June 2013

When I moved back to Stockholm in the early 00’s after a five-year sojourn in London, I was struck by how much English I saw on shop signs, billboards and restaurant menus. Not that it hadn’t been there before. I just hadn’t questioned it. Up until that point, the English around me was as self-evident and invisible as the air I was breathing. But having spent five years in an English-speaking country, I saw how stupid it looked to immerse ourselves in a language that wasn’t our own.

First off, we didn’t always get it right. Not that I fully mastered the English language after a mere five years in the UK, but the strange use of apostrophes in the wrong places and stitching together words that should be separate all of a sudden became more noticeable. Secondly, it reeked of poor self-confidence. Why on earth call a restaurant Grill Ruby? Or East, or Cliff Barnes? Why call a hotel Mornington, or Crystal Plaza? Why try to be London or New York when we actually were Stockholm? Wouldn’t it be better if we just tried to be ourselves?

My prayers were answered. The last five or six years, the number of restaurants specialising in traditional Swedish cuisine have soared in Stockholm. And if new places are not named after the owners themselves – typical Swedish names like Mathias Dahlgren or Frantzén/Lindeberg – they have been given a two-syllable name consisting of a Swedish noun in the definite form: Kåken (The Jailhouse), Djuret (The Animal), Taket (The Roof), Trädgårn (The Garden), Landet (The Countryside), Tjoget (The Dozen) to name but a few.

All of a sudden, we just can’t be Swedish enough. It definitely has to do with the local produce trend, where everything has to be as vintage as possible; in that context an old-fashioned name gives that extra-genuine edge. But it could possibly also be a sign of a newfound self-confidence. For a decade now we’ve been wearing Nakkna, Back and Diana Orving while listening to Robyn, Lykke Li and The Knife. If we are immersing ourselves in Swedish culture when it comes to music and fashion, why wouldn’t we want to eat it for lunch?

Of course, there are still a lot of English shop signs and company names in Stockholm. But it doesn’t annoy me as much as it used to. The fact that virtually everyone speaks almost perfect English is one of the most important factors when it comes to attract foreigners to live here. Currently, around 30 000 people are moving to Stockholm each year, many of whom come from other countries. In fact, a new report from the city’s chamber of commerce shows that Stockholm’s population is among the fastest-growing among European cities, suggesting that by 2030 our capital will overtake London as the fastest-growing city in Western Europe.

It would be strange if the bilingualism that is so characteristic of our city – because yes, visitors are constantly baffled by how easy it is to ask for directions or strike up a conversation – was not reflected in shop signs, storefronts and ad campaigns. Just make sure you get the apostrophe right and I will never complain again.