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Are You Being Rude? I Can’t Tell, I’m Canadian.
Isn’t it purty?
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01 Wednesday Aug 2012
Posted in My Blag is on the Interwebs
Oh, I can totally relate. Swedish is a very direct language, and we certainly don’t beat about the bush. The Brits, on the other hand, take ten words to say something a Swede would express in two. It means that Swedes, who haven’t noticed the communication difference, sound incredibly rude in Britain. There are several times I’ve heard Swedes order food/drinks in the UK and thought “holy crap, you sound rude!” even though I know they aren’t intending to. If you’re in a coffee shop, it would be something like this:
Brit: “Could I have a cappuccino, please?” or maybe “A cappuccino, please.”
Swede: “Cappuccino.” – or, at a stretch, “A cappuccino, thanks.”
The Swede doesn’t mean to be rude, it’s just that we’re a people of few words, and it doesn’t necessarily translate very well in other cultures. I guess Britain and Canada are similar when it comes to communication, and it sounds as if Sweden and the US have a few things in common as well. Although Swedes aren’t necessarily demanding in the same way, and we do use requests.