10 Millimeters makes 1 Centimeter 10 cm makes 1 decimeter 10 decimeters makes one meter 1000 meters makes one km 10 km makes a mil Is this not an easier way to measure a distance than an imperial way? And we will not even go into Fahrenheit. Hope you enjoy your stay here. We are a strange but lovely people
Indeed. Divide or multiply by ten. It can't get easier than that. And also, metric is the standardized system of measurement in industry which means that even if spanners and other tools are in inches, that measurement is still based on the millimeter system, so they may just as well switch to metric.
The only problem here is that the 10km mil is not actually a part of the international metric system. It makes sense to YOU only because YOU are used to it. The proper internationally recognized metric term is 10km. If you wish to use fewer digits, the next prefix up in the metric system is megameter (Mm). 20mil = 200km = 0.2Mm
The Swedish mile or Scandinavian mile was a standard from the medieval era and was used to mark the distance between natural breaks, at that time it was based on feet and was different in the different Scandinavian countries. With the introduction of the metric system, it was redefined to 10 km, as that was the closest even large number based on meters. I definitely agree it’s weird, but also a part of our history, you can still see some old road signs in stone on the country side.
@@flonnblad And one mil is defiinately better than the alternative myriameter which I have seen in old teaching materials, one Myriameter is 10,000 meters. Which also means that there is a strict definition of how much a Myriad is :-)
@@flonnblad @Timmy Brolin It is partly history for sure, but it's also about convenience in language. If I say: Between Örebro and Stockholm there is (and then) "två hundra kilometer.", that is 7 syllables. If I get to say "tjugo mil" at the end of that sentence instead, that's only 3. It conveys something just as precise in more than half the amount of effort, and I think that's the real appeal of "mil".
Agree, I don´t get why anyone would want to untie the laces of their sneakers everytime they´re putting them on. I actually have some friends who didn´t have shoehorns. Now they do have shoehorns.
@Josh Yates Not everyone does. Many places you have carpets and walks in with shoes regardless. That is a fact. It depends on where you live probably. Social media is full of discussions and facts about this issue.
@Josh Yates That is such an unnecessary remark, to use disabled and elderly as an insult to throw at people. Just because of the tamest joking jab about Americans not getting why people like using shoehorns. You obviously don't need to be using shoe horns, I live in Sweden and don't really use them, it's not a big deal, but if you're going to visit another country I hope you leave this attitude and disrespect at home. We don't represent all the people in our country, and other people in your country should be very thankful we don't consider you a representative of them.
I cannot imagine how you can possibly put on your shoes without a shoehorn. That must be extremely difficult. This is absolutely no swedish thing, it's an absolute necessity for me.
”Mil” actually make perfect sense. Why dont you just say 200 kilometer? Well, why dont you just say 200 000 meter? I understand the confusion regarding the ”name” mil. So your issue should actually be the name of the measurment, and not the logic in use of the measurment.
Its also a Norwegian thing. 10 km is "1 mil" just like 10 mm is 1 cm - and its useful :) I guess its just confusing cus it sounds the same as "mile". Maybe the offence is we didn't call it 1 desi kilometre or something like that..?
The "problem" is that we scandinavians translate mil as miles. Mil and miles are not the same. So, in an english context, saying 200 kilometers would be better.
Mile actually is the English translation of Swedish mil, so it’s not a translation error but a conversion error. Different countries have, both today and historically, different miles: Roman mile (romersk mil) at about 1,479 m Nautical mile (nautisk mil a.k.a ”sjömil”) at 1,852 m Chinese mile (li) at 500 m English (/American) mile (engelsk mil) at 1,609.344 m Scandinavian mile (Norway, Sweden and occasionally Finland) at 10,000 m
I'll just say this once and for all regarding shoehorns. Sweden like the rest of Northern Europe has a no shoe indoors policy, combined with very small hallways in apartments and harsh winters the shoehorns are a gift from above. Because when you put on your double or maybe ever triple layer pants, comfy scarf, warm hat, and heavy winter's coat you are not in position to bend knees down to put on boots in the very small hallway. So the shoehorn solves the issue of not having to risk tripping over and like a turtle on its back recover. Plus it eliminates tearing on the back end of the shoe from the repeated friction motion, so it makes shoes last longer.
So good to see this comment! In a country where you don't wear shoes indoors (at home at least) it shouldn't be hard to understand the use of shoehorns. 😂 Also, if you read the instructions on how to care for your shoes, using shoehorns reduces wear and tear on the inside of the heal.
We actually don't really like Amazon and not many Swedes are buying from them now that they're in Sweden. The reason is the poor conditions for the workers. In Sweden worker's rights are really important and we have strong trade unions. So the launch of Amazon in Sweden was not really something most of us liked.
Jesus, imagine thinking we Swedes do not like Amazon because of working conditions. Biggest double standards ever. We do not like Amazon because it is crap in general. Expensive asf, their site is catastrophic etc.
@@vivalabraga Yeah, the Amazon site is awful especially when they try to translate to Swedish, i like buying online, but if it is one site that almost makes me not want to buy things its Amazon.
we use shoehorns in whole Europe. it makes it easier to put your shoes on. I'm french and we have always used shoehorns in France. And living in Sweden i use it several times daily. Especially since i never untie my shoes.
The "Swedish Mile" (which is also used in Finland and Norway) is from the 17th century, so it's basically older than the USA, but it wasn't standardised until the 19th century when SI units were introduced in Sweden. There are still super old mile stones standing here and there along old roads all around Sweden.
Så jäkla kul att alla svenskar undermedvetet bestämt sig för att amazon är jordens avskum och ska utrotas. Och jag är inget undantag och vet inte varför lol
@@assarstromblad3280 well de sålde vapen och knark på sin sajt vid öppnandet så.... jag såg också en kattkoja, likt ett krypin i fleece, som såldes som reptilgrotta, den skulle "hjälpa min ödla att fälla sin päls"...... pinsamt dåligt.
As a swede I always get really shocked when i can hear peoples real voice on shows like cops, or like in "To catch a predator" where they show their voice, face and name! I can't get used to it. The robot voice is epic. You can't live without it, that's illegal! Ring åklagarn!
That is not true one bit. I live in Stockholm and have my entire life and everything I see here is common everywhere i have been in Sweden. Most parts do it the same from what I have seen.
@@kingwacky184 i altso live in stockholm, stockholm is very different in many aspects. Every are if sweden is different from the rest. Sweden is a big country and the culture is different everywhere you go, ofcourse the difference isnt huge but there is a difference. For example saying hi to a stranger in stockholm would be weird. But if you live more in the country side it wouldnt be weird at all.
@@kingwacky184 it is common for Stockholmers to be a little more ignorant of the rest of sweden than people from the rest of Sweden. I've lived 18 years in Stockholm, but was raised in the countryside, and am now living in a small town in Småland. Many friends born and raised in sthlm are less knowledgeable when it comes to other regions. Maybe because when you live in sthlm everything is available and there's not much need to travel outside of Stockholm and it's vicinity.
Packages can be home delivered often, any time you order something online you get several shipping options on checkout. We dont like delivery men ringing our door and giving us social anxiety, better to pick it up at nearest store (which you will be at anyway regurarly)
And some services like Earlybird, Morgontidig leverans (early morning delivery), etc will, if the item does not fit into you mailbox/slot, place it by the door, bag on the door knob or hook it to your mailbox. Then there's the locker services where you can have the package deliver to a locker in a store/mall you frequent/often pass etc. and you get a code by SMS to unlock.
Also, since most of us don't really like to wait for one of these companies to pretend to make a delivery attempt and then leave it a store a day later, we rather just have it sent there immediately.
Well, when we do get the packages "to the door" many times you will just get a text from PostNord (PostMord) saying that they tried delivering it and that it is now at a post office. EVEN WHEN YOU WHERE HOME WHEN THEY SUPPOSEDLY TRIED TO DELIVER IT! I'm not mad...
As a Swede that live in Canada I'm surprised that you didn't mention how Swedes love to form organizations, I think there is an old joke about when three Swedes get together they elect a President, treasurer and a secretary - and I think that's pretty true lol
That is true about Norway as well. That's often how we gain influence in this country. Bigger the organisation the more influense. If you are the only one with a certain issue you're likely to have very little influence.
