Anglicky s Kudrnatou holkou

Episode 17: Sweden

• Kudrnatá holka

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Rozhovor s Američanem Ryanem, který si v zemi masových kuliček a skořicových šneků našel ženu a stala se mu tak novým domovem. Povídáme si o všem švédském, od Abby, Spotify, Volva a Ikey, až po náturu a povahu tohoto severského národa a jejich doslova "libování si" v pravidlech a regulích.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the English-speaking podcast on this hill. My name is Pavlina and every week I will talk to my parents about the different interesting topics of the whole English-speaking world. And that's all from me. Thank you very much for watching this video. We can start. If you like this podcast and would like to support it, you can use Patreon at patreoncom.

Speaker 2:

Hi everybody and welcome to today's episode. I'm excited to welcome my guest for today, ryan McConahy. Hi, ryan, hi, how are you Good, thank you. How are?

Speaker 3:

you Good good.

Speaker 2:

I have to say that you're not a family member of Matthew McConahy, right?

Speaker 3:

Not as far as I can tell, so we'll see.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, you never know. And well, today we're going to be talking about the country that we both live in right now, and that is Sweden. Yeah, so I'm super excited to hear your perspective, actually, because you come from the US, I come from the Czech Republic, so I guess we both have our own opinions about everything.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, some of them might have some overlap, because some stuff it's hard to discern if it's Swedish or European difference, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, of course. So, as I just said, you come from the US and I bet there are many differences between your homeland and your new homeland. Yeah, so what do you think was the one that completely shocked you when you first came?

Speaker 3:

See, that's a tough question. I think the biggest one is and it could be from where I'm at in the US but in the south of the US people drive everywhere and there's not any public transportation. And public transportation is awful, like it's dirty, it just doesn't work that well. There's no trains for the most part, and here everything just works really well. I mean, people complain, you know, every now and then if a train's a little bit late or something happens, but for the most part everything works and everything's pretty clean. So I don't know, I'm not used to that. It's a good, convenient way to get around and I wish it was that way in the US and I don't know if it could be, but it's just so spread out. But that was probably one thing that I noticed immediately.

Speaker 2:

I think this is maybe more of a European thing. I feel, yeah, but here in Sweden it works decently, yeah, and well, how are you finding because we both live in Stockholm as well the capital? So how are you finding it here?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I like it. I mean every year. I mean I've been here since September 2020. I've been visiting for probably four years or so. My wife's from here, she's actually from this town, I don't know. Like it's just pretty here. I love the weather, being here through September, through, you know, or the little bit of fall, and then the winter and the long dark nights, like I don't know. It's just there's just something different here. I like it. I like the culture, the food. I mean everything is really great.

Speaker 2:

And so was this your first winter like proper winter.

Speaker 3:

It was.

Speaker 2:

So how did you, how did you like it? Four months in complete darkness, almost.

Speaker 3:

The darkness was crazy. And I remember I remember reading an article that said it was like, I think really deep into December, where it was like it's been like several, like 40 days or 60 days without sunlight, which which I was, because it was overcast and then also there's like very limited daylight, but for me like maybe it's just maybe it's just me, but there's other stuff to keep up your time in the in that time period, because you've got holidays and there's different traditions that kind of get you through that period where the sun's going down at three o'clock. It's weird at first but it happens quickly and it seems to kind of go away a little bit quicker.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, yeah. Now we're like oh, we can sit outside, what?

Speaker 3:

a glory yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you just mentioned the traditions, and well, that might be a little different for you because you have, as you said, you have a Swedish wife, so you're very much into everything Swedish, I guess. Like so half of your family is now Swedish, so what was the tradition that you enjoyed the most?

