Dumb Things Swedes Think about Americans: Part 1 of Many

The word "dumb" in the title of this post could easily be replaced by "hypocritical" and I'd still have enough for a many-parts series.

I'll start off with a superficial, easily explained one.

Swedes can often be heard to say that Americans are insincere. This is one of many conversations that start with "I was an au pair in the U.S. for a year and I noticed that EVERYONE..." or something similar. They reference the fact that service personel are overly nice, for instance saying "Have a nice day" when you leave Wal-Mart or some such. They mention the fact that, when we greet someone, we usually ask "How are you?" but, they complain, we're not genuinely interested in the answer.

I'll skip over the inside-the-box cultural bias that seems to lead them to believe all courtesy must be insincere. Just because it's a commodity severely lacking among service people (or people in general?) in this country doesn't make it insincere when found elsewhere.

Rather, I'll just let the whole argument be made by this "How are you?" business. This particular falacy is brought up in a commercial that's been playing on TV lately. It's for a telecommunications company that has a series of commercials in which they give tips for doing business in other countries. The tips are tongue-in-cheek, of course, but still based on what Swedes think is reality. They mock the Swedish man doing business in America by showing an America asking him "How are you?" and showing the Swede answering "Well, not so great, actually; I had a fight with my wife this morning."

Now, I'm a certified English teacher. I have learned both Swedish and French in a classroom. And I'm certain that I was assured in every language-type classroom setting that -- at the very least in Britain, France and Sweden -- you're never supposed to respond to a typical greeting asking you how you are by actually telling the person how you are.

If you're not convinced, my Nordic friends, imagine someone telling you about the sudden itchy rash they've developed on their anus when you ask them "Hur är läget?"