Sweden

There are less than 10 million swedes in the world, but still some do live in a really distant country like Argentina. It’s not that many, though: probably just under a thousand. Most people in Argentina probably believe that everyone in Sweden is blond. That’s probably about all the average argentinian can say about swedish people. So, what do the swedes know about Argentina? Probably the same as everyone else who isn’t from South America: tango, football,… Evita perhaps?

Swedish is not an easy language to learn, but then again, neither is Spanish. Both languages are complicated in their own way. While Swedish is of germanic origin, Spanish is a romance language (i.e. it comes from latin). The swedish word for Sweden is Sverige, and the spanish word is Suecia. It’s interesting how the ancient V sound (which is a bit like an F) ended up being a V in Swedish, a W in English and a U in Spanish. The language is called Svenska in Swedish, while the spanish word is Sueco. In French, the language is called Suédois.