A very high percentage of the population participates in skiing and other winter and summer sports. Not surprisingly, Swedes often enjoy long, healthy, lives. It's no secret that I love to read, and I also enjoy learning and the study of language. It was just reported at the end of 1997 by the Associated Press that Sweden had once again claimed that honor. A major factor behind Sweden's high literacy rate is the entire country's emphasis on education, even beyond the childhood years.
Most Swedish children learn at least one foreign language starting with the early school years.
So it is rare that you would find yourself in Stockholm, for instance, and be unable to speak English and not be understood. Even so, I think it is a show of interest and courtesy to be able to address someone in their own language when in their country. Also, as the Swedes know all so well, learning the language of another culture broadens one's knowledge and horizons tremendously. In America we often seem to have the attitude that others should learn our language and that we needn't learn theirs. This is unfortunate, though, because not only can we learn a great deal about other cultures by learning other languages, but we can learn a great deal about our own.