Was just gonna say, americans don’t need shoehorns because you never take off your shoes?? If you are constantly putting your shoes on after taking them off you don’t wanna unlace them every time? So the shoehorn saves time
@@88marome I think most people will be understanding of people from other countries not knowing or forgetting to take shoes off at the door, and just politely remind them that we usually do that here. If someone burns bridges over things like these, that are virtually never in bad faith(more like honest ignorance or force of habit) I don't know if people are missing out when their invites get revoked lol
A little help! As Swedes, we do not laugh at our way of life. We are proud of how we live. Here are the explanations: 2:13 Customer service, I can agree that something is wrong here. 3:44 No cash. This has led to robberies against banks and shops has basically disappeared. But with the help of Bank code, we can transfer money from the accounts we have via cellphone. We can also pay with Swich. We can also use Swish between us privately. If I ask a friend of mine to buy a thing from a store that I do not have time to visit but need the thing XX for the evening. Then I can use Swish and transfer money using that Bank ID to that person's bank account. 4:25 Queue system with number. Swedes love order and Justice. They do not know you have a case. They are used to taking a note with a queue number. 5:49 The reason why there are no fountains is that the pipes to the fountains must be dug down at least 2 meters (6ft) otherwise there is a risk that they will freeze if there is a long cold winter. Fountains can often only be used for four, maybe a maximum of five months. then they must be discharged into water. Risk of them freezing! 6:03 Singing at parties and also for spirits has been a tradition since Viking times. About 1000 years ago. Do not forget that the United States is young! 6:44 Sweden and Norway use miles pronounced "meal". There are in Scandinavia Nautical mil and Sea mil. Sea mil is 1852 meters. Sweden and Norway also had land mil. That were in Norway 11,295 m and in Sweden 10688 meters. Norway and Sweden decided during the Union (which Sweden and Norway had 1814 to 1905) to agree that 10 Km = 1 mil. Sweden and Norway are the only countries in the world that uses 10 x 1Km = 1 mil. 9:42 Shoehorn. In the United States that is not an Arctic country in the United States retains you put on your shoes inside. We do not do that in Sweden. If we did not use shoehorns, we would wear out the shoes. We would need to tie up and tie the shoes many times a day. Shoe horns are not so strange!
Paddel is kind of new in Sweden, came a couple of years ago. For the last 10-20 years different sportactivities have been trending, much like fashion. Before paddel it was climbing, before that it was bicycling and before that squash and so on.
The Scandinavian mile is technically a remnant of the old Swedish imperial measurements. It was originally 18,000 alnar (cubits). And that was almost exactly 10 km so it stuck around.
I hear foreigners comment on Swedish queuing and I'm just like... how the hell do you function without it? Wouldn't it be terribly chaotic to not wait in line?
I have heard of a system in a different country where you take off your shoes and they que for you. When a "person" comes to the que this person moves everyone's shoes forward and places his shoes at the end of the que.
People wait in line in other countries too, but it's natural lines, you don't need a machine for it. You stand in line, even if it takes 30 minutes, no taking a number and having a seat.
@@zynius Oh really? Because most places here don't have machines, you just physically stand in line, and I've heard lots of foreigners say that's a distinctly Swedish phenomenon. Which I took for granted was the truth (particularly after seeing videos of Americans practically creating a stampede on Black Friday lol)
Getting this in my recommended 1 month after posting, obviously going to the comments to see if my fellow Swedes had done their job in explaining Mil and Shoehorns. I am very proud of their work! There are probably already comments about the blurring and robotic voice, but I couldn't see any of them explaining it so here goes (with a bit of added fun): It's actually illegal to not protect their identity, and even things like their voice - that in some cases can be very specific for a person - isn't allowed to be in the shows since that might be used to reveal their identity. If a person isn't convicted of a crime you're not allowed to show anything that can reveal their identity basically. These rules has been eased up the last couple of years, but when I was younger even pictures in newspapers like "Have you seen this person?" were pixelated to the point of no recognition. Which made it virtually impossible to know if you had seen the person they suspected of a crime because the picture could resemble both your grandfather and your dog at the same time. Oh well, enough of this mini-rant. Hope you all have a great day!
Sjorhorns are extremly good for keeping your shoes nice. If you take them of snd put them on all the time withput shoehorn you either have to untie and then tie them. If you use a shoehorn the back of the shoe stays fresh and doesn’t brake and you don’t have to keep undoing them all the time. It is actually so much faster!
It's still the metric system. 10km is 1 metric mile. It's the same mile in France and Germany or even Japan. It's easier to say 20 miles than 200 km. Same way you say 1 foot instead of 12 inches. Edit: I stand corrected. Apparently Scandinavians are the only ones that use mil. You learn something new every day.
@@SailorYuki No that's not the same. In english miles is a different unit, and translating mil to miles causes confusion among english speakers who are used to imperials.
yeah, but we french people just use km. we would never say 1 mil instead of 10km: i've been living in sweden for almost 18 years and this swedish mile thing still disturbs me. LOL
@@TullaRask Mile is the correct English translation for Swedish mil. It’s not a translation error, it’s a conversion error. The Scandinavian mile (10 km) is a uniquely Swedish and Norwegian thing.
@@NaJk93 Lite sen men jag är från Finland och mil används inte här. Vi vet att det finns och vad det står för men jag blir alltid förvirrad i Sverige när sträckor anges i mil. Måste tänka en extra gång! Samma sak med hekto. Används inte i Finland.
One mil is 10km, it fits perfectly into the metric system. And it's useful in making shorter numbers, much the same way one wouldn't use grams for weighing a pesrson. Also, shoehorns are useful for certain types of shoes.
Swede here. I agree with you with the most parts... But... 1. the queue thing... Just respect the queue. 2. 1 mile is 10 km. It makes sence in all of europe 3. Just like American football, it´s your country only. 4. The shoehorn is more used in Sweden, as we don´t wear our shoes inside and make it easier for people to put them on when leaving.
Shoehorns are great if you can use them to get away from having to tie your shoe laces - which is especially nice for elderly as they often don't want to bend down if they can avoid it because of back pain/ache :P If you're having a bit a trouble getting in your shoes because they're too narrow, they shoehorns help you aswell and you won't have to tug away at the heel/back end of your shoes as that will wear them out a bit quicker :P
Your list shows stuff that's underrated and that's the cool thing about it. I never would've guessed stuff such as the packages, and in the end, it's info other youtube channels don't tell you about, so thanks ♡
I mean, 20 “Swedish miles” makes perfect sense. It’s just like using “kilometer” instead of “meter”. So you saying that you can just say 200 kilometers and that the “Swedish mile” makes no sense, is the same as me saying that kilometers makes no sense because you can just say “1000 meters”, or that kilograms is illogical and you should just use 1000g.
I see that there is already several comments about the Swedish "mil". If you check the "Scandinavian mile" in English Wikipedia you see that the Swedish and Norwegian "mil" was defined as 36,000 feet, but Norway had longer (bigger?) feet than Sweden. Swedish "mil" was 10,688 meter, Norwegian "mil" was 11,295 meter. Despite Norway and Sweden being in a union, the metric system was introduced in Norway 1875 and in Sweden 1879. I don't really know, but I guess the union was a contributing reason to redefine the "mil" to 10 kilometers. Note however that the Danish coordinated "mil" is 7532 meters since 1835, where there previous was different "mil" or "miil". The Finish "peninkulma" is also 10 km nowadays, but literally was "the distance at which you can hear a dog" if I understood it correctly.
Shoehorns are a lifesaver! When I hurt my back I seriously couldn’t put on shoes without a shoehorn, they are the greatest. They also help your shoes to live longer because you don’t damage the heel of the shoes as much when using a shoehorn.
Okay this may not be a common sentiment, but I get genuinely flustered any time a package is delivered to my door. For one, you need to be around to sign for it, which can be tricky depending on your schedule, and I personally get very anxious about people seeing me in lounge wear, or catching a glimpse of my disorganised hallway or kitchen or whatever, not to mention having to talk to a stranger. Besides, most of the time the store your package is sent to is your closest grocery store (we rarely have to cover the sort of distance some people in the US may have to), so it's supposed to make it easy to just pick up a package along with a carton of milk or whatever? And, as a final note, environment. Even if I had the option for front-door delivery, I wouldn't take it, because just the thought of adding my name to a list that will contribute unnecessarily to emissions fills me with environmental guilt. Rather just walk or hop on my bike.
Agreed, I prefer to have them to a service center, I go by the shop at least 2-3 times a week anyway, not a big problem to wait a day and if not, its just 10 minutes at foot or 4 by car if its a large one anyway :) Would be a different thing if it was a long way to go. Also, my house is right beside a quite heavily used walking/bicycling path which means there could be a hundred people passing within 10 meters of that package between when its delivered and when I get home, lots of opportunities for theft.
I'm Norwegian, and one of my mates gave me one of those long shoehorns as a birthday present once. And I absolutely love it. I use it all the time, and it makes things so much easier. It's awesome.
Great video! About the swedish mil. It does make sense, or atleast simplifies a distance. It's easier to use fewer numbers, otherwise you might aswell say 200000m. But I understand that it must be confusing when not used to having used it your whole life. Especially when you're used to the imperial mile! Cheers :)
In fact, we've had the mileage for centuries. From the middle of the 17th century, it was standardized and became just over 10.6 km. The mile comes from the Latin mille = the Roman soldier's double step and was then barely 1.5 km.
But the main reason is to completely hide the identity of people involved due to much stricter privacy laws. Any time law enforcement is involved, the identity of others is to be protected.
About postal services and package pickup. It's cost and environment question in play. Shipping companies asks always (If the function or service is available) if you want it to be shipped to nearest postal service desk or your door. Companies always provide the closest postal service/pick-up point, so you can walk down and pick it up at the point (Usually it's a grocery store) - This way you will keep your and the company shipping the package costs down, also minimize the use of transportation and preserve the environment. We are quite big on the "Save the planet" thing :D Granted, some small communities or with no close pick-up point can choose to have the package shipped to their door. But usually in those instances, even then people tend to pick the option of getting their package at the pick-up point. Which as I said, usually a grocery store, that is conveniently along the way back home from work where I tend to stop to get groceries for the dinner that evening :D Sorry for the late comment, just got your video popped up and I got intrigued.
