Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter | Page 11

Cultural Insights through
My Exchange in Sweden
By Qinxin Fan
From January to June 2017, I was an exchange
student in Sweden, a Nordic country that is sig-
nificantly different from China. I encountered
many cultural differences, but observing the
distinctions was interesting and inspiring for
me to reflect on how every culture is unique.
When meeting people from other cultural back-
grounds, I am willing to learn more about their
culture, while taking it as an opportunity to be
clearer about my own culture and feeling the re-
sponsibility to share it.
Slow-Paced Life
Swedish people usually have a slow-paced life.
As I observed, they would spend long periods
of time, without any hurry, doing almost every-
thing. People never rush on the streets. Even
when tapping transportation cards on the bus, it
takes a longer time for the machine to react com-
pared to the one on Hong Kong buses.
fika at 3 pm is similar to afternoon tea in Hong
Kong, during which people may have milk tea,
sandwiches, and toast, to appease hunger, the
purpose of fika is not just to get full, but to take
a deep breath, talk with people around you, and
enjoy life with patience. Fika with someone as
your “coffee date” offers a chance for people to
relax and socialise. It is all about slowing down.
After staying in Sweden, I got used to taking
coffee breaks even after coming back to Hong
Kong. Living in a modern metropolitan, Hong
Kong people are always under great pressure of
working or studying. The idea of fika suggests
that even though we may always have one task
after another, we should offer ourselves some
time to relax and talk to people around us to
maintain interpersonal relationship.
Love for Nature
Swedish people attach importance to nature as
part of their identity. Even though snow, for-
ests and other natural elements are common
in Sweden, the Swedish cherish all their natu-
ral resources and make good use of them. Pro-
Fika has been a Swedish tradition since the nine-
tecting nature is a common value for everyone
teenth century. It can be both a verb and a noun,
in Sweden, and the country’s success in nature
meaning taking a coffee break. People usually
preservation has been widely acknowledged.
drink coffee, tea, or other non-alcoholic bever-
For instance, I was told that national parks cov-
ages and eat cinnamon rolls, biscuits, or other
ered a tenth of the country’s land area. Swedish
sweets. Fika usually takes place at around ten in
lifestyle also emphasizes nature-human inter-
the morning and three in the afternoon. While
action. I observed that in the snowy mountain
Cinammon rolls are a popular sweet for fika.
Qinxin visited the mountains in northern Sweden.
11
JANUARY 2018