A Swedish Fika

Today, we will explore the criminal justice systems in Sweden and the United States. The criminal justice system is a complex network of institutions, laws, and practices that the government uses to keep people safe from crime and to ensure that those who break the law are punished fairly. In Sweden and the United States, the criminal justice system is a little different, and we're going to compare and contrast their approaches to crime and punishment. We'll examine their criminal justice system, crime rates, police, court, correctional, and alternative forms of punishment. Understanding these differences is interesting because it gives us a better idea of how each country thinks about crime and how they believe it should be dealt with. By learning about these systems, we can gain a deeper understanding of how they work and what makes them effective.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

 Sweden is known for its strong higher education system and is rated as one of the countries with the highest student satisfaction globally. The country's educational philosophy strongly emphasizes egalitarian sustainability and critical thinking. This is reflected in the structure of higher education systems and the opportunities available to students.  A middle-class American education is a unique experience that provides students many opportunities for personal and academic growth. Students in middle-class America have access to institutions ranging from community colleges to large educational and research universities. In today's show, I will compare the two.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

In today’s episode, I look at how Sweden and the US handle the concept of work-life balance. I will focus on five aspects; work culture, flexible work conditions, vacation, sick leave, and parental leave.Access to paid time off and the ability to rebalance work and life are crucial to creating a successful work-life balance. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Today I will talk about, compare and contrast, and give you my commentary on two cultural norms that, in many ways, have formed the social and political climate in Sweden and the US. This will provide insight into why Swedes and Americans are the way they are and explain many difficulties one may experience when moving from one of the two countries to the other. It will also give my perspective on how I live at the crossroad of these two norm systems. And the two are The Law of Jante in Sweden and the American Dream in the US. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

I am now getting very close to turning 65, and with that comes the time to apply for Medicare if you are an American citizen. With this came my interest in comparing healthcare in Sweden and the US, which is what we will do in this episode. The U.S. health system is a mix of public and private, for-profit and nonprofit insurers and health care providers. Sweden’s universal health system is nationally regulated and locally administered. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

I compare elementary schools in Sweden and the US in today's episode. In the US, my experience is from New Jersey, which is essential since every state looks different. I have done some research online and found the most common comparisons between the two school systems, and I will add my own experience to this.So let's start. Elementary schools in Sweden and the US are similar in many ways, but there are also some significant differences. Today I will compare and contrast the two countries in terms of economy, knowledge, goals, teaching methods, grades, and curriculum, and try to add the perspective of teachers and students.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

In this episode, we look closely at the similarities and differences between Sweden and the United States using the demographics of both countries.  These statistics can help us understand each country's unique culture and history. From the political landscape to the everyday lives of its citizens, what makes these two countries alike and different? Join us as we compare and contrast Sweden and the US.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Swedish (Svenska) is an East Scandinavian language spoken in Sweden, parts of Finland, and the autonomous Aland Islands. It is the most widespread Scandinavian language.With only 10.5 million speakers, Swedish is a small language compared to English and other prominent languages. This isn't surprising because a unified version was formed less than 1,000 years ago. The languages spoken nowadays in Scandinavia developed from the Old Norse language, which was pretty much the same in present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.Today I will talk about the language and its many dialects, including some sound examples. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

 During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the mass emigration of some 1.3 million Swedes to the United States occurred.   Emigration was due to several reasons. One was the sharp population growth. Between 1825 and 1900, the number of children born yearly doubled. The difficult living conditions in cities and the country­side were also important reasons people chose to leave Sweden. In today's episode, I will talk about these questions;Why did they leave?Where did they move?Swedes in AmericaSwedish American cultureThe great emigration in books and moviesSupport the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Sometimes it surprises me what people know or think they know about Sweden. And today, I stumbled on a website called the fact file.org, and one of their articles was called 52 Interesting Facts About Sweden.  This tickled my curiosity. So in today's episode, I will review these facts and comment on them.But before we go into the facts, let's take a look at the About Us page on this website, which you can find at https://thefactfile.org/sweden-facts/Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

When I first moved to the US from Sweden, some things changed that I still today have trouble with, and I am talking about measurements. So let's look at some numbers, not considering the measurements. To give you a few examples, my height went from 157 to 5.1. My weight went from 63 to 139. My shoe sizes changed from 36 to 5. And my clothes went from 38 to 12. Of course, I was the same size as before, but the measurements had changed. I went from 157 centimeters to 5.1 feet. From 63 kilograms to 139 pounds, I don't know the reason for the shoes and the clothes, but today I am going to talk about the differences between the US imperial and metric systems. I will also look at why the US still is one of only three countries in the world that are not metric and why I think we need to change.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Today’s episode is inspired by an article on vox.com from 2017 that I accidentally stumbled on. The title of the article is I’m an American living in Sweden. Here’s why I came to embrace the higher taxes.Tom Heberlein writes the article, and I have a link to the full article at the bottom of the show notes.In the article, he says, “My wife and I have been dividing our time between jobs in Sweden and Wisconsin for the past dozen years, and I'm here to tell you that taxes in Sweden are not that high. To my surprise, I found that there are lots of things to love about the Swedish tax system.” I will use his six reasons as a starting point to discuss the Swedish taxes, if they are as high as people assume, and look at some of the bigger differences between what you get for your taxes in Sweden compared to the US. I will only look at taxes from an individual perspective, not touching the subject of corporate taxes at all. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Today I am returning to a topic I have talked about before, and that is food. It seems like many of you enjoy it when I talk about Swedish food. So today I'm gonna take a look at the calendar for special celebration days for different foods in Sweden. Some of them I have mentioned before.  and some I haven't talked about at all.Before we talk about the specific foods, you will notice that there are more special days celebrating food during the darker months of the year.If you are interested in some of the recipes, I will have them up on my website at A Swedish Fika.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

