DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AND SWEDISH CULTURE
This is a subjective summary about differences between the Shout African and Swedish Culture, written on the basis of our own experience and meetings with people under our six months in South Africa. We want to emphasize that this is not any definite fact. Over the 45 million people that live in South Africa we have only meet a few and of the big country we have only seen a little bit, we have mostly just stayed in Port Shepstone a small town in the eastern Kwazulu Natal, so this country, whit its enormous amount of different cultures and people can hardly get a fair assessment/judgment from the basis of what we have seen.
Ronja Malachowska & Katharina Stark, 5 August 2009
The Social standards
This is a subjective summary about differences between the Shout African and Swedish Culture, written on the basis of our own experience and meetings with people under our six months in South Africa. We want to emphasize that this is not any definite fact. Over the 45 million people that live in South Africa we have only meet a few and of the big country we have only seen a little bit, we have mostly just stayed in Port Shepstone a small town in the eastern Kwazulu Natal, so this country, whit its enormous amount of different cultures and people can hardly get a fair assessment/judgment from the basis of what we have seen.
Ronja Malachowska & Katharina Stark, 5 August 2009
The Social standards
In South Africa people are a lot more open and social than in Sweden. It is natural to talk to strangers, like the woman in front of you in the queue or the man on the bus. In Sweden you rather sit alone on the bus, you don not talk to strangers more than is necessary.
In Sweden if you want some on to do you a favor, you ask for it, for example you would say “Could you give me that book, please?” in the South African culture it is more common to order other people, for example “Give me that book, please.” In South Africa you go more directly to the point, whiteout beating about the bush, while in Sweden you could be a lot more indistinct/diffuse to get to your point, when you speak to one another. Like for example you and your friend are at a party and you start to get tired and want to go home, a Swedish person would say to his/her friend, “Is it not getting late, don’t you won’t to go home now?”, while a South African person would say “It’s way to late now, we are going home.”.
Food
In South Africa you eat at most three meals a day, sometimes just a tiny breakfast and then you don’t eat a real meal until supper. In Sweden we eat at least three meals a day, and snacks between the meals. Most South African people consume a lot mote sugar than most of the Swedish people do.
Sharing
The South African people share a lot more than the Swedish people do, in Sweden if you buy a chocolate, it is yours and you eat it, while in South Africa if you buy a chocolate it is everybody’s and everybody eats it. Also when you share in South Africa you first take as much as you want to, and then you give the rest away, you don’t expect to get anything back, for example, you take half of your chocolate and then give the rest of the half away to your company, while in Sweden if you would share you first start to give the chocolate away, for you company to taste and then expect them to give the chocolate back to you so that you can eat the rest.
Time
South African time and Swedish time are to totally different things. In Sweden we are controlled by schedules and timetables, if a meeting starts eight o’clock, you better are there ten minutes to eight to get yourself prepared, because the meeting will start at eight no matter if you are there or not, because that’s what is settled. While in South Africa time is a lot mote mobile, you say that the meeting wile start at eight o’clock but than somebody is late, you wait for the person to come and in the meantime somebody gets a phone call and has to talk for half an hour and then somebody else has forgotten his documents and has to go and get them etc. etc, and suddenly the meeting is two hours late. In South Africa time is flexible, in Sweden time is inflexible.
In South Africa time is more slow, people stroll through their life’s and take their time, while in Sweden time is money, everything should happen fast, fast, fast, we run throw our life and are always busy.
Family
In South Africa you are a part of your family and your friends, you are a part of a group, you do things together and you think about what is best for the group and what the group wants rather than what is best for you and what you want, while Sweden is a country filled with very individual centered people. We always think that we should take care of our self, and that we don’t need each other.
In Sweden if you want some on to do you a favor, you ask for it, for example you would say “Could you give me that book, please?” in the South African culture it is more common to order other people, for example “Give me that book, please.” In South Africa you go more directly to the point, whiteout beating about the bush, while in Sweden you could be a lot more indistinct/diffuse to get to your point, when you speak to one another. Like for example you and your friend are at a party and you start to get tired and want to go home, a Swedish person would say to his/her friend, “Is it not getting late, don’t you won’t to go home now?”, while a South African person would say “It’s way to late now, we are going home.”.
Food
In South Africa you eat at most three meals a day, sometimes just a tiny breakfast and then you don’t eat a real meal until supper. In Sweden we eat at least three meals a day, and snacks between the meals. Most South African people consume a lot mote sugar than most of the Swedish people do.
Sharing
The South African people share a lot more than the Swedish people do, in Sweden if you buy a chocolate, it is yours and you eat it, while in South Africa if you buy a chocolate it is everybody’s and everybody eats it. Also when you share in South Africa you first take as much as you want to, and then you give the rest away, you don’t expect to get anything back, for example, you take half of your chocolate and then give the rest of the half away to your company, while in Sweden if you would share you first start to give the chocolate away, for you company to taste and then expect them to give the chocolate back to you so that you can eat the rest.
Time
South African time and Swedish time are to totally different things. In Sweden we are controlled by schedules and timetables, if a meeting starts eight o’clock, you better are there ten minutes to eight to get yourself prepared, because the meeting will start at eight no matter if you are there or not, because that’s what is settled. While in South Africa time is a lot mote mobile, you say that the meeting wile start at eight o’clock but than somebody is late, you wait for the person to come and in the meantime somebody gets a phone call and has to talk for half an hour and then somebody else has forgotten his documents and has to go and get them etc. etc, and suddenly the meeting is two hours late. In South Africa time is flexible, in Sweden time is inflexible.
In South Africa time is more slow, people stroll through their life’s and take their time, while in Sweden time is money, everything should happen fast, fast, fast, we run throw our life and are always busy.
Family
In South Africa you are a part of your family and your friends, you are a part of a group, you do things together and you think about what is best for the group and what the group wants rather than what is best for you and what you want, while Sweden is a country filled with very individual centered people. We always think that we should take care of our self, and that we don’t need each other.
Littering
A lot of South African people litter a lot, if you drive your car eating a bag of chips and you finish it you just wind down the window and throw the bag out. While in Sweden the overall opinion about littering is that it’s very bad and disgrace.
Planning
In Sweden things are very organized, everything should be written down on paper and things should be extremely carefully planned, while in South Africa thing can many times be very unplanned and unorganized. We have experienced that South African bureaucracy is very unstructured and chaotic and Swedish bureaucracy is very structured (but also impossible to understand).
A lot of South African people litter a lot, if you drive your car eating a bag of chips and you finish it you just wind down the window and throw the bag out. While in Sweden the overall opinion about littering is that it’s very bad and disgrace.
Planning
In Sweden things are very organized, everything should be written down on paper and things should be extremely carefully planned, while in South Africa thing can many times be very unplanned and unorganized. We have experienced that South African bureaucracy is very unstructured and chaotic and Swedish bureaucracy is very structured (but also impossible to understand).
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