As people pointed out you can often get home delivery at a higher price. Since we have minimum wage higher than pocket change and high gas prices, home delivery is often pretty expensive.
@@AlexKall Not by law. By the Union, kind of. And no, not all companies have kollektivavtal. But you get the point. If you want to be picky it's not pocket change in the US either...
The "Swedish shuffle" sounds like when I tried to go through customs at LAX. I was sent to stand in so many different cues just to end up in the first one I stood in before being let in the country. It took me about 1,5h. So it seems to be an universal thing.
A Swedish/Norwegian mile is 18000 cubits (alnar / alen) long, later reused as 10km due to it's appropriate the same length. Why use it... 5 mil = 2 syllables 50 kilometer = 7 syllables.. An other reason is one less significant number..
A funny thing when you are talking about cars in Sweden vs Norway is that norwegians always say a car has xxxxkm on the odometer while a swede talks about xxxmil.
Imported (adopted) Swede here. Loved the vid! Specifically for going for things not usually found on the regular "Top ten differences...." vids about Sweden that you can find. :) No. 3 brought a big smile to my face. Absolutely not saying you are wrong but still made me smile. Same with No 8 :) I think I have at least 3 shoe horns, but almost never use them (like low single digit numbers per year).Regarding our lack of water fountains... If I go out for a walk in the city and have a water bottle that could use a refill (I usually carry an old ½ liter bottle during summer or otherwise warmer days), I just walk into basically any café or store and politely ask if I could refill my bottle, and have yet to be denied :). Really hope you will like your stay and looking forward to future videos :) Ps. If you want/need tips on traversing any cultural barriers, just ask :) d.s.
Well we used amazon UK, US or Germany until we got it and packages do get delivered to your door if you choose that delivery option but yes standard is to the the closest pick up point.
Another point for the shoehorn even if you don't personally use it is in case you have a visitor who needs one for whatever reason. Stiff or achy joints, balance difficulties etc etc. It's a courtesy thing. Amplified by the fact that Swedes take their shoes off when they come home or visit other people's homes as to not drag muck from outside indoors. Again, a courtesy thing. This is also the reason you often find a chair or bench close to the door or shoe rack. So guests can sit down while putting their shoes on. Not a jab on the shoehorn confusion, btw, just some context lol Enjoy your stay!
shoehorn is the BEST thing i've ever seen! it's perfect I love that so much. as a Thai person and been in sweden for 1 year. we Thai take off our shose when entering a house too and so i love that shoehorn!
You're not wrong about the shoehorn situation. I've always used them.. and now that I'm in my 50's.. well.. they are great. Eventually You'll see the light. (Yes, I'm a swede.. well duuh.) ;)
There actually used to be public drinking fountains in Sweden. They became less and less common due to maintainence/sanitary issues. Last one I saw was in Örebro and that was rusty and gross by the mid 1980's.
Yeah, this customer service thing is quite frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if they split up responsibilities too much just in order to create more jobs for themselves.
I believe most most large businesses in most nations have a similar system for callcentre support. There are usually several lines of support with different knowledge. The first person you talk to is in the first line support. They are the frontline and have broad knowledge and can handle most everyday cases. If they are unable to solve the problem, they send you the second line support. Second line support handle the time consuming problems or problems that are to technical for the first line. They are likely not the people that interact on social media. Some businesses may even have other lines that are specialists in handling specific technical problems that require specialist training. So when you are redirected to the first line after talking to second line, it’s usually because first line had misinterpreted your initial question or that second line has actually done something behind the scenes that makes it possible for first line to handle the case.
About the Customer service - I'd argue it is based on if you are trying to get a refund from a store, or if you are talking to someone in a company or within the government. It is a bit kliche almost but, "In sweden we have a system". There is a pre-defined path that every issue must take. You need to talk to the first person in the chain who can then send it to the next person in the right department who then sends it to their specialists. We have loads of those systems to try to catch every possible situation, but if your issue is not a perfect fit for one of those categories then we are not sure what to do. As you mentioned, you got sent from one person to another, and could probably be sent back to the first person again after a while. It's like your Tuition issue. First you called the receptionist, who connected you to the economy department. The Economyderpartment connected you to the people who handles tuition, who in turn connected you to the tuition-team who works with your country of origin. If you are at university (since you say you had to sort tuition) then be ready for Sweden, the Country of Bureaucracy!
Shoehorns are used to easily put your foot in the shoe, great for older people that csn't bend down to their shoes. It also prevents the back part of the shoe getting destroyed by your heel if you just force your foot in. God tier accessory.
Regarding packages: so much dishonest in that piece. It all depends on the site you order from. Most sites let YOU decide wheter or not you want it shipped to your apartment/door or the closest convenience store (that acts as a post office). You can also choose to get notified when the package has arrived, how to get notified and lastly; how fast you want it delivered (usually with a price difference of $1-2). Also a bit dishonest to say "take a trip" to the post office. Most swedes living in a city has a maximum of 10mins walking distance to a convenience store. And if you don't - you usually live in a house. And if you live in a house - just get it delivered to your door. Package thieves aren't as big of an issue in Sweden as in the US. And if you're afraid of it being lost, you can most of the times ask the delivery company, while ordering a product, to ring on your door bell when the package has arrived. If you by some reason don't live close to convenience store, can't get it shipped home (the option might not be available for that certain product or webpage), aren't home during working hours and aren't bothered to get it from a convenience store - you can most of the time get it delivered to your workplace.
The Scandinavian mile makes a lot of sense based in you guessed it: history. In olden times, the Scandinavian roads had mile stones placed at an interval of 36.000 feet. That converts to roughly 10 km depending on the foot measurement used. When Scandinavia introduced the metric system, the mile stones were left behind and the concept of a "mil" was kept, but now set to 10 km/10.000 m.
Shoe horns are mainly for tight shoes or shoes that can easily get creases in the back, think about any kind of dress shoe/boots. Most people don't use them that often but has one hanging at the entrance :P. I agree with you on the robot voices though, some of them are so extreme that there is no way you can hear what they are saying lol. But I feel like there are situations where it should be used, for example someone who is being in danger (victim of some sort) or maybe when people can loose their job etc. The country is quite small and has a lot more variety in dialects, so even if you blur their face they can be easily recognized from their voice. Kul video iallafalll, hoppas du laddar upp mera :)
You can have packages delivered at home, but if you're not at home when they deliver it, they leave you a note (or text message or similar) letting you know where you can get it or what phone number to call to have it delivered again.
Interesting video! As you mentioned in the intro you brought up some really specific points that aren't as well known and that we don't always think about.
I am a swedish student in Uppsala and we have a whole book for our drinking songs, it's called a "sångbok" and is really fun! :) Also, paddel is a cult in sweden. Everybody plays paddel and it's very popular.
When you live in a country that is 2035 KM long and the avg distance between cities/towns is about 20 km, you tend to want to lower the numbers somewhat. Also most cars count fuel usage in Liter/10 KM and a car use to run on 1/10 (0.6/10 now days) so it was also an easy way to calculate fuel usage on trips in casual conversations.
Fun to listen to your perspective. I always use chat or e mail for costumer service. Takes too long (in actual working time) otherwise. So you are definitely right about the calling. On the packages. It is in some ways a step up that you can get them from every other store on the corner now. Whereas before you had to go to the post office. And there were not so many. So you had to take a looong trip. At least a Swedish mile. 😉
I love this! You're right, I've heard all about fika like a million times but never any of these things! I would definitely like to hear more weird things you've noticed!! Also lol shoehorns... Icelanders also love them?! no clue why.
One thing that is good to know is that it can be next to impossible to buy a ticket for a train ride on short notice if you're in a place where the train station is unstaffed . Only way is to order it via online purchase sites. Make sure to have a smart phone.
It really sounds like you object to traditions that are different than yours. The service issue is very similar in the US, depending on Business, you are talking to. Shoehorns are used in the US as well, but are more common in Sweden, because it is considered rude to wear your shoes indoors. In the winter months you tend to have very dirty, and rugged shoes, so many people carry slippers when they enter a home. Mil are covered by many others here, so you understand. The queuing systems are made so they can handle volume. It will seem silly when you are alone, but the situation you describe, when the attendant was not in the room, how does he/she know that you did not get a ticket? If this has happened to you countless times, its more a question of learning. The singing at dinners is a tradition, that is mostly around snaps, there are songs that date back hundreds of years, some are bawdy, some are romantic, I suggest learning some of them. A dear friend of mine said that as his grandfather grew deeper into dementia, he did not recognize him, but he recited three “nubbe visor” he had never heard. There are reasons why traditions are created, some may be irritating, but just think what other cultures think of Americans.
