10 Things I Hate About Living in Sweden

Just a disclaimer, since many of you down here seem to think I am not Swedish. Hejhej, jag är svensk, och den här viden är från en svensk persons perspektiv. Tusen tack för alla kommentarer, ni är alla gullpluttar! ^^

I just spent 9 minutes watching a video on why Sweden is terrible and couldn’t stop thinking about how much I want to live in Sweden the entire time

I'm a sunlight-hating introvert who doesn't drink. Sounds like I should move to Sweden.

I love the dark, don't drink, don't mind winter and hate interactions with people. This place sounds perfect!

I was visiting a friend and her family in Sweden and was taken on a tour by my friend’s mother who by Swedish standards was considered quite eccentric, which every Swede we encountered on our tour took pains to let me know. Namely she talked to strangers, was irreverent and I am sure other qualities I failed to notice because I am from New York and used to just about every form of eccentricity and it doesn’t ruffle a feather. It struck me that her life must have been very frustrating, having her wings clipped at every turn and being branded weird, when in fact she was quite brilliant and charmingly engaging, from my perspective.

If you replace 'Sweden' with 'Finland' it's still 100% accurate as well

"...You're surrounded by so many %$#& people, it's impossible to feel alienated or out of place because there's always going to be someone who's even weirder than you are." And this is why I love big cities.

The grass is always greener, my dude.

Sweden seems the exact opposite of where I live (Southwestern US). It's clean, with excellent public services, the people keep to themselves, and the sun isn't there to give you melanoma every time you walk outside to get the mail. I want to go there!

Having lived 8 years in Japan and 9 years in the USA, I am ready to return to my home country, Finland. In the above video you could pretty much replace Swedish with Finnish, Sweden with Finland, Stockholm with Helsinki, and Systembolaget with Alko and everything would be true.

Something I really hate about Sweden is that during holidays you can't find any open businesses (cafes, restaurants etc.). I understand people's right to rest and spend time with their loved ones, but if you are on your own (for example, because you've just moved there) it really sucks to not even be able to treat yourself to a cup of coffee. In my experience, this is particularly true during Christmas time: everyone is expected to stay home with their family, but if you can't do that you're in for some shitty days! The fact that this happens in the middle of the depressing Swedish winter, when you may already be emotionally tired, doesn't help.

Yes, one of the things I couldn't get used to is this lack of eye contact. I lived in a big city and still felled I did not exist. If I needed to have a small talk I had to go to a shop to buy something...I had a hard times there.

I've been to Stockholm, Uppsala and a few other places in Sweden and it's probably one of my favourite places ever. Stockholm is actually a big city with a population of almost 1 million people (big for European standards) but you're right, it doesn't feel that way. Probably because it's so spread out and there aren't that many people just hanging out on the streets. Swedes are busy bees and they keep to themselves but they're always kind and helpful. I felt safe at all times and everything runs smoothly, not to mention how clean the city is. The public transport is probably the best in the world, only Japan can compete with it. As a result most people in Stockholm don't even own cars, so there's way less car pollution.What I probably loved most is that it's essentially spread out over these little islands all connected with tiny bridges. There's water everywhere you turn. A beautiful place, truly. Swedes, be proud of your country.

Thank you for this video. As a Swede (albeit one who doesn't live in Sweden) I find it refreshing to see videos where people talk about the very real downsides of Sweden. Everyone praises the usual stuff, and rightly so, but a lot of people seem afraid to talk about the bad stuff. And there is bad stuff. Which I guess is natural, some people will get offended if you say anything bad at all about their country or about what they like, so content creators sometimes avoid this kind of video just to not have to deal with the backlash from an angry minority.

As a Swede, my take on "JanteLagen" is "Remember, there always someone better than you...." Be proud, be humble, becuse your record will be broken....

Hej hej, another Swedish person here. Short background: I've lived in France for two years and one year in England. I have several good friends from other countries and also spent a lot of time with international students and researchers here in Sweden, so I know quite a lot about many foreign cultures. Regarding "#2 Swedes are like refrigerators", I couldn't agree more! There are TONS of rules for how Swedish people should interract with other Swedish people in Sweden, in our everyday life. One thing I have come to observe is that most Swedes don't seem to realise how incredibly complicated our culture really is when it comes to socializing. They don't know how to help foreigners make Swedish friends because they barely know themselves how they do it. I'm a bit autistic, so I spent my whole life observing human interaction and how to behave "properly", and according to the Swedish social rules, so I can tell you; it's VERY complicated. I should probably write a book about it.

Funny honest strait-talk video, so cheers for that. I had a similar love/hate time as an American living in Germany (I had a German girlfriend who I met on holiday in Australia). Germans tend to be more loose and free and extrovert and open-minded when they are out of their country, but fall in love with one of them and follow them back to their homeland and they suddenly become boring and less interesting, go figure. Also it's almost forbidden to make casual talk with strangers, even in a pub, as in you need to be introduced by a mutual friend first. On public transport they all stare at the floor and refuse to make eye contact or smile at each other. During my time in Germany I went to India for three months and returned fully tanned and wearing bright colors and feeling very joyful and extroverted, but no, upon returning to Germany my attitude was shunned and I had to go back to wearing black and grey clothes and shut the f*ck up, stop being so happy dammit. Also the language, for example on a nice evening I would hear the sound of crickets (grasshoppers) and say how lovely it was, but in German, "das ist eine Heuschrecke!" like you just violated some severe rule of law by mentioning it. Ok to be fair there were things I loved in Germany, like Christmas which is done with some great traditions and minimal materialism, and they have great bicycle paths so you can go everywhere under your own two-wheeled power, and ironically despite the uptight social attitudes in Summer you can take off all your clothes to sunbathe and swim in a lake with hundreds of other naked people with no sense of shame whatsoever. And you can drive on the Autobahn at ridiculous high speed as long as your car is up to the task. I could go on and on about the loves and the hates of living in Germany, but now I live in a rice field in northern Thailand which has a very different list of loves and non-loves, but at least I don't hate it, except for maybe the death wish they have on the roads driving like idiots. ;-)

I spend lots of time there. You are totally cool to see these things. One time I bought vegetables from a stand. The next day I was walking with my sister in law and I said hi to the vegetable guy. My sister in law was shocked. Do you know him. Well, I do now because I met him yesterday. But you don’t know him. Well, fuck yea I do, I met him when I was buying vegetables. Jesus Christ. You are the next generation Swede. It makes me so happy

The not talking to strangers thing is mostly because people in sweden dont want to bother other people and they themselves want to just mind what they are doing. But if something does happen or a stranger does come, there is many swedes that do help out and maybe talk.

i lived in denmark 2 years , it was boring to death , cold , dark and depressing, and people avoided me like the plague. then i came to london , its crazy but i love it ♥