Sweden Does WHAT?! — These Habits Should Be Everywhere — An American Reacts

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Well, hello Sweden.

[00:00:04]All right, I'm pumped to take a look at a video having to do with Sweden. We've done a lot of Swed Swedish videos or videos about Sweden on some of our other channels and things like that. So, I do know they are amazing people, super cool, chill, nice people. But this title here is called 19 weird things Swedish people do that you should do, too.

[00:00:30]Wow, look at that. That's a little bit of a twist. And this is by Saga Johanna.

[00:00:34]I will include a link in the description. So, you can head on over there and do all of the YouTube stuff and support her channel. I'm sure she would appreciate that. This is going to be a good video. I already know that.

[00:00:44]Before we get going here, go ahead and like the video. That helps a lot. Let's see what we can see.

[00:00:50]>> Hey, hey, everyone. I hope you are doing amazingly today. I'm going to share the craziest, most wonderful, and best Swedish traditions that I think you should try, too. From how we cut our pizza to how we raise our children to how we sleep, here are some of my favorite Swedish traditions that I think everyone in the whole entire world should do. So, let's get started. We cut our pizza with scissors. This is also >> Oh, snap.

[00:01:15]>> Oh, okay. I like that. I know some people cut food with scissors, but they cut their pizza with scissors. That makes so much sense. Oh, wow. minimalist hack cuz you no longer need to use a silly pizza cutter that you literally cannot use for anything. Instead, just use your kitchen scissors to cut pizza.

[00:01:31]Cutting pizza is such an easy and fun way to >> slice pizza. One of my favorite hacks for a happy marriage and a Swedish tradition that I grew up with is to have separate duvets. Having separate duvets makes so much more sense.

[00:01:44]>> Yes. Yes. I wish my wife was here right now cuz this is one Oh my god. Every night. Every night. I'm like, "Would you stop pulling the blanket?" Because she likes to like we It's weird in our bed.

[00:01:58]Like I the sheets need to be just right.

[00:02:01]Like I need to get under when I roll over. I don't like take the covers with me. I like lift them up so I can roll over without disturbing the sheets. But Lisa, she's like, she'll roll over. She takes all the blankets, puts them half on, half off before we even start sleeping. All kinds of stuff. Yes. Yes.

[00:02:19]Separate duvets. I vote for that. It is so much more comfortable. You never have to fight with your partner over a blanket and it just makes a world of difference. If you have one duvet, it's big and bulky and it's crazy. Just try two duvets and see if it makes you feel any better. Speaking of duvets and bedding, the next thing that is really important that you should try that we all do in Sweden is that we have a duvet cover and a duvet inner and a sheet to make our bed. We don't have any top sheets. We don't have any blankets. That is absolutely disgusting. Sorry, Vitus.

[00:02:50]cuz you don't really wash them as often.

[00:02:52]You need to have a duvet if it's cold in your country and you need to put the duvet inside of the duvet cover and then you wash the duvet cover weekly and this way you have a very clean bed. When I first came to New Zealand, I was taught about the idea of a top sheet and you sort of put the duvet on top but you never really encase it. But that means that when you move around throughout the bed, your body will touch the duvet inner and you simply cannot wash that once a week cuz it doesn't last as long as if you do that. So absolutely, if you have a duvet inner and it's cold in your country, put a duvet outer on it and in the summer when it's too warm, you just put the duvet inner away and you just sleep with the duvet outer as a blanket.

[00:03:28]>> Okay, >> easy.

[00:03:29]>> One of my favorite Swedish sayings is something like, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." very literal and very Swedish, but as a child, this was normally printed on our weekly mailer at kindergarten or at school, which basically meant for our parents to remember to put proper clothing on us because we would be outside all day, no matter the weather.

[00:03:47]I think most people these days tend to stay inside when it's bad weather outside instead of just going out there.

[00:03:52]But by putting on proper clothing, it makes it so much easier to be outside in all weathers, and it's so much better for your health to be outside and breathe in the microbiome rather than just staying inside and watching TV.