The customer service one is spot on dude. It's probably the thing I hate most about this country, except maybe for the abysmal opening hours for shops. This summer we had bees in my parents' chimney so my mother called Anticimex to come and have the hive removed. The first person my mother talked to said "oh yeah no problem, I'll refer you to my colleague and they'll send someone." But when she spoke to that person they told her that they don't remove beehives and that we should call a bee keeper instead. I thought that was really weird but since that's what they said we were like alright I guess we'll look for a local bee keeper. They in turn told us that no, since the hive is in the chimney we should call a chimney sweep. So we did. I don't remember who ended up coming to fix it but we had to talk to like 5 people before we actually got help and it took a loooong ass time. This is my experience almost every time I call customer service, it's like no one wants to actually do their job to help you so they just keep referring you to others so they don't have to bother. Extremely frustrating and time consuming.
Mil is an old unit, but it still makes perfect sense to use since it's standardized to fit metric. Shoehorns make perfect sense when you need proper winter boots and you regularly take off your shoes indoors. Being bounced around customer service is because the purpose isn't to solve your problem, it's to prevent people from calling directly to the people who do the important work. It's annoying to be at the other end of it, but it works wonders as a spam filter. Sometimes it's a callback system. I'm not saying this to criticise, just to give some perspective.
I know this video is two years old, but I have to say… I live in New Jersey, USA and I always use a shoe horn. I actually recently bought a new one on Amazon. It's a wooden one, and even when I was a child growing up, my parents always had some type of shoe horn in the house. 😀👍
Regarding ques: Went to the Systembolaget this afternoon. No one was queing outside, but the store was full (no one was allowed to enter). There was this attendant outside telling me so, and hence I tried to figure out were the Line was supposed to start (from left of the entrance, of from the right). While thinking 🤔, this local came up and stood to the left, upon which one customer left the store, and enters she, nonchalantly allthough I was the first one there. Had to just suck it up, not having managed to figure out where the que was at since there were no physical entities forming it. 1 minute of my life went wasted. So it goes; it is what it is, and all that jazz. Trevlig helg!
The lack of directional signs and maps is annoying. For example Singapore, S. Korea, Japan etc, have maps of for stations with numbered exits and street names. I always get lost at the New Stockholm Central and Fridhems plan.
paddel just became popular in sweden. Before this 1-2 least years I never heard of it either. But now it just BOOOMED! Crazy how fast and big this trend came
Hey, don't hate on the Swedish mile! Then you might as well say that Stockholm is 200 000 000 millimeters away. I realize from the comments that if there is anything we like more than fika it's the mil ;)
I love your comments! As a person working mostly outside Sweden there are things I that miss. Shoehorns are great, they are also used in Japan; Korea and China among other countries. When it comes to packages I do miss China and the other Asian countries where nothing goes missing and people actually care . And when it comes to customer service we are rubbish. Sweden got great engineers, fantastic companies but customer service is nowhere near Japan and the other Asian Tigers. All and all I love Sweden but we need to shape up especially when it comes to customer service. Do I need to mention PostNord, the black hole where anything goes missing?
The packaging one isn’t really true. You usually get to choose if you want it delivered to your home or your closest post office. It will usually take one more day tho, that’s why many people choose to get their packages one day earlier and go pick it up instead
Apart from the risk of theft you also have Swedish weather and laws. For example, if there is no signed delivery, prof of delivery is all up to the delivery company and in Sweden its much easier to raise a complaint and we have a government agency specifically to protect customers so historically delivery companies did not want to deliver unless someone was at home to receive the package. Its only the last 3-4 years I have seen home delivery to the door without the need to receive it in person. But its starting to be more common.
The mile confusion is an historical one in sweden. Before 1649 and probably two generations after that every region had their own definition of what a 'mil' or mile was. In conversation 'flera mil' or several miles is often used as a synonym for 'too long to walk'.
To be fair, the Swedish mile (which is based on a merger of several (at least four, though two main ones) different miles that pervaded the Nordic countries since far before the metric system was invented) fits very nicely into the metric system since it's 10 kilometres, and decakilometre or whatever it would be called using the standard prefixes doesn't quite sound as good, and it's very much more practical to talk about car travel distances with it. It's also sometimes called a metric mile, though that can be confused with a metrification of the English mile to 1 500 metres that sometimes gets used.
When the mil comes up as a topic, about mile users getting confused, I tend to point to the US use of mil (pronounced like mill) for a thousand of an inch, and how that might be confused for (a shortened/abbreviated) millimetre by someone accustomed to the metric system...
If you want your package delivered to the door. Move somewhere rural. Lantbrevbärare (the rural postal service) does deliver packages with the mail and you can get the taste of home by finding your online purchase waiting on the porch when you get home from work.
10 Millimeters makes 1 Centimeter
10 cm makes 1 decimeter
10 decimeters makes one meter
1000 meters makes one km
10 km makes a mil
Is this not an easier way to measure a distance than an imperial way? And we will not even go into Fahrenheit.
Hope you enjoy your stay here. We are a strange but lovely people
Indeed. Divide or multiply by ten. It can't get easier than that. And also, metric is the standardized system of measurement in industry which means that even if spanners and other tools are in inches, that measurement is still based on the millimeter system, so they may just as well switch to metric.
The only problem here is that the 10km mil is not actually a part of the international metric system.
It makes sense to YOU only because YOU are used to it.
The proper internationally recognized metric term is 10km.
If you wish to use fewer digits, the next prefix up in the metric system is megameter (Mm). 20mil = 200km = 0.2Mm
The Swedish mile or Scandinavian mile was a standard from the medieval era and was used to mark the distance between natural breaks, at that time it was based on feet and was different in the different Scandinavian countries.
With the introduction of the metric system, it was redefined to 10 km, as that was the closest even large number based on meters.
I definitely agree it’s weird, but also a part of our history, you can still see some old road signs in stone on the country side.
@@flonnblad And one mil is defiinately better than the alternative myriameter which I have seen in old teaching materials, one Myriameter is 10,000 meters. Which also means that there is a strict definition of how much a Myriad is :-)
@@flonnblad @Timmy Brolin It is partly history for sure, but it's also about convenience in language.
If I say: Between Örebro and Stockholm there is (and then) "två hundra kilometer.", that is 7 syllables. If I get to say "tjugo mil" at the end of that sentence instead, that's only 3.
It conveys something just as precise in more than half the amount of effort, and I think that's the real appeal of "mil".
Ok, but the shoehorn is the best thing EVER
Omg yes I literally DIES without ‘em
I agree! I couldnt survive without a shoehorn! Its the best 😁
Min skor skulle gå sönder så ofta om inte det fanns skohorn
Agree, I don´t get why anyone would want to untie the laces of their sneakers everytime they´re putting them on.
I actually have some friends who didn´t have shoehorns. Now they do have shoehorns.
It's a good thing to have at home. I don't use it as often as I should, it really reduces wear and tear on both your shoes and your heels lol
If americans could actually bother to take their shoes off when entering a house or apartment they would soon realise the benefits of a skohorn 😂
@Josh Yates If you have shoes that are kind of tight you use a shoehorn. Even our young people. Not strange at all.
@Josh Yates Not everyone does. Many places you have carpets and walks in with shoes regardless. That is a fact. It depends on where you live probably. Social media is full of discussions and facts about this issue.
@Josh Yates The DO NOT COME TO SWEDEN. WE SURE DO NOT WANT YOU HERE.
@Josh Yates That is such an unnecessary remark, to use disabled and elderly as an insult to throw at people. Just because of the tamest joking jab about Americans not getting why people like using shoehorns.
You obviously don't need to be using shoe horns, I live in Sweden and don't really use them, it's not a big deal, but if you're going to visit another country I hope you leave this attitude and disrespect at home. We don't represent all the people in our country, and other people in your country should be very thankful we don't consider you a representative of them.
I cannot imagine how you can possibly put on your shoes without a shoehorn. That must be extremely difficult. This is absolutely no swedish thing, it's an absolute necessity for me.
”Mil” actually make perfect sense. Why dont you just say 200 kilometer? Well, why dont you just say 200 000 meter? I understand the confusion regarding the ”name” mil. So your issue should actually be the name of the measurment, and not the logic in use of the measurment.
Its also a Norwegian thing. 10 km is "1 mil" just like 10 mm is 1 cm - and its useful :) I guess its just confusing cus it sounds the same as "mile". Maybe the offence is we didn't call it 1 desi kilometre or something like that..?
The "problem" is that we scandinavians translate mil as miles. Mil and miles are not the same. So, in an english context, saying 200 kilometers would be better.
@@johan.ohgren In an english context, absolutely!
@@johan.ohgren Yeah, I agree!
Mile actually is the English translation of Swedish mil, so it’s not a translation error but a conversion error. Different countries have, both today and historically, different miles:
Roman mile (romersk mil) at about 1,479 m
Nautical mile (nautisk mil a.k.a ”sjömil”) at 1,852 m
Chinese mile (li) at 500 m
English (/American) mile (engelsk mil) at 1,609.344 m
Scandinavian mile (Norway, Sweden and occasionally Finland) at 10,000 m
I'll just say this once and for all regarding shoehorns.
Sweden like the rest of Northern Europe has a no shoe indoors policy, combined with very small hallways in apartments and harsh winters the shoehorns are a gift from above.
