SWEDEN - A Country Profile
2022 ж. 16 Қыр.
21 178 Рет қаралды
This video is all about Sweden, the most populous Scandinavian country and Nordic country. In this video I talk about its history, geography, people, and economy.
Langfocus Swedish video: • Swedish - The #1 North...
Swedish slang video: • Swedish Slang is INSAN...
North Germanic Languages video: • The North Germanic Lan...
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Producer, co-writer and host: Paul
Writer: James Watson
Video editor: Luis Solana Ureña (Acribus Studio)
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Images licensed from istock.com
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Creative Commons images used in this video:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Z...
Hi, everyone! Note that there’s an error in the introduction. Sweden’s population density is more like 23-24 people per square kilometer, not 5. Here are the Langfocus videos I mentioned in the video: Swedish video: kzhead.info/sun/jM2Rc8too6x_qq8/bejne.html Swedish slang video: kzhead.info/sun/n7tmoMeHb5aLYKs/bejne.html North Germanic Languages video: kzhead.info/sun/otKdpbWinnOga5E/bejne.html I hope you find them interesting!
Great Swedish video
I visited Stockholm last year and honestly I feel it's a hidden gem of Europe. It's beautiful, clean, modern, friendly, with lots to do for everyone. One of my favourite places in Europe, and I've been to quite a few!
Hidden gem, bruh
It's not very modern, thank God. That's what makes it beautiful and cozy. (Around 70% of it actually survied the socialist and postmodern destruction.)
+1 I was going to say exactly the same, I love its endless waterways!
Not modern nor Beautiful. A socialist 💩..
Vill du ha ladd?
If you’re thinking ”Svealand” and ”Sweden” sound like they are related names, then I’d say you’re sorta right (with the caviat that ”Sweden” is an exonym) The Swedish word for Sweden is ”Sverige”. If you were to use modern Swedish spelling and pronounciation while maintaing the etymology of the word ”Sverige”, you’d get something like ”Svearike” or ”Svea rike”, meaning realm/kingdom of the Svea (tribe/people). Basically, if Svealand is the name of the geographical area, Sverige is the name of the political entity/country that spawned from said geographical area.
I would love to visit Sweden due to its endless landscapes and also because their cities which have an delight architecture as you mentioned on the video. I must say, I would rather to visit in summer with the extreme long days and without any heavy freezing temperatures, I'm more a warm lover person hehe. A fun fact I would like to add, the currently most famous swedish person in the world comes from a Balkan family that emigrated to Sweden (it was before the war) the football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. By the way he's polyglot, he speaks Swedish, Bosnian, English, Spanish and Italian. He could be your friend. Another Fun fact, Sweden is one of the main powerhouses in Eurovision, 6 victories (2nd most) and 13 podiums overall. In the last decade they almost always make the top 10 (between more or less 40 countries participating overall).
I would recommend visiting Jokkmokk during winter for its winter market but also to go dog sledding during the Northern lights month. Another fun fact The biggest youtuber, (until 2021) piewpie originates in Sweden.
I have to say, I'm surprised just how well you pronounced Swedish names. Absolutely the best pronunciations I've heard in a video about Sweden 👍
Really? Jag tyckte tvärtom 💀
I think it’s good except for the high mountain 🙃
I think he's part Danish, that might help
@@poopoo1533 He is a linguist and has studied some Swedish.
@@jasminekaram880 well that helps a bit more lol
Hey Paul, an applause for your efforts to pronounce Swedish names correctly 👏👏👏 Very interesting video, and even I learned something new about my country - about the island Märket, funny story! Also just want to say that the skånska dialect is not at all closer to Danish, although we do make jokes about that in the rest of Sweden since their pronunciation retains some elements of Danish such as the guttural R. If you would ask a Dane they wouldn't understand skånska much better than any other Swedish dialect unless they've had more exposure to it (which in reality is often the case due to proximity). As always, great work!