Speaker 3:

See, it's hard to say just one. But in the US we've got we've got traditions, but nobody really follows it. You know, to the T, nobody really does the way that they do here. Here it seems like everybody does the same thing, like, like Christmas, we ever I mean every year they watch the little what is it? Donald Duck? And then they serve porridge and put a little almond in it, and I don't know, it's just. Everything seems so I mean put together and I don't know, it's just, it's just crazy. I mean the lamps and you have, like you know, the stars in the windows and the in the darker months, and I don't know, it's just really nice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, that's actually something I noticed quite recently. I must have been like this winter, which was my third winter, but I was like, yeah, everyone has this star in their window. Maybe it's something, maybe it's a Swedish thing, like, because before I thought it was just a decoration that, you know, people put up.

Speaker 3:

Yep, they're everywhere.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and so what is the thing that you like and dislike most about Swedish people?

Speaker 1:

In general.

Speaker 2:

I know it's going to be it's very like like you will have to generalize a bit.

Speaker 3:

Yeah the thing. Well, people say that Swedish people are cold and and they kind of keep to themselves. I don't know, like most of the people that I know are Swedish family, so I haven't gotten that much yet but I have heard that, you know, if you give some opinions on things, that Swedish people will kind of go go with the conversation a little bit, even if they disagree and they don't really have. I mean, they won't have any disagreements in person or anything. So I've heard that you could, you know, say something wrong and maybe you know, maybe you don't get a call back from that friend ever again, like kind of kind of like it's just like well, they just they might disagree, but they're not, they're not going to tell you that they're going to disagree, but would you say it's like very different than in the US.

Speaker 3:

It's tough to say. I think I think average. Yeah, I think people are a little bit louder, a little bit more opinionated. I think it comes with our background in history is probably built into it, but I don't know. I think I think the Swedish way is built into it here too. I mean it's a peaceful country that haven't had war in like 200 years I mean it's a long time. So they've had. They haven't had to really do much in terms of wartime effort where you really need to have your neighbors back and to know everyone's healthy and Everything. So I think they've been able to become more Individual and kind of I don't know, you hear that a lot where Swedish people don't really talk to their neighbors or you know, I see it.

Speaker 3:

I see it to some extent. I see my wife's dad. I mean he knows his whole little neighborhood. They live in a small, a small town in Sherping, but but generally Swedish people typically typically think that they're not very outgoing, which which is funny because I don't think of myself as that either. So I thought I'd fit in just fine here.

Speaker 2:

So I don't know stuff I have to say well, I do you remember, because we we went to Swedish classes together and once there was this like substitute teacher, this huge Swedish guy. Yeah you're saying that in Sweden now that you talked about neighbors, that your neighbor can be dead for three months and you wouldn't even know. Yeah, because you never say hi or anything.

Speaker 3:

No, I don't know if it's a Swedish thing either, but across from us one of our neighbors. I remember it had just snowed and I walked outside this has happened a couple times to different neighbors like not the same one, and I'll wave because In, I don't know, in the US you smile to people, you wave, and I'm sure that is Not just the US, but then I've gotten just just cold stares. They don't respond, they don't say hi, they don't wave. It's, it's just really bizarre, I don't know.

Speaker 2:

This is also like I think we do it the same way as you do in the Czech Republic and my husband he always says that when he goes to the gym here, he in the Czech Republic, like when you, when you enter, you just say hi, you know the dressing rooms. When you enter the dressing room, just say hi, and here, like people just like stare at him, like what a weirdo, like why is he saying hi? To us, it's so. He's always like I tried, I tried again and it didn't work.

Speaker 3:

Out again I Think that I've heard Swedish people say that they think it's disingenuous to To talk to people that you don't really know, because they think that I guess it's fake or something. I'm not, I'm not really sure, I don't think that it is, but it's just different culture.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely different way. But I guess also, I agree, that once you you know them, they become very open and very friendly. Yeah and so what's, what's the one thing that you really like about the Swedish personality?

