Author: Midnight Paper

My first encounter with the quirky charm of Swedish brand messaging was on a carton of Oatly oat milk. Upon my arrival in Sweden, I noticed that almost every milk carton had some odd print on it, like this one in my hand, which featured a snippet of a conversation:

— “I really don’t know where to start…”

— “Hi! Sometimes it can be hard to articulate thoughts and feelings. When your mind is cluttered or life feels overwhelming, it can be hard to know where to start. We’re here to help you untangle your thoughts. What prompted you to message us now?”

— “Going to class now, will chat later.”

It turned out to be a charity ad in collaboration with Bris, a Swedish children’s rights organization that offers free counseling to young people.

Often it’s just for entertainment. The packaging of the Swedish chocolate drink O’boy shows a child craving sweets, accompanied by a note: “If you have someone with you, take two scoops; if you’re alone, take six scoops.

Eventually, as I began to make sense of the instructions on streetcars and buses about tapping, things got even more amusing:

— “You have to tap? Everybody has to tap!”

— “Don’t feel like tapping? Tap anyway!”

— “Forgot to tap? Tap now!”

— “Already tapped on the last ride? Tap again!”

This seems to be the introverted Swede’s way of encouraging passengers to proactively buy tickets. If you still fail to pay, a fine is the inevitable consequence.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, shrouded in dense fog, I strolled through the city after lunch and noticed that the seagulls had returned, along with a kind of black water bird with a white crown. ChatGPT called it a “coot,” a term that amusingly sounded like it had been coined on the fly. To my surprise, it actually exists – even humorously referred to as “the world’s most skilled swimming chicken.”

Not long ago, my cousin posted a close-up of a red bishop in our group chat that he had taken with a bird-watching telescope in Mauritius. An elderly Swedish lady from the Language Coffee Corner often shares amusing stories from her birding club.

Although we lack the proper equipment and organization, we still get a kick out of discovering new species, like the time this summer when we spotted a creature in the canal and, after debating whether it was a sea lion or a seal, we discovered that its actual Chinese name is “sea dog”.

The coot we found today, although originally from Sweden, is also common in China and migrates with the seasons, possibly settling in the Summer Palace during the winter. Unfortunately, we only saw its “duck-like” aspect today and missed the chance to observe it on land.

I am reminded of a scene in the movie Peter Rabbit where, upon returning to London, the protagonist finds his bird-watching journal now only filled with entries of pigeons.

Whenever I think of a shell-less snail, the first thing that pops into my mind is a spell from Harry Potter, which poor Ron once mistakenly cast upon himself.

In scientific terms, these shell-less creatures are known as “slugs” or “蛞蝓” in Chinese. Interestingly, typing “蛞蝓” on your phone brings up the snail emoji.

The term “slug” is much more commonly used in English than its Chinese counterpart. Additionally, the English word “sluggish”, meaning slow-moving, is derived from the slug’s nature.

Ever since I noticed slugs near the water tower, they seem to be everywhere, especially during evenings. After rains, I’d often find numerous snails crawling about, fascinating creatures that piqued my childhood curiosity.

On a related note, the naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre once studied the relationship between slugs and mushrooms. After observing that slugs showed little interest in certain types of mushrooms, he mused in his writings, “If we let them dictate which mushrooms are edible, might we miss out on some of the most delicious ones?”