You asked what else Swedes would like others to know: The video covers that Sweden historically (and currently) has provided natural resources such as ore and forest products. As a Swede I'm quite proud that we also have a long history of industrial inventions: we've been making ball bearings, dynamite and cars for over 100 years and we're now strong in more modern industries such as IT and pharma. (Spotify and Mincraft were both originally Swedish, for example.) And we export much more popular music than the obvious (ABBA): Swedish composers and producers have had a huge impact on the industry in the last 30 years. As for the government, you were unlucky with the timing: eight years of social democratic government came to an end less than a week ago. The welcoming attitude to refugees has also declined among the population and several political parties are also now much more hardliners than they were ten years ago. The 2015 refugee crisis changed a lot in many countries in Europe.
Don't forget inventing the pacemaker!
Every country needs to have a well rounded analysis because there are positive and negative aspects to them all. Although there are certainly negative aspects to Swedish society, the positive contributions Sweden makes to its people and the world outweighs the negative. I saw an Australian news documentary a few years ago about the changing attitudes of Swedish people towards Muslim immigrants. It's no different to the fear people experience to an influx of people with different belief systems and the changing face of familiar places. Sweden has not lost its reputation as a fair and equitable society. I have been drawn to Sweden for most of my life. I have a Danish ancestor but it is Sweden I feel the most affinity with. The natural beauty, the kindness of people, the culture of fairness. I only tasted Malmö for one day. I am coming back next month so I can experience more. I'm so excited to see more of Sweden.
@@markleon411 Oh, yes, it has nothing to do with firebombings, rapes, no go zones, the swedes are just scared of a different culture.
As a fan of melodic death metal... Thank you, Sweden ❤
While visiting Stockholm I heard about "fika" which is a playful reversal of the syllables in "coffee" and refers to a casual meetup for chatting over coffee with a friend or date. Some time later I suggested it as a date idea with a Swedish person I met, and he was very impressed that I knew about it 😁
An interesting video on an interesting country. Sweden is close to home for me, since l was raised in Finland, with an American Father. l have been numerous times in Sweden, which is very familiar to me, as l speak the language, and everything is very similar to Finland. The scenery is gorgeous.
You mentioned Umeå and Luleå being along the Norrland coast. Most local dialects drop the "å" at the end of place names, so as well as Ume (that you pronounced correctly) they would also say Lule and Pite.
I would like people to know about the ages old tradition in Sweden: Freedom to roam. It doesn't matter that the land is privately owned, you are free to walk there anyway, within certain limits of course: Don't break of branches from living trees, don't walk close to anyone's garden or across farmland with growing crops, don't litter naturally etc. In short: Take only photographs and leave only footprints. You may even camp for one night anywhere in the wilderness. Finland has similar laws, as the countries share such a long history.
DUDE Ive watched nearly all your language videos and always enjoyed your inclusion of relevant historical elements. I am so excited that not only does this channel exists, but we all get bonus prize since you decided to resurrect it. Gah i cant believe youtube never recommended this. Goes to show the algorithm is not about relevance, but control.
I wish more of these videos talked about Uppsala and gamla Uppsala, it’s Swedes fourth largest city with a ton of history behind Fantastic video! Keep it up! 👍👍
Hey Paul, you're awesome! Apart from that I'd like to correct one thing and mention that there's actually 23-24 people rather than 5 people per square kilometer.
Really nice to see this. I emigrated to middle Sweden 4 years ago from US and haven’t looked back. Great work as usual 😊
You pronounced the Swedish words fantastic!
One thing about Sweden that never get mentioned is our own distance meassuring unit mil. 10 km is 1 mil. Some of our neighboring countries also uses it, a little bit or knows about it. If you ever hear a Swede say something is 5 mil away or 783 mil away it means the distances are 50 km or 7830 km away. Or if you hear a Swede say it's a halfmil away, that's 5 km away. A handy unit bareley used outside Sweden and sadly also not a part of the metric system.
When Paul uploads, I know it gotta be good and this one doesn’t disappoint. Keep up the good work man!
I live in Finland and I don't even know how many times I have visited Sweden. Many :)
I love to hear an info on Scandinavian languages, geography etc. Norwegian, Swedish, Danish tongues are ones I like the best. Thanks for the video! Always like Scandinavian motifs!