Speaker 3:

like Swedish character um, well, I don't know if this is like a character as much Working on on this house as I've told you before, it's just it seems weird, but I think Swedish people are very industrious, like they build and do things themselves. So, like my, both my wife's dad and her stepdad They've they've built, you know, a couple different decks around their house. Her stepdad's built a deck and then a pool and a pool house and he's helping us renovate here. And it seems pretty common that that they don't really. I mean, they may, they may hire help, but a lot of them they just do stuff themselves. They, they, they work hard and they I don't know I think it goes with the individualistic qualities that we've already been talking about they kind of want to just do it themselves.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh well.

Speaker 3:

I have just good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely. I have to say that you're renovating a house with your wife, so that's why yeah you know a lot of stuff about like this good, this kind of like renovation and manufacturing and everything would work.

Speaker 3:

It's fun Back to. Some of the personality of the Swedish person is they do follow, they trust their government, they follow the rules, whatever it says. I mean to a T, they do everything that you're supposed to and they don't really they don't really deviate from that. Sometimes it's kind of annoying. I've bought stuff at stores and you have to take a ticket even if there's nobody in there for you, and you have to wait for your number to pop up to go buy it and it's.

Speaker 3:

I've walked up to a counter to buy something and and then cut off by someone else that had a ticket and I'm like, like, but yeah, they, they, they stand in line, they wait, they, you know they follow the rules.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, which I suppose is a good thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so how are you also finding the language? Because I remember you. You told me that for now, you speak English with your wife, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it kind of goes with what's been happening a little bit currently in my life, but I've I've been to SFE classes, which is Swedish for in. Is it in Volnautae?

Speaker 2:

I see immigrants. I think it's for immigrants yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but but they. So we, we both did that the first course, and then the second course started and then I found a job. So since then I find for me personally I find it hard to do something if I don't have some schedule or a regiment. So now that I've been working, you know, going from not working to working I I haven't put as much much effort as I need to into it, but it I've heard it's difficult for English speakers coming well, coming from an English speaking background, because Swedish people speak such perfect English that anywhere you go you don't really have to speak Swedish at all. I mean anywhere, I mean for the most part.

Speaker 2:

Same Like I find it absolutely mind blowing how good they are in in English.

Speaker 3:

It's crazy that, to go back to your first question, that was probably that might have been the thing that blew my mind. The most is getting here and just I don't know. It's just crazy how well they speak English. But before I came I read articles that said Swedish is you know? Or Sweden the people here? It's not like a second language, it's like a second native language.

Speaker 2:

They speak so well. So is your plan for the future to start speaking Swedish to your wife, or will you just keep on?

Speaker 3:

No see, I want to learn. I hope that I can focus time and effort into that and use her, as you know, as a little bit of knowledge and and practice. So yeah, my plan is to now that I've kind of hopefully, if I settle into this job and I kind of get the routine and and we get some of this renovation out of the way, that now I can free up some time and kind of focus on it.

Speaker 2:

And so I know you want to settle down here and not in the US, so was it a difficult decision for you to make?

Speaker 3:

For me. No, my, I don't know if it. I don't know if it's because I'm a guy and my wife obviously is a woman and her family's here. But we we always wanted to have, well, we want to raise a family and I know, to me, I think, that Women want to be close to their baron, to their parents, when they're pregnant, having a kid and someone to take care of them. And we my family is great and everything, but we were there. They're a little bit further away, so they're like an hour away our drive. They're not quite as close as my wife's family and there's something to go with, like the Swedish tradition and everything that's here. It was just that to me, it was a no-brainer ever since I came over here, like I love this place, so, and then her family's great, it's just now.

Speaker 2:

It was, it was an easy, easy decision and now that you said that you want to raise a family one day, what is your opinion on paternity leave here? Cuz, like it's quite an uncommon thing? I guess I'm not really sure how it works in like different Scandinavian countries, but here usually the mom goes on maternity leave and then, after maybe like a year or nine months, the father takes over and stays with the kid for like at least I don't know half a year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah and then the kid. The kid goes to preschool. So that must be very new to you as well.

