as weird.

The tax for having a TV is used to fund Public service TV and radio. It will soon-ish become a regular tax, like an income tax so people don't have to be checked on anymore.

I am Norwegian. And in Skandinavia (Norway, Sveden and Denmark) we dont nestereraly get marid at all.

Hi Stefan, I am moving to Sweden coming August for my Master's Studies, Well; I am from India and your videos really help me gain a perspective about Sweden. Surstromming really surprised me today, Thank-you so much! Maitreya

You did this! You brought on the compulsory TV tax!!

Well in 2019 they WILL start taxing everyone for the TV. Also the neighbour thing really is a city/countryside thing. Everyone I know who grew up in the countryside were really friendly with the neighbours and had parties together regularly. My parents actually still go visit their old neighbours regularly even though they moved more than 10 years ago.

Cutting pizza with scissors. All American minds blown

Please make a second part. 😂❤️🙏🏻

I AM SWEDISH LOVE My PRIVACY , AROUND PEOPLE ALL DAY I AM A NURSE LOVE MY CAT'S THEY MAKE ME HAPPY WITH THEIR UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

You haven’t experienced Sweden until you have lived in the country side

I’m Swedish and when you said that thing about ketchup on pasta the first thing i tough about was my friend who has ketchup on everything, even on its own

Ok in northern section of sweden its -40 degrees all the time(winter) And we sometimes cant even get out of the nieghbourhood becuse its so Much snow. And sweden is more than half forest. Hunting is limited from late August to early november and its illegal to have ur dog unleased in the spring.

Hej Stefan... älskar dina program men måste fråga har du varit i Skåne någon gång? Det är rätt annorlunda jämfört med uppåt landet.. men iallafall om du ska testa olika maträtter eller kakor m.m så tycker jag att du ska testa spettekaka (det är en skånsk fika kaka).. mvh en skånsktös

''Why just not tax everybody'' 1 month later: We're gonna tax everybody.

No some of these points are a bit wrong. Swedes are in fact very social when you live in the smaller towns. Like ridiculously so. There are some other points that are a bit innacurate too. It REALLY depends on where you live. Big city people tbh are an entire different species to suburbans 😂

This video had me crying from laughing so hard!! Being so used to it, I never realized how weird it is that someone comes to your house just to see if you have a tv 😂😂😂 now they’ve changed the policy so the “tv tax” is included in the regular tax and everyone pays it but man, I got so many phone calls asking me if I had a tv or not and it was never strange or odd to me 😂😂😂

I’m dutch and I recently moved to Sweden five months ago and I can relate to most of what you just said! (Except nr. 4, I think we are the same in the Netherlands)

They are in the process of passing a law that makes the tax for TVs unnecessary, they will tax every single household for basically public television and radio that's what the tax is for. And then you tax will be a bit cheaper as well

I like my neighbores we usually have dinners together sometimes

In Finland we had a similar TV tax which was later converted to a general tax called yleisradiovero which just means general radio tax. The general radio thing is a government run program on tv and radio. It provides news and other TV programming. The tax is to fund this radio and I suspect that Sweden's situation was similar

I’m sure you’ve heard already but: The TV-fee (not tax until Jan 1, 2019) is there to pay for the public service mission of the Swedish Television through a fee on owning a television by which you take part of the broadcasts. “Unbiased and fair high quality information and culture for everyone”. One of the reasons for making it a fee rather than tax is to keep it from being politicised depending on who’s in the current government. One of the reasons for it being made a tax is the changed technologal conditions concerning tv-broadcasts and the fact that the fee struck citizens unfairly as it was a blanket amount disregarding personal wealth and number of members of the household.

We built our house on a hill just above a neighberhood just to avoid neighbors. You can say i am a elite swede!

Swedish person here. I appreciate that you didn't make any jokes about Swedish cultural things. Sometimes people do that and it's just not fun to watch that kind of content. Anyways, I sent this video to one of my American friends who is planning on moving to Sweden in the near future, primarily because of the way you're presenting these cultural differences and because these are real things that people do. So yeah, good video. Kudos to you!

Try Rinkeby, Really friendly and lovely neighborhood.. Alot of barbeques aswell!

The TV tax is already heavily criticised here in Norway as well (think we got the same thing basically). I don't watch regular TV though, only things like Netflix, so I managed to avoid that tax by paying some people to remove the part of my TV that allowed for recieving TV channels. Instead I used it as a second big screen connected to my PC via HTMI.

If my doorbell rang I would probably question it ”why is someone ringning on my door, I am not expecting company ” ..and the not open 😂 And to and, my mother is French and thats the one thing I know she finds wierd. Stopping by/visit a friend without letting them know before

hmm have never thought about the "not getting married before kids" thing as "weird" or "uncommon" to foreigners before. Now that you explain it I get it, but my parents never got married before getting me and my brothers and now that I think about it I can't name a single friend who's parents were married before giving birth to them:P Like you said, it's not as big of a deal here i guess:P

Fun to hear your view on TV-tax. Your idea of just making éveryone just pay TV-tax has now been realized! :P

IN Sweden, do you have to pay for cable TV? Or do you basically get all the channels anyway, as long as you pay your "tv tax"?

Oh yes! I also put ketchup on my pasta, exactly in front of my Italians friends in Rome 🙈🙈🙈

What do u put ketchup on in America?

It is so funny that you mentioned the TV-tax, because that is actually a thing now! But I think that people are using internet more and more, so the TV is going out of style, like the analog phone.

The "tv tax" was not a tax but a fee that was accounted for separate from the State budget, intended to fund independent media. It has now been replaced with a straight tax.