Questionnaire about Sweden

1. Do you know where Sweden is? 5 students answered YES


2. Do you know about our climate here? Differences in daylight between summer and winter? 0 students answered YES


3. Do you know much about our nature e.g. that nature is at rest in the winter? All the deciduous trees drop their leaves and many birds move to South Europe and Africa when summer is over. So it is pretty quiet in nature during winter and no flowers are blooming. 0 students answered YES


4. The following animals are common in the south of Sweden: rabbits, moose (=elks), roe deer, wild boars, squirrels, lynxes and foxes. On the coast there are otters and different seals. Some common fishes are pike, perch, salmon, char, cod and herring. Do you know any of them? 23 students answered YES they have heard of SOME.


5. In north Sweden there are some other predators like bears (not ice bears), wolves and wolverines. Probably you don’t have these animals in your country, do you? No we don’t have any of these at all.

6. Do you know any of our famous tennis players – Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg? 4 students answered YES


7. Have you heard about ABBA a very popular pop group in the 70s? Their music is still popular all over the world. Today we have other popular groups like Roxette and Ace of Bace. Have you heard about them? 28 students answered YES


8. Volvo and SAAB are two cars that are made in Sweden. Do you have any of these two cars in your country? 2 students could tell me what make of car was Swedish. All students had heard of either Volvo or Saab. We do have them here.


9. Do you have any Scania heavy tracks? In that case they are from Sweden. 12 students knew what a Scania was. We have them here.



10. Have you heard about the Noble Prize? Perhaps you already know that Alfred Nobel was a Swede who invented the dynamite. Other Swedish inventions are Tetra Pak, the ball bearing and the propeller. Did you know that? 1 student knew that the ball baring was invented there. 1 knew that the Nobel Prize originated in Sweden.


11. Do you have IKEA in your country? This is a global furniture company that stores in all Europe, North America and also Asia. It was a Swede named Ingvar Kamprad who founded it in 1950. There are no IKEA shops here so no students knew what they were. They are in Australia though.


12. Have you children books about Pippi Longstocking? In that case they are written by a Swedish writer named Astrid Lindgren. Her books are translated into several languages. Yes we have those books here. The students did not know the author was Swedish.


13. Do you have this word in your language – ombudsman. That is a Swedish word. Yes we have that word here. The students did not know the word was Swedish.


14. Many of the Swedish sports are the same in your country but I am not sure that you play these ball games: floor ball, bandy and soccer. Do you? We play soccer only.
Is orienteering a big sport in your country? We certainly have orienteering here, in fact the students took part at their annual school camp about a month ago. The School owns an Outdoor Lodge up in some ranges not too far from here. Each class goes there every year. They attend our school for 2 years (it is a middle school) so they get to go twice.