sweden vs. norway

[cimorene]

norwegians hate swedes in much the way canadians hate americans (or auburn football fans hate alabama):  they think they're stupid and that everything is an example of this.  most americans aren't aware of this at all.  i don't know if the same is true of sweden.  but we had a norwegian exchange student when i was 14 who gave my dad a tshirt with a row of swedish flags (five) and one norwegian one that says finn fem feil, find five mistakes.  this shirt is old and worn and paint-spotted by now, and no longer fits daddy, but mom happened to pull it from the store of old shirts to wear painting the entrance hall at our house yesterday.  that's when the fun started.

lillian, quietly: i thought you weren't going to wear that shirt anymore, mom.
mom:  i didn't go anywhere.
lillian: but you weren't going to wear it.
mom: i wasn't going to wear it out of the house.
lillian: NO that's NOT why you weren't going to wear it! (in an undertone, as if hoping i wouldn't hear) you said you wouldn't wear it because we know a swedish person now!  well, a finnish person who's kind of swedish!*

*wax_jism is a swedish finn--it's a 2% or 5% minority or something like that.  swedish is actually her native tongue.  she's not recently from sweden, although the swedish finn population is all concentrated together mostly, preserving its own unique culture and whatnot via a lot of inbreeding.

Comments

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

aw. that's really kind of sweet.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

this is true. cute, too. also gobsmacking! (my brain was like: WHY wouldn't mom wear this shirt???) i told her it was fine. 'wax knows about the shirt,' i said. 'they think it's funny.'

[hollsh.livejournal.com]

hahahaha. it's a good thing wax didn't come over for a surprise visit! I'm sure thats what lillian was thinking anyway.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i know! or was it just the PRINCIPLE of wearing swedish-bashing??? the world may never know now that i foolishly laughed.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/]

Oh, that is so cute. (How old is Lillian-- older, younger?)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

twelve.

[perhael.livejournal.com]

How can the Swedes possibly be considered inferior? They invented Ikea!

We in Holland like to mock the Belgians, but with us it's not so much hate as affectionately teasing your little brother.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

well, probably because they're bigger and, while seeming to be virtually identical in every way down to the language, get 6 zillion times more international attention. also, norway resents having been a colony. but they seriously tell the kinds of jokes you tell about the opposite sports team.

"three swedish students were in the back of a pickup truck when it drove over a bridge into the river... they drowned. they couldn't get the tailgate down."

anneth, our exchange student, was really earnest about this.

"it's sad that swedish boys are the hottest because they're all so dumb, you could never marry one."

"swedish girls really are SO DUMB. if you go into a discotheque they all have the stupidest purses, like they'll carry a bag like THIS, it's like bigger than a BRIEFCASE--which is so ugly, and they're trying to DANCE with it on! all of them! it's like HELLO! take the bag OFF to dance! don't take the bag dancing! what do you need this giant bag for? it looks so stupid, it's like bumping against them as they dance, they can't dance with it... ."