My partner Fang recently wrote about Chinese people and their habit of commenting on others looks. Well, I might as well tell you how it all started. I recieved an e-mail from a friend (confidential info 
) who I didn’t know so well at the time, and this friend began the e-mail with;
“Hej snygging!”
Translating, this means “Hello hottie!”, which made my poor Scandinavian soul go on high alert with sirens, cutlery crashing and children screaming. I mean, I shouldn’t have turned on crazy mode because I see myself as a global citizen. Open-minded and full of humor. And as my father is Ethiopian and I’ve meet diffrenent examples of the culture, I now know that commenting on ugly,fat and even beautiful people is common, at least there. Maybe it is a common global phenomenon, unknown to me and the rest up here?!
In Sweden even the most socially skilled person, multi-cultural and inviting, avoid the subject of looks. Because you don’t tell other people how they look.
You dont:
- Tell people they’re fat
- Tell people their children are ugly
- Comment on very beautiful people so others hear
- Don’t tell people things that could be understood as harassments like “Hey there hottie!”
Basically, you just don’t mention the appearance of people, if you don’t have the two following excuses:
- You like how the person dress so you comment on how nice the person looks in her CLOTHES
- You’re drunk
In this country only crazy people talk about looks. And yes, sometimes some confused tourist or global person who multi tasked too long between different cultures.
Truly,
Elina