Because when you put on your double or maybe ever triple layer pants, comfy scarf, warm hat, and heavy winter's coat you are not in position to bend knees down to put on boots in the very small hallway. So the shoehorn solves the issue of not having to risk tripping over and like a turtle on its back recover. Plus it eliminates tearing on the back end of the shoe from the repeated friction motion, so it makes shoes last longer.
So good to see this comment! In a country where you don't wear shoes indoors (at home at least) it shouldn't be hard to understand the use of shoehorns. 😂 Also, if you read the instructions on how to care for your shoes, using shoehorns reduces wear and tear on the inside of the heal.
@hannie1301 my shoes wear out in the bottom long before the back , amd i never use horns
We actually don't really like Amazon and not many Swedes are buying from them now that they're in Sweden. The reason is the poor conditions for the workers. In Sweden worker's rights are really important and we have strong trade unions. So the launch of Amazon in Sweden was not really something most of us liked.
I didn't even know until this video lol
And their translations are so bad they’re almost insulting, on top of the workers’ situation
Jesus, imagine thinking we Swedes do not like Amazon because of working conditions. Biggest double standards ever. We do not like Amazon because it is crap in general. Expensive asf, their site is catastrophic etc.
@@vivalabraga How is it double standards? It's true for very many of us that we completely boycott it because of poor working conditions.
@@vivalabraga Yeah, the Amazon site is awful especially when they try to translate to Swedish, i like buying online, but if it is one site that almost makes me not want to buy things its Amazon.
we use shoehorns in whole Europe. it makes it easier to put your shoes on. I'm french and we have always used shoehorns in France. And living in Sweden i use it several times daily. Especially since i never untie my shoes.
Shout out to you and the beautiful france
I think it may have to do with Americans having their shoes on at home as well.
Agreed. Why would you tie your shoes more than like twice a year, when you pretend you're gonna start running again :v
Never seen anyone in the Netherlands use a shoehorn, but then again they have their shoes on all the time.
I'm 62 years old I have lived in USA all my life. I use a Shoe horn every time I put on shoes.
The "Swedish Mile" (which is also used in Finland and Norway) is from the 17th century, so it's basically older than the USA, but it wasn't standardised until the 19th century when SI units were introduced in Sweden. There are still super old mile stones standing here and there along old roads all around Sweden.
About Amazon, I really hope we kick them out as soon as possible.
From Amazon's Swedish launch, I think there are employees that want that too. #cat toys
Så jäkla kul att alla svenskar undermedvetet bestämt sig för att amazon är jordens avskum och ska utrotas. Och jag är inget undantag och vet inte varför lol
@@assarstromblad3280 hahahahaha SANT
@@assarstromblad3280 well de sålde vapen och knark på sin sajt vid öppnandet så.... jag såg också en kattkoja, likt ett krypin i fleece, som såldes som reptilgrotta, den skulle "hjälpa min ödla att fälla sin päls"...... pinsamt dåligt.
@@Sharpclaw2000 Lol jag hoppas det var översättningen som var kass
As a swede I always get really shocked when i can hear peoples real voice on shows like cops, or like in "To catch a predator" where they show their voice, face and name! I can't get used to it. The robot voice is epic. You can't live without it, that's illegal! Ring åklagarn!
MACKE
I actually love the sound of the distorted voice, I think it makes the whole thing funnier and makes the drunk person sound even more stupid
I think it's good that they protect peoples privacy.
Not guilty until proven guilty by the court of law, that’s why
It's really important to understand, that things happening in Stockholm, most likely isn't normal anywhere else in Sweden.
That is not true one bit. I live in Stockholm and have my entire life and everything I see here is common everywhere i have been in Sweden. Most parts do it the same from what I have seen.
@@kingwacky184 i altso live in stockholm, stockholm is very different in many aspects. Every are if sweden is different from the rest. Sweden is a big country and the culture is different everywhere you go, ofcourse the difference isnt huge but there is a difference. For example saying hi to a stranger in stockholm would be weird. But if you live more in the country side it wouldnt be weird at all.
exactly
@@kingwacky184 it is common for Stockholmers to be a little more ignorant of the rest of sweden than people from the rest of Sweden. I've lived 18 years in Stockholm, but was raised in the countryside, and am now living in a small town in Småland. Many friends born and raised in sthlm are less knowledgeable when it comes to other regions. Maybe because when you live in sthlm everything is available and there's not much need to travel outside of Stockholm and it's vicinity.
I always get so frustrated when I visit someone and they don’t have a shoehorn :/
Where do you buy a shoe horn in Sweden? Live at Farsta, and can't find one at any of the shops at centrum.
@@lindatisue733 look at Ikea
@@lindatisue733 you can buy them at like Ica maxi, rusta, shoe stores etc
@@lindatisue733 in Farsta centrum, you can find it in Clas Ohlson
@@lindatisue733 really? Should be in your nearest big grocery store.
if you can't find it just ask the staff.
Packages can be home delivered often, any time you order something online you get several shipping options on checkout. We dont like delivery men ringing our door and giving us social anxiety, better to pick it up at nearest store (which you will be at anyway regurarly)
And some services like Earlybird, Morgontidig leverans (early morning delivery), etc will, if the item does not fit into you mailbox/slot, place it by the door, bag on the door knob or hook it to your mailbox.
Then there's the locker services where you can have the package deliver to a locker in a store/mall you frequent/often pass etc. and you get a code by SMS to unlock.
Also, since most of us don't really like to wait for one of these companies to pretend to make a delivery attempt and then leave it a store a day later, we rather just have it sent there immediately.
Well, when we do get the packages "to the door" many times you will just get a text from PostNord (PostMord) saying that they tried delivering it and that it is now at a post office. EVEN WHEN YOU WHERE HOME WHEN THEY SUPPOSEDLY TRIED TO DELIVER IT! I'm not mad...
@@viktor5918 Haha. I do hate that. 'We will deliver you package sometime between 8:00 and 20:00, please be avaiable.' Sod that!
The problem is that Posten outright lies about trying to deliver the packages.
5:00 this is also because swedes hates situations like these
we would rather take the queue number to ensure this wont happen
20 mil: 3 syllables
200 kilometer: 7 syllables
Think that’s the biggest reason, except for collective habit of course😊
As a Swede that live in Canada I'm surprised that you didn't mention how Swedes love to form organizations, I think there is an old joke about when three Swedes get together they elect a President, treasurer and a secretary - and I think that's pretty true lol
I haven’t noticed this myself! This makes me laugh though... I’ll see if I notice it now that you’ve mentioned it :)
As a former board member of one of these organizations, I can concur. We love it!
Yup! Me and a friend even had talks about forming an organization just to discuss issues 😋.
Or a study circle. When you find two friends whit a common interest, you form a study circle.
That is true about Norway as well. That's often how we gain influence in this country. Bigger the organisation the more influense. If you are the only one with a certain issue you're likely to have very little influence.
Why on earth you would not use shoe horns? Makes life that much easier.
Because americans never take off their shoes
Was just gonna say, americans don’t need shoehorns because you never take off your shoes?? If you are constantly putting your shoes on after taking them off you don’t wanna unlace them every time? So the shoehorn saves time
@@3freeri aaand it saves shoe. ;)
If the American keeps messing up the floors with dirt then they won't get invited.
@@88marome I think most people will be understanding of people from other countries not knowing or forgetting to take shoes off at the door, and just politely remind them that we usually do that here. If someone burns bridges over things like these, that are virtually never in bad faith(more like honest ignorance or force of habit) I don't know if people are missing out when their invites get revoked lol
A little help! As Swedes, we do not laugh at
our way of life. We are proud of how we live.
Here are the explanations:
2:13 Customer service, I can agree that something is wrong here.
3:44 No cash. This has led to robberies against banks and shops
has basically disappeared. But with the help of Bank code, we can transfer money from the accounts we have via cellphone.
We can also pay with Swich. We can also use Swish between us privately. If I ask a friend of mine to buy a thing from a store
that I do not have time to visit but need the thing XX for the evening.
Then I can use Swish and transfer money using that Bank ID to that person's bank account.
4:25 Queue system with number. Swedes love order and
Justice. They do not know you have a case. They are used to taking a note with a queue number.
5:49 The reason why there are no fountains is that the pipes to the fountains must be dug down at least 2 meters (6ft)
otherwise there is a risk that they will freeze if there is a long cold winter.
Fountains can often only be used for four, maybe a maximum of five months. then they must be discharged into water. Risk of them freezing!
6:03 Singing at parties and also for spirits has been a tradition since Viking times. About 1000 years ago.
Do not forget that the United States is young!
6:44 Sweden and Norway use miles pronounced "meal".
There are in Scandinavia Nautical mil and Sea mil.
Sea mil is 1852 meters.
Sweden and Norway also had land mil. That were in
Norway 11,295 m and in Sweden 10688 meters.
Norway and Sweden decided during the Union (which Sweden and Norway had 1814 to 1905) to agree that 10 Km = 1 mil.
Sweden and Norway are the only countries in the world that
uses 10 x 1Km = 1 mil.
9:42 Shoehorn. In the United States that is not an Arctic country in the United States retains
you put on your shoes inside.
We do not do that in Sweden. If we did not use shoehorns, we would wear out the shoes.
