Do you feel lost among these crazy blond people? Are you just curious why they do things differently from what you are used to? Among some other alternatives, there is one more chance to get some explanation – by a Swedish student.
After arriving to Lund, now course-leader Adrian Taleny met with hundreds of international students who had thousands of questions about Swedish people and customs.
– They told me they were fascinated by Sweden, especially by “pappaledighet” or daddy-vacation – which for a Swede is a normal thing, but for a foreigner is a shocking surprise. When talking to international students about fathers staying at home with the baby and carrying them around in town, I started to think maybe Sweden is a little bit really crazy…
So, Adrian decided to organize his answers and started an unofficial course on Sweden. As he is studying the Swedish society and national identity, as he says, he has much to say for a series of seminars.
Finally, he invited as many students via e-mail as he could, asked for a room at Eden and held his first class last week. Then, together with the small, but enthusiast group of students who showed up, he decided the “study plan”: start with Swedish history, then move on to politics, later to culture.
Adrian says he will also have one whole seminar for the weird Swedish things that we do not understand (such as “Jantelagen” and “lagom”).
Yesterday he talked about Swedish history. During two (and a half) hours he covered the time from the Viking Age to “IKEA Age”. As an international student said:
– Sometimes we felt lost with so many
Gustavs, Karls and Karl Gustavs, but we heard historical crime stories and action movie scenes after each other – it was really not like a History class in high school.
Moreover, the audience could hear some ”top secrets” of the country, as Adrian presented: That Swedes were actually not Vikings, but Lund was a Viking city; that there is a “taboo period” of time when Sweden acted as a conqueror; and that ABBA started a cultural revolution in Sweden by making Swedes believe that they can make good music.
The topic for next time is Swedish politics: “why Swedes love equality, high taxes and health care”. Everyone is welcome to join!
Time: 13 October, 17:00
Venue: Room 129, Eden
Anikó Mészáros
