Posts tagged with "jantelagen"

The Downfall of Jantelagen – Social Media

Posted by Marcus Cederström 11 Comments
Feb 18 2010

I managed to get myself a degree in Scandinavian Studies back in the US. When I explain to people here in Sweden what that entails I am always faced with questions. Why? Why would you study Swedish culture? We don’t have any culture.

This comment always strikes me. On a personal level, it is a shame considering my passion for the subject, on a cultural level though it makes sense. Jantelagen has entrenched itself as an integral part of Swedish culture. As Jennie pointed out, the law, in its written form, originated in a Norwegian work of fiction. It is abrupt, direct, and can sometimes be viewed as quite oppressive.

It is something that can be seen in all aspects of life. From the soft-spoken Swedish athletes to the soft-spoken international Swedish companies. Rather than embrace all that makes Sweden worth reading about, writing about, learning about. All that makes Sweden Swedish, Jantelagen emerges.

Not just at the individual level though, Jantelagen also surfaces at the group level. The country as a whole suffers from Jantelagen. Sweden has made an enormous contribution to the in technology, design, social responsibility, fashion, sports, medicine. The list goes on. But showing pride in those accomplishments, or showing pride in the Swedish culture, is akin to heresy. A fictional law has been institutionalized in a country of nine million people. That in and of itself is fascinating.

Despite that institutionalization, I see small cracks. Cracks that seem to grow every time a Swede signs up for Facebook or Twitter or posts a blog post about the new shoes they just bought at NK (shameless plug: if you haven’t already, you should probably join our Facebook Fan Page or follow us on Twitter). Social media is the anti-Jantelag.

Suddenly, Swedes everywhere have a platform to express their individuality. To express their latest conquest. Their latest degree. Their latest purchase. But to do so from a distance. There is a disconnect between posting a Facebook update about your MVG and the hundreds of friends who will read it. There is no disconnect between telling your friend about your MVG while sitting around at a fika. Social media is paving the way for a cultural shift. Instead of an unwritten law which tempers the ego of even your most successful Swede, social media strokes the ego of even the least successful Swede. Jantelagen will bear the brunt of that shift.

By the way, I am good at jigsaw puzzles. Seriously. 500 pieces? 1000 pieces? 10000 pieces? It doesn’t matter. Give me a card table, a chair, and maybe some gummy bears and I will fly through the puzzle. And no, I will not use the picture on the front of the box. That’s cheating. So there, I said it. I can teach you a thing or two about puzzling.

“Express yourself don’t repress yourself!”

Posted by Tibor 17 Comments
Feb 17 2010

No one really likes Jantelagen. People have really weird thoughts about this subject sometimes. You are not supposed to express strong opinions on anything unless it’s not about child abuse (barnaga/barnmisshandel) or something really horrible that people are naturally against. I remember one conversation where I really went against jantelagen and only one friend of mine backed me up. I should have been PK about it as we say politically correct (politiskt korrekt) in Sweden. That was the expectation. But I wasn’t. Not because I wanted to provoke people, but I wanted to have an honest reaction. But I should have been lagom on the matter. I have been wondering for years what is the reason why I so dislike jantelagen. I thought for a while that it must be because of my Hungarian heritage. Tamás Gellért (one of the biggest Swedish writers and journalists nowadays and among other books he is the author of the famous book Lasermannen, which is a true story based on a serial killer in Stockholm) wrote in an articel that the Hungarian mentality is cocky (kaxig) and brutally honest. I really don’t know if he’s right or wrong about that matter. I think everyone can recognize her/himself in any of the statements of either Tamás Gellért or jantelagen. After reading his article I have understood that the real reason why I dislike jantelagen is because I don’t like greyness. Greyness in terms of being unnoticeable and boring. I like interesting people who are outstanding talents and by outstanding I don’t mean Paris Hilton. Or maybe not outstanding but true to themselves. There is nothing wrong with showing that you CAN DO IT or that you have a different point of view. It’s human nature. It’s not good for you to repress your feelings. I honestly hope that people who live by jantelagen-rules won’t realize after a certain age that they have missed out on things just because they wanted to live up for something that was created/decided by other people who rather “repress than solve things”. This is also a reason why I dislike jantelagen. I don’t ever want to feel like that. I want to be aware of the reasons behind any actions or statements I make. Do not worry guys! I let go sometimes. ;-)