Swedish inventions : Blow tourch - Carl Richard Nyberg Tetra pak - Ruben Rausing Kerosene stoves (Primus) - Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist Steam Turbine - Gustaf De Laval The milk separator - Gustaf de Laval Inkjet and Ultrasound - Helmuth Hertz Artificial Kidney - Nils Alwall Dry Milk - Ninni Kronberg The Celsius temperature scale also comes from a Swedish man named Anders Celsius. The first central bank in the world was Swedish, Founded 1668. Zipper - Gideon Sundbäck Propeller - John Ericsson Adjustable wrench - Johan Petter Johansson Pacemaker - Rune Elmqvist Gauge blocks - Carl Edvard Johansson Vacuum cleaner In 1942, the Swedish paper company Paulistr invented the first disposable diapers. Ball bearing AGA-lighthouse Bluetooth Mobile phones Color graphics on computers Safety matches GPS Classification of all plants & animals Padlocks Spotify Skype Kick sled Laminate flooring Wall bars - Teacher Per Henrik Ling Ring binder Sincerely Tom.
Ah ... Engineering just like Germans
Great video like always :)
I just started the journey of reading one book from each country. I thought it would be good to learn a bit about each place after I read the book. Your videos seem perfect for this. Glad I found the channel.
That sounds like a fascinating journey! I'm sure you'll learn a huge amount!
What a great idea!
I'm extremely impressed with your pronunciation!
Thanks! I’m sure it’s not perfect, but I made an effort.
What a timely video given the recent elections last weekend. However, given the loose coalitions in the government, I don't think that permanent and massive changes can be achieved in the upcoming mandate period. I have been living as a German in Sweden for 25 years now.
Such an amazing country! I just started learning swedish and would love to visit the country one day, what a boost of motivation to continue learning it
Wow Paul, I knew nothing . Fascinating video🙂
Thanks! I’m glad if it was informative. 👍🏻 I always learn a lot from these videos too (as I make them).
I moved here 13 months ago and I love it. I saw Magdalena and Nooshi at Pride
usch!
Written texts is present much older than 1000 AD, for example we have an runestone in my city from around 500 AD called Järsbergsstenen and Gears is the same as Goths who early invaded Europe and Roman Empire
Thanks!
Thank you so much for the "Super Thanks"! I truly appreciate it! :)
My wife's great-grandparents emigrated from Sweeden to Minnesota early in the 20th century. Her grandmother said she spoke only Swedish until she went to school, where she had to quickly learn English. I have since been interested in this country. Take care.
Have you seen the movies "The Emigrants" and "The New Land"? They're all about Swedes moving to Minnesota in the 19th century lol
@@dashap111 it is THE Most boring movie of all time. The first one. Its awesome to learn the history but holy damn. Had to read the book and watch the movie in Swedish class.
@@johncenashi5117 It is one of my favorite movies hahaha. I love it. I learned so much but the emotion and the realism were just so amazing. I thought it was artful and gorgeously done. I like this convo tho haha
@@dashap111 i agree with you on that. If you like realism its probably one of the best movie in that genre. Its really good made and all that. And i was like 15-16 when i saw it. So i might change my opinion if i saw it again! I mostly remember half sleeping at my desk.... hahaha
@@johncenashi5117 You saw it at a desk?!! NOO! I watched it dark at night without pausing. You end up being fully immersed that being on the boat can almost make you feel nauseous. I can't imagine seeing it in 45 minute snippets lol. I actually just watched it a few weeks ago. I'm planning on trip to Stockholm in december actually. I'm 16 btw
Soft brød is soo good I discovered it on a Sweden road trip. I recommend trying it out to everyone who gets there.
Hi, I’ve lived in Sweden all my life and I need to be honest. The absolute hardest part of living in Sweden in the winters. But not for the cold or the snow. That’s fine and I can tolerate. It’s the darkness. In the middle of winters the sun rises at 9am and sets at 3pm. Weeks after weeks of that darkness often creates seasonal depression. So you have to get used to be annually depressed. And the statistics that calls Sweden one of the happiest countries isn’t true ether. It’s a stabile and secure country but not a happy one. I myself am dying to move to another country in the future.
I'm suprised over how much you got right about sweden, even the pronounciations of some swedish words. Overall a very nice video.
The natural beauty of Sweden is amazing. It really feels like something from a fairy tale.
