Education in Sweden

In Sweden we have at my opinion a good school system. There is many ways to go and you have as a student a choice to what schools and University’s you want to study at.

When you are about six years old you start the Preschool. This school is mostly for the kids to play but they learn some basic subjects like math and Swedish. They almost don’t have responsible and they don’t have much work since they still are so young.

When you are seven years old you start the real school. In Sweden the first school is on six years where you learn more subjects and get homework. You study the basic subjects like Math, Swedish, English and geographic but you also have secondary subjects like Sewing and Woodwork.

After your six years you start a three year long school that we call the Middle school. These nine years are in England called elementary school but here we have split it up to two. These three years is quite simple, You basically study the same subjects but also some new as NO (Nature Science and physics) and SO (History, Religion, Social, and geographic). These three years simply prepare you for the upcoming years.

When you are fifteen years old and the elementary schooltime is over you search for a high school. Mostly High schools are oriented depending on what you want to work with when you get a job. The High school is preparing the students for the job and which is possible to get a after these three years. At high school you get much responsible and can decide yourself how you are going to get the grades you want. The subjects you read at the high school depends on the high school you go at and what you need to learn to get the job you want.

After all these years you can if you want study even more at a University. For some jobs in Sweden you need to study something special at a University which means you need  to know what you want to be to be able to study right. If you want to work at a high ranked job, for example as a Doctor you need to have a University exam.

The Swedish Food

When it comes to food Sweden is a very open country who got mostly foreign food. We eat food all from stuffed cabbage to Sushi and drinks like café latte. When it comes to fast food we don’t have anything Swedish, it’s all foreign like Pizza, Hamburgers and Kebab.

But Sweden have some things that is made here, like crisp bread. The crisp bread can be found at breakfast or just a regular meal. Today Swedish people don’t eat much crisp bread but it was a big hit long ago.

In an ordinary day in Sweden you eat breakfast early. It’s known as the most important meal of the day so you eat quite a lot. Mostly the breakfast is either bread with toppings or yogurt with cereals. As to drink you often have juice or coffee. In fact, Sweden is in top three of the most coffee drinking countries in Europe.

At between 10.30 and 12.00 it’s lunch where you also eat a lot of food. The lunch is a real meal with  rice, potatoes, fish, meat or soup. This is the time of the day where you use to be as most hungry.

When the parents come home from work and the children ended their school for the day it’s time for dinner again. This food is also something bigger that you cook at home. It’s very rare that you order food for lunch or dinner in Sweden cause we are used to cook our food.

The last meal of the day is a meal who many people skip, it’s the supper. The supper is a very light meal and use to be bread with topping. It’s eaten around eight or nine before going to bed.

The national food in Sweden is potatoes, meatballs with gravy and the classical pancakes.

 

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Swedish Traditions & Habits

In Sweden we of course have a lot of Traditions we celebrate. Most of them are foreign traditions which has come to Sweden from England or America, but we also have one that is just celebrated here.

Christmas is the biggest tradition which most countries celebrate. It is celebrated the 24st of December and is connected to snow. It’s about be together which your family and be happy for what you got. You buy and give away presents to people you care about and share happiness. The small children think that a big man in red clothes with a white beard named Santa comes with the presents in a sledge at the night before Christmas and dealing out presents. If you have been nice and haven’t done bad things, you get rewarded with more presents. This is an old legend that keeps children kind.

Another International tradition we celebrate is Easter. This tradition has faded some and the Swedish people are not as committed as the English-speaking countries. In Sweden we celebrate Easter by eating a big variation of food on a big table. When the times hits 12 all people in the towns goes to a specific place where all towns has it own bonfire. The bonfire is light and we shoots rockets in the air. The tradition says that we are doing this to scare the witches away to a place called Blåkulla for another year. The Christians in Sweden celebrate Easter because it’s the day Jesus got crucified.

Here we also have a tradition called midsummer. This tradition is not celebrated in other countries so this one is special for us. You eat Herring and potatoes which you don’t eat at other traditions and dance around something called a Maypole. It’s called a Maypole cause midsummer is celebrated in May. The tradition is most about being with the family but is most oriented to the children.

The last big tradition is the New Year who kinda obvious is celebrated at the night between 31st of December and 1st of January. When the clock hits 12 and it’s a new year, people shoots rockets and drinks champagne. This is a terrible night for cats and other animals outside that don’t like loud noises.

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