Cross-Cultural Blog

Even though i’ve lived in Sweden my entire life I still don’t consider myself as a Swede. Being that both of my parents are Estonian immigrants i’ve been brought up in an Estonian way of living. That’s why I feel more connected to the Estonian culture than I do to the Swedish.

You might ask yourself: is there really any difference between Estonian and Swedish Culture?
Both countries are relatively close to each other and they’re only divided by the baltic sea.

As I see it the fundamental difference between the two countries is freedom. Estonia has only been an independent country a few times during the course of history. We have been invaded and occupied by Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Soviet Union and so forth. Sweden on the other hand has never been fully occupied by another country and for the last 200 years it has not engaged in any type of war.

The effects of being constantly occupied by foreign countries has left the Estonian people with a great national pride. We take pride in being independent and managing on our own. We have been going to war to defend our independence even if though there was no chance of winning. That is something I feel the Swedish culture is lacking. From what i’ve experienced there is no apparent national pride. Just looking at the way Swedes celebrate their national day compared to how Estonians celebrate it, you instantly see a difference. In Sweden you have very few people out in the street, you see a couple of flags here and there and the king gives a speech. That’s usually it. In Estonian every single house and apartment is decorated with a flag, people take part in big celebrations in the street and there is a big national celebration throughout the country. To be frank I feel as though Swedes don’t value their freedom as much as Estonians do.

Another thing that I find very significant for Estonian culture is the pride of work. We value hard work and see it as something that makes people evolve into greater men and women. If you’re not working and you’re just being lazy the general opinion in Estonia is that your a slob. Roughly you can say that you are what you create. If you’re not doing anything and you’re not trying to do something you’re considered as less of a person. In Estonian culture we don’t expect anybody to make our problems go away. The only one that can help you is yourself.
That may sound kind of harsh but to me I find it motivating and I can see what kind of results it brings. Since 1991, when we became an independent country, we have turned our economic back on track, we have entered the European Union and gained membership in NATO. It’s not a coincidence that we made it this far. All this stems from hard work and from not expecting anybody else to make things happen for us. And if we continue this way we will soon have a better equipped economy than Sweden. All this in less than 16 years. I guess hard work pays.