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Fika make time to take a break1/1/2024 There is no goal, or purpose-fika really is just a break to sit and chat and take a step back from work for a bit, even if work topics do end up surfacing in conversation. The first is that these types of coffee breaks aren’t meetings with set agendas. As they began to discuss these original ideas, they realized that most of them had been dreamed up during fika breaks. He had worked for a company responsible for a lot of patents, and at the end of his career, he and his colleagues sat down and discussed some of their ideas which had eventually led to patents. I once gave a book talk where a Swedish attendee shared his own fika story. While a long weekend fika with a friend is certainly my favorite iteration, fika serves an important role during the workweek too, a valued and expected institution in the Swedish workplace. The main point is the break that the drink and food encourage you to take.įika is often a social affair, and it takes place in the workplace and during off hours. While a fika is usually associated with coffee, a cup of tea or other drink can also work. This is often sweet (cinnamon or cardamom buns are an iconic pairing) but can also be savory (like an open-faced sandwich). Fika is usually made up of a cup of coffee and something to eat with it. Fika is the iconic Swedish coffee break, and it’s an important cultural tradition that celebrates taking a moment in the day to slow down. Several years ago I wrote a book about the Swedish tradition of fika. Are these breaks actual breaks? Or are they simply more working moments masked as breaks? How often do you take breaks during your workday? Be honest with yourself in answering this question. Now if you excuse me, my friend is waiting.Brew some coffee, find a nice place to settle in, because today we’re going to talk about the importance of breaks. If you flip the syllables around, guess what you get? Yep. Back in the olden days of 19th century Sweden, the Swedish word for coffee was pronounced “kaffi”. As you can imagine, all this massive coffee drinking turned Sweden into the number one consumer of java per capita in the world.Īnd how the word fika came about is a very cool example of backslang (a sort of Pig Latin, or Verlan) that made its way into common use. Whenever you feel like a snack, you make some coffee and fika till your heart’s content. In a family setting, fika can take place anytime. All activity stops while the employees head to fika rooms in their workplaces and perform their time-honored ritual of socializing, coffee drinking and donut munching. Its afternoon equivalent happens around 3PM. You have a fika.įika is also observed in the professional world, and anyone who ever attempted to conduct business in Sweden between the hours of 9 and 9:30AM is well aware of this fact. You relax, catch up on what’s new, gossip about the latest happenings and watch the world go by. When a friend calls and asks if you want to fika, you know you can look forward to a pleasant afternoon meeting over fragrant tea (or a steaming cup of java) and a slice of pie. Now you can understand why fika is my favorite Swedish word, and the act of having fika – my favorite Swedish custom. Rather, it means all kinds of sweet goodies you can much on while enjoying your beverage of choice. Oddly enough, fikabröd is not bröd (bread) at all. ![]() You need to have fikabröd to go along with your drinks. Drinking coffee (or tea) by itself does not a fika make. ![]() And speaking of snacks – they’re of paramount importance. It can also imply a date, or a meeting, or simply getting together over coffee, tea and snacks. It can also be a noun meaning “ a coffee break”. Does it sound complicated? It’s not, really.Īt its most basic, fika means “ to have a coffee break”. It’s hard to even imagine life in Sweden without fika.īut what is it exactly? That depends on who’s talking. You could even say that fika is a social institution, and as such – a quintessential part of Swedish culture.Īnd that’s true. And you’d be hard pressed to find a word more Swedish to the core than fika. Which also happens to be my favorite Swedish word, too. One of the very first words of Swedish, right after hej and tack, that every foreigner learns is fika.
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