We would need to tie up and tie the shoes many times a day. Shoe horns are not so strange!
I never bother with untying my shoes, so I use shoehorns all the time
So say we all.
Paddel is kind of new in Sweden, came a couple of years ago. For the last 10-20 years different sportactivities have been trending, much like fashion. Before paddel it was climbing, before that it was bicycling and before that squash and so on.
The Scandinavian mile is technically a remnant of the old Swedish imperial measurements. It was originally 18,000 alnar (cubits). And that was almost exactly 10 km so it stuck around.
Kolla in hjärnan på den här snubben
Är inte orginalmilen kvar i vissa kontexter?
Didn't we adopt the French revolutionary metric system??
I hear foreigners comment on Swedish queuing and I'm just like... how the hell do you function without it? Wouldn't it be terribly chaotic to not wait in line?
I have heard of a system in a different country where you take off your shoes and they que for you.
When a "person" comes to the que this person moves everyone's shoes forward and places his shoes at the end of the que.
People wait in line in other countries too, but it's natural lines, you don't need a machine for it. You stand in line, even if it takes 30 minutes, no taking a number and having a seat.
@@zynius Oh really? Because most places here don't have machines, you just physically stand in line, and I've heard lots of foreigners say that's a distinctly Swedish phenomenon. Which I took for granted was the truth (particularly after seeing videos of Americans practically creating a stampede on Black Friday lol)
Englishman looks puzzled at the very notion ...
@@TheHellis Do they use shoehorns?
Getting this in my recommended 1 month after posting, obviously going to the comments to see if my fellow Swedes had done their job in explaining Mil and Shoehorns.
I am very proud of their work!
There are probably already comments about the blurring and robotic voice, but I couldn't see any of them explaining it so here goes (with a bit of added fun):
It's actually illegal to not protect their identity, and even things like their voice - that in some cases can be very specific for a person - isn't allowed to be in the shows since that might be used to reveal their identity. If a person isn't convicted of a crime you're not allowed to show anything that can reveal their identity basically.
These rules has been eased up the last couple of years, but when I was younger even pictures in newspapers like "Have you seen this person?" were pixelated to the point of no recognition. Which made it virtually impossible to know if you had seen the person they suspected of a crime because the picture could resemble both your grandfather and your dog at the same time.
Oh well, enough of this mini-rant. Hope you all have a great day!
Sjorhorns are extremly good for keeping your shoes nice. If you take them of snd put them on all the time withput shoehorn you either have to untie and then tie them. If you use a shoehorn the back of the shoe stays fresh and doesn’t brake and you don’t have to keep undoing them all the time. It is actually so much faster!
Tip! You can also use the shoehorn as a backscratcher😁
Especially the ones from Ikea with the snakelike handle😌
That one is also great for a spanking if you are into that kind of stuff o_0 :)
It's still the metric system. 10km is 1 metric mile. It's the same mile in France and Germany or even Japan. It's easier to say 20 miles than 200 km. Same way you say 1 foot instead of 12 inches.
Edit: I stand corrected. Apparently Scandinavians are the only ones that use mil. You learn something new every day.
That's mil not miles. Different things, but I agree mil is the metric system. Why say 300 km when you can say 30 mil?
@@TullaRask mil på svenska, miles på engelska
@@SailorYuki No that's not the same. In english miles is a different unit, and translating mil to miles causes confusion among english speakers who are used to imperials.
yeah, but we french people just use km. we would never say 1 mil instead of 10km: i've been living in sweden for almost 18 years and this swedish mile thing still disturbs me. LOL
@@TullaRask Mile is the correct English translation for Swedish mil. It’s not a translation error, it’s a conversion error. The Scandinavian mile (10 km) is a uniquely Swedish and Norwegian thing.
I am so shooketh that mil is specific to Sweden (and norway). Like what?!? It's convenient tho so more countries should using it
It is a very easy system to use. Fits with the metric system actually. Same logic
It's called a "Scandinavian Mile". Yeah it's confusing for everyone.
@@NaJk93 Nej asså jag är svensk, jag tycker det är väldigt användbart och hade ingen aning om att vi var de enda som använde mil.
@@lichiboy7695 Jag tror Norge, Sverige, Danmark och Finland som använder det. Ingen annan.
@@NaJk93 Lite sen men jag är från Finland och mil används inte här. Vi vet att det finns och vad det står för men jag blir alltid förvirrad i Sverige när sträckor anges i mil. Måste tänka en extra gång! Samma sak med hekto. Används inte i Finland.
One mil is 10km, it fits perfectly into the metric system. And it's useful in making shorter numbers, much the same way one wouldn't use grams for weighing a pesrson.
Also, shoehorns are useful for certain types of shoes.
Swede here.
I agree with you with the most parts... But...
1. the queue thing... Just respect the queue.
2. 1 mile is 10 km. It makes sence in all of europe
3. Just like American football, it´s your country only.
4. The shoehorn is more used in Sweden, as we don´t wear our shoes inside and make it easier for people to put them on when leaving.
It's only Sweden, Norway and Finland who uses the mile. In the rest of Europe km is the largest unit.
throwback to that one time tunnelbanan blurred a pigeons face LMFAO 😂😂
Really?
Shoehorns are great if you can use them to get away from having to tie your shoe laces - which is especially nice for elderly as they often don't want to bend down if they can avoid it because of back pain/ache :P If you're having a bit a trouble getting in your shoes because they're too narrow, they shoehorns help you aswell and you won't have to tug away at the heel/back end of your shoes as that will wear them out a bit quicker :P
Your list shows stuff that's underrated and that's the cool thing about it. I never would've guessed stuff such as the packages, and in the end, it's info other youtube channels don't tell you about, so thanks ♡
Aww thank you so much! That's what I was hoping to achieve with this video. 😊 Thanks for the nice comment!
I mean, 20 “Swedish miles” makes perfect sense. It’s just like using “kilometer” instead of “meter”. So you saying that you can just say 200 kilometers and that the “Swedish mile” makes no sense, is the same as me saying that kilometers makes no sense because you can just say “1000 meters”, or that kilograms is illogical and you should just use 1000g.
We don´t use the imperial system. We use the metric system. That is what a swedis mil is based on
@Vincent Ernisa Lundkvist FNA2 Filbornaskolan ort?
@Vincent Ernisa Lundkvist FNA2 Filbornaskolan He said it's based on. It follows the same logic.
I see that there is already several comments about the Swedish "mil". If you check the "Scandinavian mile" in English Wikipedia you see that the Swedish and Norwegian "mil" was defined as 36,000 feet, but Norway had longer (bigger?) feet than Sweden. Swedish "mil" was 10,688 meter, Norwegian "mil" was 11,295 meter. Despite Norway and Sweden being in a union, the metric system was introduced in Norway 1875 and in Sweden 1879. I don't really know, but I guess the union was a contributing reason to redefine the "mil" to 10 kilometers. Note however that the Danish coordinated "mil" is 7532 meters since 1835, where there previous was different "mil" or "miil". The Finish "peninkulma" is also 10 km nowadays, but literally was "the distance at which you can hear a dog" if I understood it correctly.
Shoehorns are a lifesaver! When I hurt my back I seriously couldn’t put on shoes without a shoehorn, they are the greatest. They also help your shoes to live longer because you don’t damage the heel of the shoes as much when using a shoehorn.
Okay this may not be a common sentiment, but I get genuinely flustered any time a package is delivered to my door. For one, you need to be around to sign for it, which can be tricky depending on your schedule, and I personally get very anxious about people seeing me in lounge wear, or catching a glimpse of my disorganised hallway or kitchen or whatever, not to mention having to talk to a stranger. Besides, most of the time the store your package is sent to is your closest grocery store (we rarely have to cover the sort of distance some people in the US may have to), so it's supposed to make it easy to just pick up a package along with a carton of milk or whatever? And, as a final note, environment. Even if I had the option for front-door delivery, I wouldn't take it, because just the thought of adding my name to a list that will contribute unnecessarily to emissions fills me with environmental guilt. Rather just walk or hop on my bike.
@@Calypsobubbelgum the nightmare of all nightmares xD
Agreed, I prefer to have them to a service center, I go by the shop at least 2-3 times a week anyway, not a big problem to wait a day and if not, its just 10 minutes at foot or 4 by car if its a large one anyway :)
Would be a different thing if it was a long way to go. Also, my house is right beside a quite heavily used walking/bicycling path which means there could be a hundred people passing within 10 meters of that package between when its delivered and when I get home, lots of opportunities for theft.
I'm Norwegian, and one of my mates gave me one of those long shoehorns as a birthday present once. And I absolutely love it. I use it all the time, and it makes things so much easier. It's awesome.
Great video! About the swedish mil. It does make sense, or atleast simplifies a distance. It's easier to use fewer numbers, otherwise you might aswell say 200000m.
But I understand that it must be confusing when not used to having used it your whole life. Especially when you're used to the imperial mile! Cheers :)
Yes usually it doesn't matter if it's 27km or 28km distance.. easier to say 3 mil.
In fact, we've had the mileage for centuries. From the middle of the 17th century, it was standardized and became just over 10.6 km. The mile comes from the Latin mille = the Roman soldier's double step and was then barely 1.5 km.
