Last week we were talking about Swedish culture in terms of eating habits and general manners/etiquette. When I am with the Anderssons I notice that they hold their knives with their right hands and eat with their fork in their left hands whereas I, as an American, tend to cut with my right hand and then put down my knife and then pick up my fork in my right hand to eat. Also, when I drink wine with the Anderssons I notice that they all hold their wine glasses from the stem while I tend to choke the glass with my whole palm. My language partner was telling me the other day that it is a tradition that stems from the vikings that you cannot eat with your other hand in your lap because the vikings took that as a sign that you could be holding a knife in the other hand and attack your fellow eater during a meal. Although obviously I am not going to attack my Swedish friends, they still value that you not hold your hand in your lap while you eat. I am confident, however, that the Anderssons are impressed enough by me (and contrary to popular belief Americans might eat differently but we still don't eat like dogs) that they might notice that I hold my wine glass differently but that they won't judge me for it.
Here is an interesting article about manners in Sweden:
http://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table-etiquette/europe-w_table_manners/swedish.html
Although some of these pointers seem to be unique to Sweden or Scandanavia, I think for the most part they are basic etiquette tips that apply to any country. For instance it just makes good sense that at a business lunch you would wait for your hosting party to bring up business before jumping right in, lest you seem rude as a guest. Also, the basic table manners like passing to the left or keeping the salt and pepper together as a pair seems to make good sense too.
Comments