[00:04:03]Another Okay, that's that's fair. We just moved to Granada, which gets cold in the winter. Well, by my standards, cold. I know people in Sweden probably think Granada is like summertime, but and that is very true. We didn't have the right clothes when we came here, and we were like freezing. I don't care how many jackets we put on. They were the wrong kind. If if it rained, they got wet. It was a disaster. So, we'll be ready next winter when it cools off.

[00:04:31]But, she has a good point there. Swedish health hack for you guys. Okay, >> one of the things that I didn't think was weird, but that became obvious to me the moment I moved abroad was the fact that we don't talk about race. The first time I heard the word Caucasian, I was 20 and living in Japan. And before that, I had never heard any of these words.

[00:04:48]And it's just not something we talk about. Which brings me on to the next point is that you never have to disclose this information if you, for example, go to the bank or going to >> Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay.

[00:05:00]Yeah, that's true. Here in Spain, we don't really talk about that. So interesting. It's it's liberating really for me being a black man from the United States to not have to talk about race or not be seen because of that, seen a certain way stereotypically, all of that. And I know, I know there's people out there probably saying it's not true or, you know, the country's come a long way. Yeah, okay. You're entitled to that that opinion. But I'm just saying it was something that was always just a part of who I was, the way I thought, everything. Whether it's right or wrong, that's just a fact. So, it is kind of liberating to come here and not have to worry about that. Nobody's ever said anything to me about being a black person. It's just not seen that seen that way here. So, that's really interesting. And then look at this. The bank does not ask for your ethnicity.

[00:06:01]Man, that's the thing in the US on applications, everything, man. They ask for your ethnicity. Uh, you know, all all kind all kinds of stuff. A lot of it has to do with because they're doing some kind of survey or something like that. But sometimes people make decisions on that. I know it's it's unfortunate, but it's a true thing. the university and that information is absolutely not necessary for the bank to know when I'm opening my bank account and frankly it's ridiculous. So do what the Swedish people do >> I guess. Plus we're speaking about politically sensitive subjects. Let's speak about children. In Sweden we treat our children with respect and we treat them as already humans which is something I really really enjoy and I think everyone should do. Kids don't have to address older people in a certain way. Kids don't really have to act in a certain way. Kids are really allowed to be kids, which means they're allowed to make mistakes. They're allowed to be upset. They don't have to hug someone if they don't want to. They don't have to kiss someone if they don't want to. Just completely reasonable things that I think every country should adopt. Kids are the best thing in the world. So, I absolutely think we should treat kids with the utmost respect. Now, >> that's a big one. I've learned that by being here in Spain. It's so interesting. You know, when where I came from, especially in my community, like kids do not intermingle with adults. Like I remember going to parties and stuff when we were young and all the kids, the cousins, everybody would go back in the room and all the parents would be doing what doing their thing or you know you go somewhere and I I can't tell you how many times I told my kids myself, you know, be quiet, you know, don't talk so much, stop yelling, sit still, you know, things like that. Well, here in Spain, it's like they get to be kids. They run around, they climb on stuff, they do all kinds of stuff. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. But now I'm just kind of used to it. And I think it's so awesome because they're allowed to express themselves.

[00:07:58]So, you know, sometimes we see kids getting yelled at every once in a while, but I mean, it's kind of rare. Now, I've seen some kids do some crazy stuff where I'm like, "Oh my god, they're about to break that thing." But nobody nobody looks at them funny. They're just allowed to be themselves. And they're there's so many families walking around here. I can't tell you how many times I see a playground and a bar or like a restaurant with tables where you can you have a couple drinks and the kids are out there playing or it's just so different here. That would never happen in the US. In the US, at least in my community, the kids have their place and the parents have their place. And you should not be around here. If we're talking adult stuff, the kids need to go away. It's so different out here. It's great. Now, this one, I don't know if it's for all of Sweden, but it's definitely something I've experienced a lot of times, but that is people when I get invited to dinner parties, people ask me, "Is there something you don't eat?" My goodness, does this save so much trouble having a dinner party or going to a dinner party. I normally tell my best friend when I go to dinners at Hurst that I don't eat coriander or cilantro because I really, really don't like it. And it makes it a lot easier.

