- I had noticed this silence before. Once at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport, after flying in from Swedish Lapland, our group of passengers waited for delayed luggage for about 30 minutes, completely quiet. Back home in the United States, I would have nudged the nearest fellow passenger, shook my head, and we would have commiserated in voices meant to be overheard about the delay. In Sweden, stating the obvious seems unnecessary.
Well detailed insight into Swedish Culture. I don't know any Swedes too personally, but I did have a student who was Norwegian and he was a delightfully modest guy. At least this makes me aware that if I travel to Sweden I should be sure not to boast.
The article is pretty much spot on - to the average American we must come off very reticent.. I'd say one problem with our consensus culture is that since Swedes aren't expected to say much, it can be hard to tell if a Swede's silence means they're in a bad mood or if it's simply because there's nothing new to talk about. This gets worse (or better!) the further up north and off the coast you are, since people there tend to mince even fewer words. We even have a sort of "inward yes" in the north whose meaning is something like "yes", "I understand" or "I hear what you're saying but I don't want to interrupt you but I also know you don't like being the only one to talk" (approximate example ). Amusingly, most Finns I've talked to view Swedes as downright open and continental compared to the average Finn.