@@kristerforsman2448 Mil, not Miles.
@@TullaRask
Of course. It is easy to completely slip over to English when writing in that language.
Im a swede and i love all the positivity you and the people are spreading in the comments❤️❤️❤️❤️ thank you, thank you so much😊
Shoehorns are the best,i use them all the time.
You didnt take a Queue number?
That made my heartrate go up, and not in a good way.
Yes, im Swedish.
Same haha 😂
*queue number xD
@@BovinaSancta79 Queue number*.
You don't forge new words in english in the same way you do swedish for everything.
And you didn't say "Tack? Oh, my God!
When everyone else get`s service before her, she will eventually learn to pick up a queue number......
The robot voice makes the show at least 50% funnier
Makes it too annoying to watch. Pretty much everyone sounds alike and makes it a lot harder to hear.
But the main reason is to completely hide the identity of people involved due to much stricter privacy laws.
Any time law enforcement is involved, the identity of others is to be protected.
29 year old native swede here, this video is literally the first time I have ever heard of Padel.
Also shoehorns are amazing.
It is truly amazing that you have never heard of padel if you are from Sweden, it's everywhere!
@@Selleeify Isn't padel something quite recent? I think I first heard about it last year.
I learned more about padel here then ever before. And yes jag är Svensk.
I'm guessing you live up north and it has yet to spread like the plague there yet.
Next time I will say it is 218723 yards away instead of 20 mil got it!
About postal services and package pickup. It's cost and environment question in play. Shipping companies asks always (If the function or service is available) if you want it to be shipped to nearest postal service desk or your door. Companies always provide the closest postal service/pick-up point, so you can walk down and pick it up at the point (Usually it's a grocery store) - This way you will keep your and the company shipping the package costs down, also minimize the use of transportation and preserve the environment. We are quite big on the "Save the planet" thing :D
Granted, some small communities or with no close pick-up point can choose to have the package shipped to their door. But usually in those instances, even then people tend to pick the option of getting their package at the pick-up point. Which as I said, usually a grocery store, that is conveniently along the way back home from work where I tend to stop to get groceries for the dinner that evening :D Sorry for the late comment, just got your video popped up and I got intrigued.
As people pointed out you can often get home delivery at a higher price.
Since we have minimum wage higher than pocket change and high gas prices, home delivery is often pretty expensive.
We don't have a minimum wage though.
@@AlexKall Not by law. By the Union, kind of. And no, not all companies have kollektivavtal. But you get the point.
If you want to be picky it's not pocket change in the US either...
The robot voices and blurred faces is for privacy, it is completely understandable. I would never want my face and voice in a show like that
The "Swedish shuffle" sounds like when I tried to go through customs at LAX. I was sent to stand in so many different cues just to end up in the first one I stood in before being let in the country. It took me about 1,5h.
So it seems to be an universal thing.
Yes I belive it's a common thing. But most of the times you get an answer in sweden. In Norway you tend to get the "shuffel" and get hung up on.
A Swedish/Norwegian mile is 18000 cubits (alnar / alen) long, later reused as 10km due to it's appropriate the same length.
Why use it...
5 mil = 2 syllables
50 kilometer = 7 syllables..
An other reason is one less significant number..
and then there is the Skogsmil which=about 5km
@@PeterBuvik would you say sjumilaskogen should be interpreted to be measured with skogsmil or mil?
A funny thing when you are talking about cars in Sweden vs Norway is that norwegians always say a car has xxxxkm on the odometer while a swede talks about xxxmil.
Mil is actually from before the metric system, but it was like 30 meters off of 10 km so when switching to metric they redefined it to 10 000 meters.
The shoehorn, is the best invention since the wheel. :)
Well, using a shoehorn makes it a lot easier to fit your feet into your shoes! If you get used to this item you cannot manage without it, trust me.
Imported (adopted) Swede here. Loved the vid! Specifically for going for things not usually found on the regular "Top ten differences...." vids about Sweden that you can find. :) No. 3 brought a big smile to my face. Absolutely not saying you are wrong but still made me smile. Same with No 8 :) I think I have at least 3 shoe horns, but almost never use them (like low single digit numbers per year).Regarding our lack of water fountains... If I go out for a walk in the city and have a water bottle that could use a refill (I usually carry an old ½ liter bottle during summer or otherwise warmer days), I just walk into basically any café or store and politely ask if I could refill my bottle, and have yet to be denied :). Really hope you will like your stay and looking forward to future videos :) Ps. If you want/need tips on traversing any cultural barriers, just ask :) d.s.
Well we used amazon UK, US or Germany until we got it and packages do get delivered to your door if you choose that delivery option but yes standard is to the the closest pick up point.
Another point for the shoehorn even if you don't personally use it is in case you have a visitor who needs one for whatever reason. Stiff or achy joints, balance difficulties etc etc. It's a courtesy thing. Amplified by the fact that Swedes take their shoes off when they come home or visit other people's homes as to not drag muck from outside indoors. Again, a courtesy thing. This is also the reason you often find a chair or bench close to the door or shoe rack. So guests can sit down while putting their shoes on. Not a jab on the shoehorn confusion, btw, just some context lol Enjoy your stay!
Shoehorn is so practical!! You can stand up and put on shoes so faaast and you dont hurt your finger trying to put on shoes the normal way
shoehorn is the BEST thing i've ever seen! it's perfect I love that so much. as a Thai person and been in sweden for 1 year. we Thai take off our shose when entering a house too and so i love that shoehorn!
You're not wrong about the shoehorn situation. I've always used them.. and now that I'm in my 50's.. well.. they are great. Eventually You'll see the light. (Yes, I'm a swede.. well duuh.) ;)
There actually used to be public drinking fountains in Sweden. They became less and less common due to maintainence/sanitary issues. Last one I saw was in Örebro and that was rusty and gross by the mid 1980's.
Yeah, this customer service thing is quite frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if they split up responsibilities too much just in order to create more jobs for themselves.
In many cases your call goes abroad.
I believe most most large businesses in most nations have a similar system for callcentre support. There are usually several lines of support with different knowledge. The first person you talk to is in the first line support. They are the frontline and have broad knowledge and can handle most everyday cases. If they are unable to solve the problem, they send you the second line support. Second line support handle the time consuming problems or problems that are to technical for the first line. They are likely not the people that interact on social media. Some businesses may even have other lines that are specialists in handling specific technical problems that require specialist training.
So when you are redirected to the first line after talking to second line, it’s usually because first line had misinterpreted your initial question or that second line has actually done something behind the scenes that makes it possible for first line to handle the case.
😂🤣😂
About the Customer service - I'd argue it is based on if you are trying to get a refund from a store, or if you are talking to someone in a company or within the government.
It is a bit kliche almost but, "In sweden we have a system". There is a pre-defined path that every issue must take. You need to talk to the first person in the chain who can then send it to the next person in the right department who then sends it to their specialists. We have loads of those systems to try to catch every possible situation, but if your issue is not a perfect fit for one of those categories then we are not sure what to do. As you mentioned, you got sent from one person to another, and could probably be sent back to the first person again after a while.
It's like your Tuition issue. First you called the receptionist, who connected you to the economy department. The Economyderpartment connected you to the people who handles tuition, who in turn connected you to the tuition-team who works with your country of origin. If you are at university (since you say you had to sort tuition) then be ready for Sweden, the Country of Bureaucracy!
1:30 hey that’s me! 😉
Ha! How cool! I've seen your videos before 😁
@@MeaganAfterDark Sweet! Don't normally watch content like this since I'm always making it myself... but I really liked this one, good stuff :)
Aw thanks!! I appreciate it! :)
Shoehorns are used to easily put your foot in the shoe, great for older people that csn't bend down to their shoes. It also prevents the back part of the shoe getting destroyed by your heel if you just force your foot in. God tier accessory.
Regarding packages: so much dishonest in that piece. It all depends on the site you order from. Most sites let YOU decide wheter or not you want it shipped to your apartment/door or the closest convenience store (that acts as a post office). You can also choose to get notified when the package has arrived, how to get notified and lastly; how fast you want it delivered (usually with a price difference of $1-2).
Also a bit dishonest to say "take a trip" to the post office. Most swedes living in a city has a maximum of 10mins walking distance to a convenience store. And if you don't - you usually live in a house. And if you live in a house - just get it delivered to your door. Package thieves aren't as big of an issue in Sweden as in the US. And if you're afraid of it being lost, you can most of the times ask the delivery company, while ordering a product, to ring on your door bell when the package has arrived.
If you by some reason don't live close to convenience store, can't get it shipped home (the option might not be available for that certain product or webpage), aren't home during working hours and aren't bothered to get it from a convenience store - you can most of the time get it delivered to your workplace.
The Scandinavian mile makes a lot of sense based in you guessed it: history. In olden times, the Scandinavian roads had mile stones placed at an interval of 36.000 feet. That converts to roughly 10 km depending on the foot measurement used. When Scandinavia introduced the metric system, the mile stones were left behind and the concept of a "mil" was kept, but now set to 10 km/10.000 m.
