#3 Speaking Swedish helps (no, really?)

Chances are you can live here for years without learning a lick of Swedish. Swedes are widely rated as world number two at English as a second language. Therefore it might take you longer to learn Swedish, and the Catch-22 is that fluency in the language is crucial to full integration. Signing up for SFI (Swedish for immigrants) could be a step in the right direction. Learning Swedish might be a challenge, but worth the effort.

SFI courses are offered through each local municipality’s adult continuing education program (kommunal vuxenutbildning, or komvux) so you will need to contact your local municipality. Here’s a contact list of Sweden’s 290 municipalities.

Get an insider’s story of learning Swedish.

#4 You are bound to try lingonberry jam…

In Sweden, lingonberry jam is widely used to accompany a variety of dishes, from meatballs and pancakes to porridge and black pudding (blodpudding). But, make note, lingonberry jam is rarely used on bread, despite its sweetness.

#5 … and you will squeeze food out of tubes

To prepare you for your first visit to the cold foods section of a grocery store, understand that in Sweden, tubes are also used to package foods such as caviar, mayonnaise, mustard, and other similar condiments. At some point, you’ll probably squeeze some caviar from a tube onto half a boiled egg for breakfast.

Find out about other, non-tubed Swedish food as well.