Attitudes towards English in Sweden. (best, country, people, living)

[Jpaiz]

Good day, all. My name is Joshua Paiz. I'm a graduate student in English as a Second Language at the University of Toledo. I'm writing today because I'm working on a sociolinguistic profile of Sweden. One question that I'm asking is what are current attitudes toward English in Sweden? Is it embraced by all? Or, is there some aversion to it? If there is, what is the root of this aversion? Also, what does the Swedish government think of the spread of English in Sweden and throughout Scandinavia? What about marketing? Is there much English used in Swedish marketing?

Thanks in advance for your time,

Joshua Paiz
Graduate instructor, Department of English
ESL specialist, The American Language Institute

[Sweden]

In Sweden in order to graduate even from elementary school, you have to pass three mandatory classes: Swedish, math, and English. That is the importance English is given.
To understand the welcoming attitude towards English, one has to be aware of the Swedish mentality regarding the country's/peoples' importance in the world: we live in a small country, and we need to be able to communicate with others effectively.

Schoolbooks (even in the Swedish version of High school) are oftentimes written in English (at university level most books will be in English, and only in rare cases in Swedish).
Most TV-shows and movies (on TV) are bought from English-speaking countries (mainly the US and UK).
Almost all music on the radio is in English.

Regarding English in marketing: If you do not speak at least basic English, you will have a hard time understanding many commercials (TV, radio and magasines/news papers). Much is done in English/Swedish, or English only (i.e. no subtitles).
Commercials are either bought directly from the US (as with e.g. the Snickers Diva-commercial, many hair product commercials), or are made to seem to be from another country (as with e.g. the Colgate commercial).

When it comes to aversions towards English in Sweden, you will not find it to be very outspoken, or even outspoken at all.
Coming from a Swede living in the US, it might be rather weird for me to hold an aversion towards English, but like I hear daily here in the US that people should not have to press 1 for English, I do not understand why I should not even have the option to hear/read it in Swedish when English is not even an official minority language in the country.

But, by the vast majority (or atleast by appearance), English is highly accepted. By the government and the people. And most certainly by the media ...


Interesting choice (?) of country to do your profile on, btw. I wish you the best of luck and that more people chime in!