[00:09:08]One of the most important Swedish traditions is being whole and clean.

[00:09:12]Now, what does this mean? This is a deeply rooted tradition that goes so far back in Swedish history, but ultimately it means to always present yourself as best as you possibly can. Every time we had friends over, my family would just massively clean the entire house. Not because it was necessarily dirty, but it's so important to uphold the standard of being whole and clean in Swedish society.

[00:09:34]>> Oh wow.

[00:09:34]>> Another thing that I think is crazy that other countries have and that we don't have is that we don't really use the expression from scratch. Growing up, I didn't know that you could buy cake mixes. I had only seen on TV. I had never really heard of it. I didn't know you could buy any sort of pre-made food or something that we call hal fabricot, which technically means half processed foods. Of course, this might differ a little bit, but in general, we don't say that we make things from scratch in Sweden. If you make a cake, you will make it from scratch. That that's just how you make a cake. There's no other way to make a cake. You either buy it from the bakery or you make it from scratch. And I think that's also one of the reasons why we are quite a healthy country. One of the >> Wow, that is so cool. I did not know that.

[00:10:20]That makes sense. If you if everything is already from scratch, you don't need to say from scratch. So they make everything from scratch.

[00:10:29]But I'm pumped. That's terrible. But anyway, wow. Dang. And I bet you they are healthy cuz they don't probably don't have as much processed stuff because it's from scratch or it's just made with love as they would probably say.

[00:10:43]>> Best Swedish culture traditions that you've probably already heard about is fa is when you have a coffee normally or a tea with a sweet treat and you normally have it in the afternoon, but you can actually have it whenever. And this is one of the most common things we do when we go on dates or meet up with our friends. It's so cozy. It's really fun. But I also really like that it's one of the few things in Sweden where you can date someone or meet someone without drinking alcohol.

[00:11:08]>> Oh, that Oh, that is Oh, they have that here. Oh, crap.

[00:11:13]Dang. What do they call it? It's the time of day like I'd say like between probably like 4 and 6, I think somewhere in there, where they have a tea or coffee or something like that. Uh, and a pastry. So that's the same thing, but it sounds like it's a it's an actual thing where a lot of people like you can have a date without having alcohol. So that's that's pretty cool.

[00:11:39]>> Now fica means different things in different languages, especially in Italian. So I would use it with caution and use it only when you're in Sweden.

[00:11:48]Going back to child care, another thing that I really appreciate about Swedish culture that you should try if you have children is co-sleeping. My parents co-slept with me and my brother.

[00:11:58]Everyone I know I think co-slept. My sister co-slept with me or with her parents when she was with them. And I've never ever had any issues, heard any issues, or hear anyone talk badly about co-sleeping. Co-sleeping with your baby makes so much more sense cuz you don't have to wake up in the middle of the night and go into another room. Also, your baby's brain is not developed enough to know that you are not in the room, which makes it feel unsafe.

[00:12:21]Co-sleeping is literally the best option for sleeping with your baby. My dad built this really clever little half grip that he put next to the bed with a mattress and made it level to the bed.

[00:12:32]So, I could be in the bed co-sleeping there at the same time as my mom was in the bed. Co-sleeping shouldn't be a term, I don't think. It shouldn't be a trend. It shouldn't be an idea. It should just be the most common way for sleeping with your baby. Another >> Oh man, these Swedish people are amazing. I know you might be thinking, "Well, Greg, that's pretty simple." Well, yeah, it's pretty simple, but I mean, it makes sense. All these things that she's saying makes sense. Wow. I know for us it was like, you know, you need to put that baby in their own room so they can learn how to so they can learn how to be responsible adults or something crazy like that. I remember when my oldest son was born, we came home, we were so I mean like dead tired because we were up at least 26 28 hours straight. And listen to me talking. Lisa was the one who did all the work. But still, we were up a long time. So we were dead tired. So we came home and he was just crying and crying.

