“Kommer du hit ofta?” It’s a line you may want to learn in case you ever catch yourself in a crowded room, swooning over a Swede. But wait a minute before you start dashing off to boot up Google translate or purchase a pocket dictionary.
First things first, the chances of meeting an attractive Swede are fairly high. Sweden’s reputation as a nation of beautiful people precedes them. I live here. It’s true. And I’m used to it.
After a number of years living here up north – and complete with my own beautiful partner – I no longer feel the need to walk down the street, in constant amazement at the symmetry of chiselled jaw lines.
On that note, my sambo just walked through the door and told me he had been whistled at by a group of teenage girls. It made his day.
You can't really say they're ugly. Photo: Nicho Södling/Image Bank Sweden
A slightly more scientific case in point – but by no means conclusive – is the number of Swedes accepted to the Denmark–based dating website beautifulpeople.com
Applicants are judged on face value alone. They can join if other members deem them attractive enough to mingle with other beautiful singles.
A recent survey found that Swedish men have the highest rate of acceptance to the site. Swedish women also fare well, coming in second place to their stunning Scandinavian sisters in Norway.
All that being said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and seeing is believing. Which is why British dating coach Jeremy Soul ended up moving to Stockholm last year.
We met when I was assigned to write an article, following him and his protégés in action. Their mission was to test techniques to chat up women on the streets of the capital.
I recall he thought Swedish women were some of the most beautiful in the world. They also found him hard to resist, not because he’s tall, blonde-haired and blue-eyed. He isn’t. But he was able to charm them through the language of love. And apparantly, that’s not Swedish.
The fact that Swedes love to converse in the English language and practise with native speakers gave him the upper hand with the opposite sex.
So he never bothered with “kommer du hit ofta?” as an opening line. And his style was far too sophisticated for the English equivalent “do you come here often?”
As for whether the people are really beautiful as they say, I guess you’ll have to pay more regular visits to Sweden to find out.
