Scheduling should be pretty straightfor ward. Let’s meet 25 July or 14 October. But no, Swedes have their own way of counting time. In weeks!

Ask a Swede when school holidays begin and you’ll hear “week 23”. Need to sched ule a meeting? Someone will suggest “week 39” without a second thought. To a Swede, this is perfectly normal. To almost everyone else, it sounds like you’ve acci dentally misunderstood everything. By the time they’ve worked it out, the school hol idays are over and the meeting has already moved on to week 44.

Outside Sweden, people generally think in dates or months. If someone says, “see you in early October,” everyone understands. It’s clear, it makes sense.

Having left Sweden, I’ve also left this odd way of counting behind. However, when I plan meet ups with friends on visits back home, they insist on talking in weeks and I pretend I know what dates they’re refer ring to, which leads to some extreme con fusion when I show up on the wrong day, in the wrong month.

If you live inside the system, it’s practical. It makes long-term planning efficient. But since most of the world doesn’t instinc tively know what week 19 or week 35 cor responds to, the efficiency disappears the moment someone from anywhere outside of Sweden joins in the planning.

Then, you’re not just translating the lan guage, but a whole calendar year, one con fused week at a time.

Gabi Froden

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