[00:13:32]He was in another he was in the same room, but he was in his own crib like on the other side of the room. And I just remember feeling so bad when we finally woke up or like got out of bed because he had like, you know, used the bathroom. He was hungry. It was just a hot mess. But our first child ever. And we were super young. I was like 24 or something like that. So yeah. Anyway, >> thing that is common in Sweden, but isn't very common abroad is that both men and women call themselves feminists.

[00:14:02]In Sweden, people are generally more educated about feminism than in other countries. And I really like that we use the word more casually.

[00:14:09]>> Hold on. You know, I gotta do this because I'm Hello from the US. So, >> without so much attachment to it that comes from other >> Wait, let me see. Oh, did I go did I did I not go back? Oh, wait. Hold on. Where is the US? The US is not on here.

[00:14:28]Where gender equality is closer to a reality. Mhm. Yeah. Is Spain on there?

[00:14:34]No, Spain's not on there.

[00:14:37]Okay. Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Nordic countries. Wow. Imagine that.

[00:14:45]Okay.

[00:14:46]>> The word more casually and without so much attachment to it that comes from other countries. A weird thing about Sweden that I thought was a bit very quite strange is that our school is a lot easier than any other school in the world. Now, I don't know exactly how accurate this is, but I know that in general in Sweden, we are very educated.

[00:15:04]However, our school, especially I think middle school and preschool, is a lot easier than, for example, in England or in New Zealand. We have way less assignments, way less homework, but somehow it still works. Unfortunately, this trend is changing and we're becoming a bit more like the rest of the world. But I really think homework is ridiculous and we shouldn't have it. So, that's that. One weird thing we do in Sweden that I think we shouldn't do, so disregard this one, is that we don't really date. Although I'm Swedish, I've never dated a Swedish guy because I think I've only have two Swedish guys ever hit on me in my entire life >> really.

[00:15:40]>> But in general, we don't really date. We don't really have a period of dating where you can see other people or normally you're just sort of not together and then you're sort of together. Dating in Sweden is very weird. Uh that is why I've been so unsuccessful at it. And yeah, I find it a bit uncomfortable and I think Sweden in fact should adopt how people date in other countries because I think it makes way more sense and it's a much more adult way of dating.

[00:16:06]>> Wait, so I guess is she saying that you're like you meet somebody and you go from meeting somebody to in a relationship because I I think dating is like, you know, you go on a few dates, you know, you're with somebody from uh however long it takes, a month or two or whatever, and then you say, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

[00:16:38]Or you send him a letter and you like, "Hey, check yes, check no. Would you do you like me?" Check yes, check no. Of course, I'm just saying all these things because that's what we did when we were in fifth grade. But anyway, I'm just wondering how that actually works.

[00:16:52]That's interesting.

[00:16:53]>> Something we do in Sweden is that we learn English very early. This also makes so much sense because it's easier to learn a language when you're young.

[00:17:00]And voila, most people speak English, which is such a useful skill to have if you want to live in another country or have any job >> where you don't work in Sweden. All right, so we're going even more political. Time for religion.

[00:17:12]>> Uh-oh. Yeah. One thing we don't do in Sweden is we're not really religious or go to church, even though Wikipedia might say otherwise. So, this has changed since then, but when I grew up in my entire generation, we couldn't choose to be enrolled in the Swedish church system. That just happened automatically when we were born, no matter if we were baptized or not. We just went straight into the Swedish church system, which is also the system you have to be in if you want to be buried in a churchyard or if you want to be married in a church, uh if you want to get baptized in a church, etc., etc. So, this is a quite fun fact compared to other countries cuz if you look at Wikipedia, it says most Swedish people are religious, but that's simply because we are enrolled in church. Now, say what you want about religion, but I for one am a person who thinks that we should practice what we preach. And since most people have lots of sex before marriage, drink.

