GUWonder

And who said FT wasn't informative at times.

Denmark gives US citizens who move to Denmark just 14 days until the US state driving license is no longer valid in Denmark. And for those US citizens who don't establish residency in Denmark, they allow for 6 months of use with such US license. Fortunately, since around 2016, Denmark accepts US licenses to be used to get Danish licenses without any tests. But the Danish police keep the US driving license until such time as the driver asks for the US license back by surrendering their Danish license back to the government.

Sweden is sort of interesting in how it won't accept US driving licenses for getting a Swedish license. Germany has for a long time accepted some US states' licenses for conversion into German licenses, but it has a history of refusing to accept a lot of US states' licenses for conversion. Germany accepts some US states licenses for conversion of sort while refusing other US states' licenses. It has to do with which US states have entered into a deal with Germany for Germany to recognize their state's licenses for a conversion of sort into a German license.

JR67

One of my ex-wives was (East) German. She still had the East German driver license, which is valid eternally. She kept it because she was young and very beautiful in that picture, and less young after the anschluss (or should we say die Wende?). I told her she wasn't allowed to drive my car until she had a license from a country that still exists. So she traded it in on a Swedish license. Strangely, the one-to-one conversion gave her a license that allowed driving everything from motorcycles to heavy trucks. She can't drive either...

Sweden used to accept American licenses in trade. Then they started getting immigrants from countries where licenses were a commodity, and not a test of skills. In typical Swedish fashion they decided to make EVERYONE take the Swedish tests. Having gotten my license in Oklahoma that was probably not a bad decision....

nini_su

Yep, we should. "Anschluss" refers specifically to the "annexation" of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, so using the term for German reunification implies a thing or two that at least I wouldn't be comfortable implying.

JR67

I know that... I also know what happened in the east after reunification - I was there. Somehow Die Wende is a bit too optimistic. I saw people with the same degrees, positions and abilities working at unis in Germany being paid differently depending on where they were educated. Reunification was bad for a lot of people in the East. It was good for a lot of people too. That was my point with the comment. No offense intended - I absolutely love Germany, even the western part. ;-)

GUWonder

Japanese licenses have been accepted by Sweden in a way that American licenses haven't been accepted in Sweden. So with a Japanese license, the Swedish traffic authorities have allowed for skipping a test that isn't allowed to be skipped for American license holders.

JR67

Now you have me curious. Does it have something to do with geishas and Paolo Roberto?

GUWonder

I doubt that it would have any relationship with that. Is that the "exercise" guy who was popular in Vellinge and across much of Sweden until a TV channel fired him for being arrested for paying for sex with an Eastern European woman?

JR67

No, that was me.... No wait. Yes. YES. It was him! (As I slyly divert attention...)

nini_su

Agreed. But that's the thing were the inaccuracies of that analogy get kinda unbearable for me, because the "Anschluss" was a unification based on race ideology and far from being discriminated against, Austrians went on to become some of the worst perpetrators of the Third Reich. Plus, when things turned and it became more beneficial to wash your hands off everything, the whole myth of being Germany's "first victim" was a defining factor for Austrian post-war history – and that chapter simply has no equivalent for the former GDR. BTW I'm not offended, I just think you can discuss the downsides of German reunification without having to resort to historically charged terminology.

JR67

And by the way - Vellinge would NEVER watch an ethnic guy on TV...

JR67

I understand. Sorry! I was just trying to make my point in the most brutal way possible, as is my wont. In the same vein, the east Germans have never come to terms with the Second World War either. They grew up being taught that is was the West Germans who did all the bad things...

GUWonder

And how about at the movies? Or is that why Darth Vader didn't get as much love in Vellinge as that Luke and Leia pair from Star Wars? Oh, wait! Are there even any real movie theaters left in Vellinge? There certainly are plenty of those 65+ inch TVs.

My sense was that the Stockholm-accented guy wasn't considered much of an "ethnic guy" since he was probably born around Stockholm and ethnic European of sort. Perhaps if you can pass for Queen Silvia's relative in the eyes of the SD in Skane, then you're not "ethnic" like that Batra comedian dude whose wife was head of M. Now that the exercise dude is charged with a crime, he's going to be extra-"ethnic".

Before he was "ethnic", wasn't he just "exotic"?

JR67

Only in Höllviken where they want to be in Stockholm...

Fredrik74

He wasn't. It was only when he was a young thug he was ethnic.

These days it's not particularly exotic to claim Italian heritage anyway.

GUWonder

How lovely. More of Sweden should go that way since the Stockholm accent is so much easier on my ears.

I always find it amusing how Skanska-accent speakers tone down their Skanska when dealing with Stockholm Swedes and many others but seem to ramp up the accent when dealing with each other as if it's a competition to sound more local.