Speaker 3:

Right Coming from the US so male or the father figure, there's nothing in the US and maternity they, there might be some, but it's not much. But yeah, I that's. Another thing is like the the cost to raise a kid to go through, you know, doctors visits and birth and stuff. It's like zero here and the US did cost you probably thousands. So just just another thing. It just felt like a good way, a good place to raise a kid.

Speaker 2:

So do you see it as a big difference, this kind of like involvement of men also in the whole like raising process?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah the child.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think that in the US I don't know why, but I don't know if it comes from Culture, government, I don't know. I think most people would want you know Perennially for the man as well, but it's, yeah, I think that it's thought of is, like you know, the woman gave birth and she's obviously the one that Baird most of the you know issues and and body changes and she might need to recover, but it's still, on top of all that, it's still a major life change that you have to get used to it. So, and and I think that the male being there to be able to help his wife and help the newborn baby is I think it's needed and it's kind of strange that it's not not really used in the US.

Speaker 2:

But how is it?

Speaker 3:

in the Czech Republic. Do you get parental leave for both?

Speaker 2:

Well, as far as I know, it's mostly just mothers looking after the kids and Fathers. They can possibly take some time, but it's not very common. Actually, that date the day would do it. So what's here like that? The playgrounds full of men with strollers and everything. Yeah, yeah, that is true, yeah that you can see, probably maybe on weekends, but like during normal days, it's just. It's just the moms.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So parental leave in the US is mostly driven by a private company. So you know, if you, if you, work for somebody and it's a competitive field, maybe they might. It's the same thing with vacation time they might offer more vacation or more parental leave or stuff like that, but there's no law that says that. You know, I think the male or the man gets days off. There might be one for maternity leave, I'm not sure three months possibly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes, it's not much, but it is a big difference, yeah and what do you think that people know in the US about Scandinavia, If anything?

Speaker 3:

well, the joke is like the Swedish chef. You know the muppets on what is it the people grow up with? You know the little stuffed animals. There's a Swedish chef and they just speaks gibberish, but that people make jokes about that. Swedish meatballs. Ikea, tiger Woods, tiger Woods X wife, there's a few I mean. But IKEA Sweden in general they they're for such a small country. I mean they do so much. I mean Spotify and Husqvarna and all these massive companies, ericsson and Electrolux, and it's just they have a big footprint, you know. So I don't think people really understand all these companies come from Sweden, but I think Scandinavia, I think people in the US think attractive people and stylish and modern.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, yeah, I just wanted to say like also the Scandinavian design and everything, yeah, and then I guess music, you know, like like a beachy and yeah and Volvo. Volvo. Sorry, yeah, you said Volvo.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, volvo, and then they were sob, but they went out of. They didn't go out of business, I guess they downsized or something, because they still make military equipment, I think, oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't know.

Speaker 3:

No, there's one right close to my word. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and is there a Swedish personality, or like a famous person that you admire?

Speaker 3:

No, nobody that I can think of off the top of my head. But I do think it's cool that if there's a ton of like Swedish actors that people don't know about, there's a, there's a whole family, the Scars Guard, and you know there's several of them that are in big time movies. That pretty cool that there's so many people. Now it's a small, I mean 10 million people and it's I think it just has a pretty big impact.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 3:

Sure, yeah, but in Sweden, such a it's a technological country. It's very modern, both in terms of like policy, like the maternity and paternity leave we were talking about, but also like if you have the ability to work from home. A lot of people are working from home, so it's that way a little bit in the US, but some companies, like the company I came from, is more old fashioned and they really don't want you to work from home, no matter what.

Speaker 2:

Well, Ryan, thank you very much for being my guest today. Absolutely. It's great that you gave us a little insight into this beautiful country. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully it was informative, but I'm still learning, so I mean, we all are, and I guess Swedish people are as well. So so it's good. So thank you very, very much, and thank you to everyone who's listened to this episode as well, and I hope to see you next week. Bye.