[00:18:02]>> What? Who does that?

[00:18:05]We're wholesome people.

[00:18:07]Me and Lisa waited.

[00:18:10]She's going to kill me. She's going to kill me. I need to calm down.

[00:18:15]I'm going to be in trouble.

[00:18:17]>> A ridiculous amount of alcohol and do all other sorts of gluttonous things. Um I think it makes complete sense that most people don't go to church. I remember going to church in kindergarten for our summer ending and I remember my priest had leather pants and played a rock and roll guitar which we all thought was very very fun. We are a land of wonderful and quirky weird strange traditions in Sweden.

[00:18:41]So okay that I did not I knew that those a lot of the Nordic countries are not big into religion but I think even the numbers where they are are pretty skewed because sounds like you just have to be enrolled in the church system but it doesn't mean you have to believe it and go to church doesn't sound like it but you have to be enrolled in the system in order to be buried there have your funeral there your funeral services probably wedding services. So that's super super interesting where in the United States like it is a thing like that is the thing. I mean in the pledge of allegian allegiance uh I just even hearing that word it's just you just never even think about it but anyway the pledge of allegiance we used to say you know before school every morning put your hand over your heart.

[00:19:33]Um, and one of the things they say is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That's like, so isn't that interesting? It's called the pledge of allegiance.

[00:19:47]So you're see and you wonder why the US people think like almost like brainwashed. You said every day, you know, when you were little.

[00:20:00]Well, anyway, okay, back to this.

[00:20:02]>> A land of wonderful and quirky weird strange traditions. In Sweden, we have something called yantelong, which practically means be humble, but also never talk well about yourself.

[00:20:15]So, there are pros and cons about this law. It's an unwritten law, but one of the good things about it is that Swedish people are in general very comfortable and quiet, or maybe better is to say, not loud people. So, it's very nice to be around Swedish people. No one ever yells. No one ever tries to really be the center of attention. No one really, you know, speaks really loudly. One of my favorite things we do in Sweden, which does not work in English, is that we don't really have a word for please.

[00:20:41]Now, you can use snella, which means like most kindly or can you kindly, or you can use t, which means thank you, but we don't really have a word for please. I love learning languages because this is those little parts about a language and a culture that you won't really learn unless you know the language. So, I love speaking English. I love using the word please, but I also love speaking Swedish and being able to sneak in a tuck or a snail where Swedish people normally don't and sound like the most friendly and polite person in the world. So, it's a win-win. So, okay, my friends, I did not think we'd go this political. I have written this video down. It's very funny because when I translate these very regular Swedish ideas to English, they suddenly become so much more political. Swedish people are in general extremely nice and it's such a nice culture to live in and I think that's why so many people move back to Sweden when they want to have a family because it's such a safe and reasonable and wholesome place for kids to grow up and part of that is because these lovely and quirky ideas that we have. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I had so much fun speaking about my Swedish traditions, especially since I'm not in Sweden anymore. Makes me so happy to be able to share something of how I grew up with the rest of the world, especially the useful parts. Let me know in the comments below if you have any specific traditions to your home.

[00:21:58]>> Oh wow, man. That was really, really interesting and eye opening. A lot of learn some things there, especially cutting your pizza with scissors. I thought that was great. And uh uh what you call it? Co-sleeping.

[00:22:13]That was interesting. the religion. I didn't know that. Um that they are have to be enrolled. I think that's great. Oh man. And she didn't. They think school is dumb.

[00:22:28]I can get down with Sweden.

[00:22:31]Oh man, that was great. That was a great video there. Hopefully you liked that video. If you did, then all you got to do is like the video, you know, like the thumb like click that. That really helps a lot.

[00:22:41]My name is Greg. Thanks for joining me today and we will catch you on the next video. Peace.