Shoe horns are mainly for tight shoes or shoes that can easily get creases in the back, think about any kind of dress shoe/boots. Most people don't use them that often but has one hanging at the entrance :P. I agree with you on the robot voices though, some of them are so extreme that there is no way you can hear what they are saying lol. But I feel like there are situations where it should be used, for example someone who is being in danger (victim of some sort) or maybe when people can loose their job etc. The country is quite small and has a lot more variety in dialects, so even if you blur their face they can be easily recognized from their voice.
Kul video iallafalll, hoppas du laddar upp mera :)
Sverige har ju många dialekter. De största (för mig i alla fall) är skånska, göteborgska, stockholmska och lapplänska
Seriously there's nothing better than a long PROPER steel shoehorn. Its so satisfying to use.
I can say i love my shoehorns, have 5 of them xD
I watched this video after watching the second one - this was fun!!!! I really enjoy your videos!!!
You can have packages delivered at home, but if you're not at home when they deliver it, they leave you a note (or text message or similar) letting you know where you can get it or what phone number to call to have it delivered again.
Cool presentation 4 youre words and things in sweden. Funny and information video 👍🙂
With the exception of the UK, all cars in Europe are stated in MIL or KM (10Km (1000m) is one MIL. (10,000 meters)
Interesting video! As you mentioned in the intro you brought up some really specific points that aren't as well known and that we don't always think about.
I am a swedish student in Uppsala and we have a whole book for our drinking songs, it's called a "sångbok" and is really fun! :) Also, paddel is a cult in sweden. Everybody plays paddel and it's very popular.
I don't play padel .
@@elisaa9981 🤣🤣
Not me either.
When you live in a country that is 2035 KM long and the avg distance between cities/towns is about 20 km, you tend to want to lower the numbers somewhat.
Also most cars count fuel usage in Liter/10 KM and a car use to run on 1/10 (0.6/10 now days) so it was also an easy way to calculate fuel usage on trips in casual conversations.
I have never played padel or even seen it played, but then, I know nothing about sports.
Fun to listen to your perspective.
I always use chat or e mail for costumer service. Takes too long (in actual working time) otherwise. So you are definitely right about the calling.
On the packages. It is in some ways a step up that you can get them from every other store on the corner now. Whereas before you had to go to the post office. And there were not so many. So you had to take a looong trip. At least a Swedish mile. 😉
I love this! You're right, I've heard all about fika like a million times but never any of these things! I would definitely like to hear more weird things you've noticed!! Also lol shoehorns... Icelanders also love them?! no clue why.
Aw thanks for the nice comment! Maybe one day I'll learn to love shoehorns, too. 😂
One thing that is good to know is that it can be next to impossible to buy a ticket for a train ride on short notice if you're in a place where the train station is unstaffed . Only way is to order it via online purchase sites. Make sure to have a smart phone.
It really sounds like you object to traditions that are different than yours. The service issue is very similar in the US, depending on Business, you are talking to. Shoehorns are used in the US as well, but are more common in Sweden, because it is considered rude to wear your shoes indoors. In the winter months you tend to have very dirty, and rugged shoes, so many people carry slippers when they enter a home. Mil are covered by many others here, so you understand. The queuing systems are made so they can handle volume. It will seem silly when you are alone, but the situation you describe, when the attendant was not in the room, how does he/she know that you did not get a ticket? If this has happened to you countless times, its more a question of learning. The singing at dinners is a tradition, that is mostly around snaps, there are songs that date back hundreds of years, some are bawdy, some are romantic, I suggest learning some of them. A dear friend of mine said that as his grandfather grew deeper into dementia, he did not recognize him, but he recited three “nubbe visor” he had never heard. There are reasons why traditions are created, some may be irritating, but just think what other cultures think of Americans.
Chill, bruh.
The customer service one is spot on dude. It's probably the thing I hate most about this country, except maybe for the abysmal opening hours for shops. This summer we had bees in my parents' chimney so my mother called Anticimex to come and have the hive removed. The first person my mother talked to said "oh yeah no problem, I'll refer you to my colleague and they'll send someone." But when she spoke to that person they told her that they don't remove beehives and that we should call a bee keeper instead. I thought that was really weird but since that's what they said we were like alright I guess we'll look for a local bee keeper. They in turn told us that no, since the hive is in the chimney we should call a chimney sweep. So we did. I don't remember who ended up coming to fix it but we had to talk to like 5 people before we actually got help and it took a loooong ass time.
This is my experience almost every time I call customer service, it's like no one wants to actually do their job to help you so they just keep referring you to others so they don't have to bother. Extremely frustrating and time consuming.
Swede here. All I can say is I concur! 🇸🇪
concur on what, you are a swede?
@@vidstige7516 yup xd
Mil is an old unit, but it still makes perfect sense to use since it's standardized to fit metric. Shoehorns make perfect sense when you need proper winter boots and you regularly take off your shoes indoors. Being bounced around customer service is because the purpose isn't to solve your problem, it's to prevent people from calling directly to the people who do the important work. It's annoying to be at the other end of it, but it works wonders as a spam filter. Sometimes it's a callback system. I'm not saying this to criticise, just to give some perspective.
Ser du stjärnan i det blå, ta en sup så ser du två, tar du mera ser du flera, stjärnor små (Snapsvisa / Drinking song)
I know this video is two years old, but I have to say… I live in New Jersey, USA and I always use a shoe horn. I actually recently bought a new one on Amazon. It's a wooden one, and even when I was a child growing up, my parents always had some type of shoe horn in the house. 😀👍
can you now do a list of 10 things you learned in your first year in sweden that you like? :)
Regarding ques: Went to the Systembolaget this afternoon. No one was queing outside, but the store was full (no one was allowed to enter). There was this attendant outside telling me so, and hence I tried to figure out were the Line was supposed to start (from left of the entrance, of from the right). While thinking 🤔, this local came up and stood to the left, upon which one customer left the store, and enters she, nonchalantly allthough I was the first one there. Had to just suck it up, not having managed to figure out where the que was at since there were no physical entities forming it. 1 minute of my life went wasted. So it goes; it is what it is, and all that jazz.
Trevlig helg!
The lack of directional signs and maps is annoying. For example Singapore, S. Korea, Japan etc, have maps of for stations with numbered exits and street names. I always get lost at the New Stockholm Central and Fridhems plan.
the robotic voices is becouse in sweden personal integrity is more important than how entertaining a tv-show is. :)
paddel just became popular in sweden. Before this 1-2 least years I never heard of it either. But now it just BOOOMED! Crazy how fast and big this trend came
Hey, don't hate on the Swedish mile! Then you might as well say that Stockholm is 200 000 000 millimeters away. I realize from the comments that if there is anything we like more than fika it's the mil ;)
I love your comments! As a person working mostly outside Sweden there are things I that miss. Shoehorns are great, they are also used in Japan; Korea and China among other countries. When it comes to packages I do miss China and the other Asian countries where nothing goes missing and people actually care . And when it comes to customer service we are rubbish. Sweden got great engineers, fantastic companies but customer service is nowhere near Japan and the other Asian Tigers. All and all I love Sweden but we need to shape up especially when it comes to customer service. Do I need to mention PostNord, the black hole where anything goes missing?
The packaging one isn’t really true. You usually get to choose if you want it delivered to your home or your closest post office. It will usually take one more day tho, that’s why many people choose to get their packages one day earlier and go pick it up instead
Apart from the risk of theft you also have Swedish weather and laws. For example, if there is no signed delivery, prof of delivery is all up to the delivery company and in Sweden its much easier to raise a complaint and we have a government agency specifically to protect customers so historically delivery companies did not want to deliver unless someone was at home to receive the package.
Its only the last 3-4 years I have seen home delivery to the door without the need to receive it in person.
But its starting to be more common.
The mile confusion is an historical one in sweden. Before 1649 and probably two generations after that every region had their own definition of what a 'mil' or mile was. In conversation 'flera mil' or several miles is often used as a synonym for 'too long to walk'.
A shoehorn will save your shoes, to last longer and not break by the heal. Also some shoes really require it to get your feet inside.
To be fair, the Swedish mile (which is based on a merger of several (at least four, though two main ones) different miles that pervaded the Nordic countries since far before the metric system was invented) fits very nicely into the metric system since it's 10 kilometres, and decakilometre or whatever it would be called using the standard prefixes doesn't quite sound as good, and it's very much more practical to talk about car travel distances with it. It's also sometimes called a metric mile, though that can be confused with a metrification of the English mile to 1 500 metres that sometimes gets used.
When the mil comes up as a topic, about mile users getting confused, I tend to point to the US use of mil (pronounced like mill) for a thousand of an inch, and how that might be confused for (a shortened/abbreviated) millimetre by someone accustomed to the metric system...
The mile is not specific to sweden, and the logic behind the mile is the same as every other unit of measurement in the metric system?
Been here for years and always find it weird to use cash when we go to other countries! Nice video. Thanks for sharing!
don't mess around with the waiting-lines in sweden or you are going to have a-lot of people stare at you menacingly.
If you want your package delivered to the door. Move somewhere rural. Lantbrevbärare (the rural postal service) does deliver packages with the mail and you can get the taste of home by finding your online purchase waiting on the porch when you get home from work.