Check Jonna Jinton :)
Even though has spectacular scenarios, best thing about Sweden: ITS MUSIC!
Agreed! For one, they are masters of pop music
Sweden also has many skilled sports athletes, be it in ice hockey, skiing or Olympics.
I live in northernmost Sweden, a place where it can be 35-minus during winter, A place where you can see the northern light outside the window during winter and my city is known for Vulkan pizza and palt.
Hey Paul, I was just looking around your channel for the Thailand video, but I cannot find it. Did you remove the video?
Yeah, I made some of the old videos unlisted because they’re not up to my current standards. But you can find them in a playlist called “Old videos” on the playlist page. I just don’t want them showing up in searches or on my main channel page.
It's amazing how they have more islands than countries literally made up of only islands, like Indonesia
I had the same thought, although Indonesia probably has more inhabited islands
What I'd like people to know is that the population-density is 23.3 people per square kilometre, and that if a canal is something humans excavate Stockholm never needed to dig many of those since it was built on 14 islands naturally surrounded by water...
Thanks for that nice presentation of my country! Sweden is actualy quite booring, mostly woods, lakes, rivers, streams and marches, and a few citys! In anyway, Sweden and other Nordic countries was the poorest region of Europe for about 150 years ago, so 1/3 of our population left for USA, the promised land!
I suggest that you include some notable sportsperson when introducing each country, Uncle. You can introduce Marcus Ericsson (former F1 driver and now an Indy 500 winner), as well as the late great Ronnie Petersson (multiple F1 winner from the 70s who tragically died in a massive crash in Monza in 1978). Or you can also add some notable Swedish persona like PewDiePie (Felix Kjelberg).
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep it in mind.
Sports people are super niche though, I hadn't even heard of those you mentioned. I have heard of Felix Kjelberg before, but mostly in a negative way. Again, more a 15 minutes of fame guy. He will be forgotten in 20 years. If I think of Sweden, I'd say Alfred Nobel, Astrid Lindgren, Ingvar Kamprad...
There are 25 people per square kilometer in Sweden. And if you look at the southern third of the country, where 9/10 of the population lives, the population density in that part is of course significantly higher.
The Scanian dialect is not closer to danish but the pronunciations are more similar.
And of course there are Gustavus Adolphus, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Pippi Longstocking. We loved watching Pippi's movies (dubbed in English) when I was a kid. I like your maps, I hate watching a video with confusing and/or inaccurate maps.
Vänern and Vättern are mostly situated in Götaland only the northern parts are in Svealand.
There one thing that I will always remember from Sweden the awesome soldier the Carolean.
Stockholm is the biggest city in the Scandinavian peninsula. And 2ndly Sweden is home to some of the worlds best inventions like the 3 point seatbelt
Sweden is a great country in all respects. The only bad thing for me is that it'd be too cold there. BTW: I thought Canada had the most islands in the world but I think it's lakes for them.
Too cold? It's a long country and the temperature differs from north to south in the winter, also the lenght of the 4 seasons. Even in the north it can be 20-25° C or even warmer, in the summer. There's beaches there too. Besides: there's no bad weather, just bad clothing or dress sense for the season. Lakes: Canada, USA, Russia and China in that order have the most lakes. On 5th place Sweden with 22600 lakes.
@@annicaesplund6613 Yeah I know it differs but even the warmest place in Sweden would be too cold for me. I'm from Poland which is warmer than Sweden and it's too cold for me here.
Sweden is amazing! 🇸🇪
EPA-traktor is slow and nice
I smile every time I see an EPA. Especially those built from Volvo Duett. A-traktors on the other hand should be banned and demolished.
The largest lakes in Sweden aren't in Svealand, they are in Götaland (Southern part). Only the most northern part of the lakes are sticking up into Svealand
Mälaren and Hjälmaren, 3rd and 4th largest are in Svealand.
"The official language in Sweden, is Swedish of course" - Actually, it was only recently (2009) that Swedish became the official language.
De jure, yes.
Is Gotland the same as the ‘land of the Geats’ Beowulf is from?
"geats" are the "götar" from götaland, so the general south of sweden (including gotland)
@@HQinternet Ah, I see. Thanks.