I have collected some funny lines that sums up people living in Janteland=Sweden. Don’t forget that I will generalize as well. Do you recognize yourself as a Swede or as a foreigner in transition becoming a Swede?

It is always someone elses turn to buy cakes to work on fridays.

You think you’ll be punished for changing queue at the grocery store.

You comfort yourself with “that is more important to be a part of the game than winning it”.

You never sit next to a person unless there are no available seats left.

You become silent when people pour wine for you.

You are convinced that Sweden pays the most EU-membership fee.

You know the Norwegian national day by heart but you are uncertain when the Swedish is.

You pay equally on a first-date.

If someone talks to you (without a real reason) on the bus you assume that they are either drunk or have a psycological problem.

You weigh your lagguage at home before leaving to the airport.

You never say that the food was bad at a restaurant. You think it’s about good manners.

Whenever you get a fine you say: They are just doing their job.

You think that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

You take a queue ticket even if you are alone in the shop.

You take chances to make Swedish words into English.

You would love to be less stereotypical Swedish.

source with some modification: Du vet att du är svensk. You know that you are Swedish.

Don’t think that you are special…

Posted by jennie 11 Comments
Feb 15 2010

…at least not if you are a Swede, that is.

(Alright, we are generalizing again, but it is after all a Swedish blog…)

With those words, I hereby declare the Swedish blog’s first theme week open. Every day and every word this week will be dedicated to an awful cloud that has been casting its shadow over Scandinavia (and yes, probably over all sorts of places all over the world) for centuries and is still  in one way or another effecting us all. I’m talking about the Jante law – the law that in many ways is worse to break than the ones in the big thick law book. The law that simply tells you that you are no one, you will never be anyone and you will never get anywhere.
Horrible, isn’t it?

Swedes are, as we all know, very modest people. And to think highly of yourself, and even express these thoughts god forbid, is a big no no in Sweden. Instead, you should tone down success, not mention money what so ever and be humble about everyone and everything. It was the Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose who first wrote down this unwritten law in his book “A Fugitive Crosses Its Tracks”  from 1933 (It got its name – Jante – from the town in the book) and since then it’s a well known word in all Swedes’ vocabulary.

 So, as an introduction to this week forthcoming posts, I give you the Jante law in its full.

  • Don’t think that you are special.
  • Don’t think that you are of the same standing as us.
  • Don’t think that you are smarter than us.
  • Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
  • Don’t think that you know more than us.
  • Don’t think that you are more important than us.
  • Don’t think that you are good at anything.
  • Don’t laugh at us.
  • Don’t think that anyone of us cares about you.
  • Don’t think that you can teach us anything.

    • Please make sure to break it in every way you can!

    Jante Something or the Other

    Posted by Transparent Language 6 Comments
    Oct 4 2008

    Sooner or later when you write about Sweden you will have to address the topics of “lagom” and “Jantelagen” and I’ve been mulling over how long I can practice avoidance and not talk about them. Why? Because I don’t know what the big deal is all about. Really. Two goofy phrases that supposedly “define” the Swedish psyche, if there is such a thing as the Swedish psyche in the first place. Or was it perhaps the Scandinavian psyche? Meh, same, same.

