Sweden in the World
What is the
first thing you think about when you hear “Sweden”?
Is it Abba´s “Waterloo” in the Eurovision SongContest
in 1979? Or is it the cheap furniture from IKEA that you find
so difficult to put together?
In this article you´ll read about things and people from
Sweden, celebrities and those who are more notorious than famous. |
Teckning 1the group ABBA was huge under the seventies |
IKEA
Have you ever been to IKEA? You know, that cheap store where you always
buy things you actually don´t need. Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA
in 1943. He was only 17 at that time.
Why the name IKEA?
The name IKEA comes from Ingvar´s initials: I.K. The “E”
stands for “Elmtaryd” which was the name of the farm he
was born in. “A” stands for the village he comes from
(Agunnaryd). Put those letters together, and you´ll get IKEA!
Today Ikea is world-wide and there´s no less than 125 stores
in the world.
Astrid Lindgren
What did your parents read to you before you went to bed as a little
boy or girl? Was it books about the strong, lively girl “Pippi
Longstocking” or was it the courious “Ronia the robber´s
daughter?” Either way, Astrid Lindgrens books are favourites
for many children. Her books are translated to more than 90 languages.
Unfortunately, she died a few years ago. She was born in the south
of Sweden in småland in 1907.
Hennes & Mauritz
H&M is, like IKEA, a store full of cheap fashion clothes (except
from the fact that Ikea doesn't sell clothes). Hm, I´ve never
thought of that, Are we Swedish people maybe stingy or poor?
Nah, probably we buy cheap things just so we can afford our yearly
trip to the Canary Islands.
The first store opened in 1947, today H&M is stationed in 19 countries
A really bad thing
(that H&M is keeping quiet about) is that the employees
in their factories in eastern Asia are very low-paid even though
they are working more than twelve hours a day.
The latest mistake for H&M is their model contract with
Kate Moss, even though they knew that she was taking drugs.
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This sign is very common in many countries |
Hockey players
By the way, did you know that Peter Forsberg and Markus Näslund
come from Örnsköldsvik in Sweden?
Other famous people from Sweden:
1.Björn Borg – A tennisplayer who won Wimbledon five times
in a row
2. Peter Stormare - A Swedish actor, plays a character in “Prison
Break”
3. Jan-Ove Waldner - A great table tennis player
4. Annica Sörenstam – A woman who is fantastic in golf
5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – A soccer player who plays in “Juventus”
in Italy
Less good things/people from Sweden
1.Victoria Silverstedt – Swedens scandal beauty.
2. Hennes&Mauritz – a chain of stores who sells cheap fashion
clothes
3. Vikings – robbed and killed people many hundred years ago