@@NJ12345413 Most likely so but we don not know that for sure.
Surprised you didn't mention Dalecarlian, which despite being spoken in Sweden, is a Northwest Germanic language.
The official English name of that language is "Elfdalian". Undoubtedely interesting and may have its place in a language video about small Germanic languages, but best left out in a short video about the country of Sweden. Only a few thousand people speak it now.
@@peterandersson3812 Still sad that lang doesn't get taught more.
Are you actually “surprised”? I guess people think I’m Mr. Language Maniac guy who thinks about nothing but every language on earth all day, but I’m a regular person, and when I talk generally about a country I don’t feel the need to talk about minority languages spoken by small numbers of people.
@@GEOfocusChannel You're right. My bad. I think I still had the language switch on, since you've talked about a few minority langs for a few of these vids, ex. The Chamic branch of Austronesian in the Vietnamese vid.
It is a mistake to say that Götaland is southern Sweden and Svealand is central Sweden. Half of the Swedish population lives in Götaland. Gothenburg is located in Götaland but is not southern Sweden, it is western Sweden.
I live in a village where the last battle was fought in Sweden. It was 1809 against Russia and we still can find musket bullets and other stuff from that battle when someone is digging in the ground for housing or road development. I will say that Sweden, unfortunately, has been a part of a very toxic Europen energy market. We primarily get electricity from hydrogen power plants, wind and nuclear. Still, political decisions has made us pay the same price as russian gas in southern Sweden and we pay the same taxes for fossile free electricity as imported gas and coal energy.
vikings sure did sail around many small islands
I'd be interested to learn more about Sweden's history. Some of my ancestors left Sweden around 1850 and immigrated to the US to build wooden railroad bridges in Nebraska. I'm wondering what made them leave. What was the economy like in Sweden in 1850? What is the emigration history out of Sweden?
Sweden was a very poor country in the 1850:s. Most people who emigrated from Sweden at that time did it to be able to provide for their family. Many people lso left Sweden for religious purposes.
As above, but also run away because the law was looking for them. May I suggest you read the novels by Vilhelm Moberg or watch films based on his books. One was just realesed.
You could easily look those up online. If you are interested in family history, there should be plenty of resource that are not the comments section of a youtube channel...
Vikings also settled in Kiev and Normandy.
No mention of the results of the recent 2022 election. Those might severely affect things like immigration or the composition of the population in the coming years.
No mention of it because the videos are made before they’re released. There’s a production and release schedule.
I LOVE YOU SWEDEN
ÄLSKAR DIG SVERIGE!
Hello Paul. I love Sweden, because the country has Automotive Companies and it is a Nordic germ that is valuable.
A nordic germ? I didn't know we were that contagious!
I think Indonesia has more islands than Sweden but they didn't bother to count them all
I've heard "Venice of the North", but never "Venice of the Baltics".
Venice of the North is misleading as it's used for cities like Brugge or Amsterdam for centuries.
When I visited Sweden, my motivation was an admiration of Greta Garbo and the desire to see Stokholm, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I wasn't disappointed. Also beautiful people inside out.
I live in Sweden and this is true
😚
By far the most populated nordic country. 10.5 million. Denmark is their "smaller brother" and Iceland has only 3.7% of its population
Worth mentioning about Sweden is also how unbureaucratic the country is.
The language is the most beautiful one in the world. The climate is great. The mentality is great
I visited Sweden from New York. I found them more mixed with immigrants with numerous intercultural interfaith marriages. I found Swedes more humble and friendlier that Americans!
Sadly😢
Who is here from India? Raise ur hands
💟💙😘
Göteborg is in Bohuslän, not Västergötland
Nope! Västergötland is correct.
@@testcardsandmore1231 it is not. It’s in Region Västra Götaland if that is what is intended, very different thing from Västergötland
@@KittenCritters You're probably confusing the former län "Göteborgs och Buhuslän" with the landskap Bohuslän. Göteborg has always been part of the landskap Västergötland.
interesting, I always heard that Finland, Norway and Canada had more islands than Sweden
Together they probably do.
@@dsludge8217 Nej.