    Of the two, “Jantelagen” (Jante Laws) seems to be the more controversial one. And it’s not even a real “law”. It was devised by a long-dead writer in a fictional story written a bazillion years ago, that is sometime around 1933. And he wasn’t even Swedish, but Norwegian, or Danish-Norwegian, to be exact. His pa was Danish, and his ma Norwegian. He was born as Aksel Nielsen, but changed it later to Aksel Sandemose. The dude had some serious issues, and I mean – big time serious. He hated his hometown of Nykøbing in Denmark so much, he totally trashed it in his most famous book “En flyktning krysser sitt spor” (“A fugitive crosses his tracks”). Yeah, so that’s how Jantelagen was born.

    The book was translated into English and published in the US in 1936. And it would have faded into well-deserved obscurity, if not for the persistence of foreigners living in Scandinavia, who somehow managed to elevate the fictional Jante Laws to a nearly symbolic level. Symbolic of what, I am not really sure. Maybe of their inability to assimilate in a new country.

    There is nothing in the Jante Laws that makes them unique to Scandinavia. Jante (Mr. Sandemose had enough good sense to change the name of the town from Nykøbing to Jante) is the epitome of a small, podunk town, where everybody knows everybody else’s business. It has nothing to do with Sweden, Denmark, Norway, or Scandinavia in general.

    Towns like that are the same the world over, be it in Iowa (Webster City springs to mind), or South Dakota (Spearfish perhaps?) or Montana (Deer Lodge?). OK, so that was the US, but you catch my drift. The small-town mentality is the same. Seriously, I’ve seen more extreme examples of Jantelagen in Poland than in Sweden.

    In other countries the concept is known as the “tall poppy syndrome” – which happens when somebody’s assumption of a higher economic, social or political position is criticized as being presumptuous, attention-seeking, or without merit. So there you have it, a typical small-town attitude towards anyone who dreams big and wants to accomplish something. Hardly unique to Scandinavia.

    I wanted to be nicely prepared for this rant, and so I pulled out my 1936 English edition of “A fugitive crosses his tracks” (I found one at a garage sale eons ago, the woman was selling like one shopping bag full of books for a buck, or something, and some of those were original pre-war editions. Can you believe it?) to re-read it and once again try to figure out what the fuss was all about.

    I had a hair appointment yesterday. I took the book with me, because I get bored easily when I’m having my highlights done and the woman who does my hair is particularly chatty and particularly boring, so reading a book saves me from pretending I’m paying attention to her blabber. (So much for the myth of silent Swedes, huh?)

    And somehow, between the washing, cutting, coloring, and washing again, and then styling, and paying, I managed to leave the book at the hair salon. I realized it when I came home and of course immediately drove back downtown. In the space of maybe 40 minutes, the book got little legs and walked out. (So much for another myth about Sweden, huh?) But of course, this being Sweden, nobody saw anything, and my stylist said she wasn’t even aware I had a book with me at all. Splendid.

    So now I guess I better start watching the Swedish version of ebay (Blocket) and see if it turns up somewhere. I’ve already searched the internet to purchase another copy, but wouldn’t you know it, there is none available. I am NOT a happy camper.

    And here are the famous Jante Laws for you. They were originally written in Danish (Norwegian?), but I’m giving you the English and Swedish versions, OK?

    1. Don’t think you are anything. = Du skall inte tro att du är något.
    2. Don’t think you are as good as us. = Du skall inte tro att du är lika god som vi.
    3. Don’t think you are smarter than us. = Du skall inte tro att du är klokare än vi.
    4. Don’t fancy yourself better than us. = Du skall inte inbilla dig att du är bättre än vi.
    5. Don’t think you know more than us. = Du skall inte tro att du vet mer än vi.
    6. Don’t think you are greater than us. = Du skall inte tro att du är förmer än vi.
    7. Don’t think you are good for anything. = Du skall inte tro att du duger till något.
    8. Don’t laugh at us. = Du skall inte skratta åt oss.
    9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you. = Du skall inte tro att någon bryr sig om dig.
    10. Don’t think you can teach us anything. = Du skall inte tro att du kan lära oss något.

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