Like Tree23Likes

Weird habits about the West

Reply
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 1 2
  1. #11

    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    South of Sweden
    Posts
    4,007

    The lack of spices in food. Only Salt and pepper. Also the sheer amount of sugar used in food compared to in HKG and Asia. Fair enough, Singapore and South Korea love their oh so sweet drinks, but not in food.

    Harsher sentences for criminals compared to the mere slap on the wrists here.

    Less of a community here than in Asia. People where I live think like an island - they are individuals, on their own, take care of oneself or only their immediate family, but the pressure to conform to live along one static line - Jante-ism - dress, eat, work the same is a contradiction in itself. In HKG/ Asia, there is community, but the pressure is to better oneself, do better, earn more and people dress individually, but still care for your family. In Sweden, it is difficult to talk about goals and aspirations because there will always be a group who will shoot you down.


  2. #12

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Pampanga, Philippines
    Posts
    31,831
    Quote Originally Posted by Natfixit:
    The lack of spices in food. Only Salt and pepper. Also the sheer amount of sugar used in food compared to in HKG and Asia. Fair enough, Singapore and South Korea love their oh so sweet drinks, but not in food.

    Harsher sentences for criminals compared to the mere slap on the wrists here.

    Less of a community here than in Asia. People where I live think like an island - they are individuals, on their own, take care of oneself or only their immediate family, but the pressure to conform to live along one static line - Jante-ism - dress, eat, work the same is a contradiction in itself. In HKG/ Asia, there is community, but the pressure is to better oneself, do better, earn more and people dress individually, but still care for your family. In Sweden, it is difficult to talk about goals and aspirations because there will always be a group who will shoot you down.
    Many British love spicey food.

    Filipino food has way too much sugar.
    north2 and Skyhook like this.

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Natfixit:
    The lack of spices in food. Only Salt and pepper. Also the sheer amount of sugar used in food compared to in HKG and Asia. Fair enough, Singapore and South Korea love their oh so sweet drinks, but not in food.

    Harsher sentences for criminals compared to the mere slap on the wrists here.

    Less of a community here than in Asia. People where I live think like an island - they are individuals, on their own, take care of oneself or only their immediate family, but the pressure to conform to live along one static line - Jante-ism - dress, eat, work the same is a contradiction in itself. In HKG/ Asia, there is community, but the pressure is to better oneself, do better, earn more and people dress individually, but still care for your family. In Sweden, it is difficult to talk about goals and aspirations because there will always be a group who will shoot you down.
    This is super interesting because most studies describe Sweden as a really individualistic country. But like you said, there’s actually a lot of pressure to conform, which goes against the whole idea of individualism. And Sweden is a big welfare state which also seems to contradict that.

    Can you explain a bit more? In what ways is Sweden even more conformist than somewhere like Hong Kong?

Reply
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 1 2