Finland has the 2nd largest amount of islands in the world. Not Norway.
You talked about Sweden's history of welcoming refugees, but failed to mention that that history is most likely coming to an end after their most recent election.
It’s awful 💔
These videos aren’t made right when they’re released. It was written and filmed several months ago, before the current elections. But anyway, people can add new information about what’s happening now.
Thank you for the video, Paul. Sweden is indeed a gorgeous country with so much beauty to enjoy. An interesting thing to observe is how the country evolved from a leftist utopia in the 60s to a divided country today, with many societal conflicts, many of which caused by the failure to fully integrate the massive immigrant population. Another shift was from very liberal country to a close ally of the US, with some shady events such as the prosecution of journalist Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
It's actually much more leftist today than it was in the 1960s. (Very much like the USA.)
ｐｒｏｍｏｓｍ ☀️
SKÅNE SOUNDS MORE LIKE DANISH!? That's bullsh.t. 😀
Maybe not "sounds" like Danish, but obviously there are many similarities between Danish and Skånska - features common to these two but different from Swedish.
There is a documentary called State of Sweden (is on Rumble), that documentary shows the true state of sweden
Hello I'm Lamont with Days of French n' Swedish.
I'm not really but y'all should go check out his channel lol
Did you know that Sweden is one of the countries in the world?
Be aware of Russian trolls in all comments of Sweden
So russians are the new jews? The ones on which you blame just about everything. (I guess it never crossed you mind that having a different opinion from the regime is legal, even in Sweden.)
I haven't seen much of that so far.
I can NOT recomend living in Sweden
Sweden is a beautiful country, the only downside things are high crimes, high ernegy crisis, inflation and failed integration of peaceful men who dislike lgbtq ppl and western women. Nothing else
@@verswmarz2754 the state can kidnapp your children
No, not now with the far right in government.
@@annicaesplund6613 not now? If Socialtjänsten gets orosanmälan they will look into everything you do in everyday life, all that sticks out that is not normal they will uce in court, if i wait in car outside kindergarten when my wife go in and bring child, they will uce that in court as reason to take my child.
@@annicaesplund6613 SD are socialists, just like everybody else in Sweden. The only truly right wing movements in Sweden would be certain religious groups and cultures.
The capital of r@p3
It's also a major hub for abortion so I have a hard time feeling bad for them. Those lefties need taken down a peg.
Wrong, we have different laws and also count indecent behavior into the statistics.
@@annicaesplund6613 We don not count indecent behavor in the rape statistics oin Sweden.
Sadly, with the righ/far-right alliance, the place might not be so friendly to those in need in the near future...
Please...
Should be a lot friendlier to it's own citizen's needs though.
I'm American and I'm OK with that 😂
You are aware that in Sweden, there are no real "Left" and "Right" parties, right? In most people's eyes, all the parties we have are quite far left.
@@Elora445 Even if the notion of left and right might change over time and location, the fact we are in a worldwide discussion over internet should be taken into account. That means in the large scale of all political movements and in a western world dominated by democracy and neo-liberalism, the social-democracy is not far left at all whereas racist ideologies and corporatism are far right by nature.
more like Swedistan xD
I would like other people to know that we are not a socialistic country and that we are a very inventive country. You probably know about several Swedish inventions without knowing it. Like: Bluetooth, Celsius, Dynamite, Gauge blocks, hose clamp, laminate flooring, plastic shopping bags (maybe not fancy now) the propeller, the plumber wrench, primus stove, zipper, gymnastic wall bars, Vodka, Tetra brik, styrofoam, spherical roll bearings, tape measure tool, spotify, flat screen monitor, Skype, Minecraft, the velocipide (early bike), GPS, ICU ventilators, ultrasound and echocardiography, pace maker, the Gamma knife, adjustable wrench, three point seat belts, safety matches, the handheld telephone, the computer mouse, the Coca Cola bottle, refrigerator, bolt cutter, three-fase electric power, rechargable batteries, the wettex re-washable dishcloth .... and so much more but highly technical stuff...
"we are not a socialistic country " oh this is just Americans mixing up social market systems with socialism because they don't even bother to look up the meaning of political and economic terms. In Europe, nobody is mixing this up.