For my last
Swenglish week in England, I stayed with a Swedish guy who has lived in Brighton for as long as I have – about ten years. Like me he doesn’t look very Swedish, but
says that the older he gets the more Swedish he feels.
We spent some
time chatting about the differencies between Sweden and England and my host
thought that Swedish people are more reliable: they mean what they say and keep
their word. An English person might say ”Let’s meet up next week” even if she
or he has no intention of doing so. It doesn’t mean the person is lying though: it’s part of their social script, just another polite phrase. If a Swedish
person says ”Let’s meet up next week” she or he will usually get her diary our
and make an arrangement as soon as possible.
With reliability
comes punctuality. My host is rehearsing for a show he is doing, and walking to
the rehearsal space he predicted that the director would be late – he was
right. The actor who turned up for the second half of the day was late too. In
my experience most English people think it’s okay to be up to fifteen minutes
late without saying anything. After fifteen minutes she or he might send a
text, saying sorry, but expecting the person who is waiting to be totally fine
with it.
My host has
affectionally been accused of being a ”Smug Swede” by his English girlfriend
because he’s got the attitude that Sweden is superior in many ways which is
true when it comes to how the houses are buildt or how things are organised in
general.
Yesterday we
helped the girlfriend to paint her flat. We were supposed to be there for 9,
but didn’t turn up until 10. The danger of being a Swede living in England is
that you lose your reliability and adopt any attitude of being late just
because everyone else always is. Hopefully I won’t miss my plane to Sweden next
week ...