In today's episode, I will talk about something very close to my heart education, and the focus will be on primary education.I will divide this into five sections. In the first section, I want to give you an overview of the Swedish school system. Then I want to talk a little bit about our curriculum in part three. I want to talk shortly about grades and individual education plans. I will also. Do a very short description of Swedish teacher education. And finally, I will focus on my experience. I hope you will enjoy it.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

 Last Sunday, September 9th, was the election day in Sweden, and since this is a podcast about Sweden and Swedes, I had to cover that. But before we talk about the actual results of the election, and what changes it will lead to, let’s talk about the election process in Sweden.  In Sweden, the election is held on the second Sunday of September every 4th year. There are three elections held at this time;Riksdag (the parliament)Landsting (the regional assembly)Kommun (the municipal assembly) The Riksdag has 349 seats and at the moment there are eight different parties represented.  The rules for who can vote and who can become a politician and run for a seat are the same. So if you are eligible to vote you are also eligible to run for a seat. Let’s Look at the 2022 ElectionAt the time of my recording, there are still some question marks, but I will try to give you an accurate as possible picture of what happened and what the consequences will be. And just a fun fact that sometimes creates confusion, in Sweden, the left parties are represented as red parties and the right parties are blue, the opposite of here in the US where red is the color of the republicans and blue of the democrats. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

 Red cottages with white corners and other white trimmings are as iconic as Fika in Sweden. Many houses in Sweden are made of wood and need to be painted, the question is why so many are painted in the color Falu Rödfärg - Falu red?   But to tell the story about these red cottages that you can see everywhere in Sweden we must go back in time to a place called Falun, in Dalarna, in the middle of Sweden.   Actually, the history of our beloved Swedish red color begins in the 14th century, newly built or previously whitewashed stone churches were plastered with red lime paint to make them look like brick. They wanted them to resemble the magnificent Gothic cathedrals.  Today the Falu red can be seen on everything from old mansions to outbuildings and modern villas in Sweden. There are red-painted heritage buildings and the odd new office blocks. Today the tradition lives on, but the pigment has often been replaced by color.  Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

Today I want to have some fun with the Swedish language, looking at some words that sound crazy to any English speaker, translate some compound words verbatim and see if you can guess what they are, and look at some Swedish expressions and idioms that make absolutely no sense if you translate them. I will also talk about the background of the Swedish language, and how easy or hard it is to learn for an English native speaker. I hope you all will enjoy it. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

After living more than 20 years in the US as a Swede, I have thought a lot about how little Americans know about Sweden and what a small country Sweden really is. So for today's episode, I started searching the internet for the most commonly asked question about Sweden. And Swedes, and I will try and answer them as well as I can.And I will answer three categories. The first is, is Sweden blank. The second one I search for is are Swedes blank. And I then took a look at Do Swedes blank, and last but not least I will talk about some misconceptions about Sweden and Swedes that I often run into in my regular life. So let's start with the most common question I've found when asking is Sweden…Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

According to the RSF (Reporters Without Borders), World Press Freedom Index for 2022 Sweden ranks #3 just behind Norway and Denmark. The list is based on the degree of freedom journalists and news organizations have in each country and the efforts that authorities make to safeguard this freedom. Today I want to explore what freedom of speech and censorship mean in Sweden. Openness and transparency are vital parts of Swedish democracy. There are four fundamental laws that are the controlling this;the Instrument of Government (targets and rules for how the state should be organized and governed)the Freedom of the Press Act (protects freedom of speech in print)the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression (the right to express yourself and state your opinion)the Act of Succession (specifies how the royal crown is inherited when the current king or queen dies)A survey was conducted by PEW Research Center in 2019 About how democracy works in their country and we are going to take a look at the following statementsThe rights of people to express their views in public are protectedMost people have a good chance to improve their standard of livingThe court system treats everyone fairlyElected officials care what ordinary people thinkNo matter who wins an election, things do not change very muchMost politicians are corruptMost people live in areas where it is dangerous to walk around at nightAnd we will compare the answers between people in Sweden with people in the US and the world.Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia

  Although. I have lived here for 22 years now, and here in the US, there is still food that I really miss from Sweden. Food that is hard to get here, and if I really wanted, I have to cook it myself.  Today I want to talk about food. Food that I miss from Sweden. But I also want to talk about some things that I have learned to love here in the US. And some things we have both in Sweden and here in the US that are different between the two countries. So if you like food and are curious about some of the things that are hard to get over here, this is an episode for you. But before we start let me tell you a little bit about my first experiences here in the US. Support the showThank You for listening to A Swedish Fika. Subscribe to my monthly newsletterMy website, A Swedish FikaFor Support;Buy Me A Coffe shop, A Swedish Fika.PixelPia