Category: Language

One of the first words you learn as a foreigner in Sweden is ‘lagom’. In English, there isn’t one word to sum it up. Roughly translated it means ‘enough, sufficient, adequate, just right’. Lagom is widely translated as ‘in moderation’, ‘in balance’, ‘optimal’ and ‘suitable’. While words like ‘sufficient’ suggest some degree of abstinence or scarcity, ‘lagom’ carries the connotation of appropriateness.

Similar to the concept of the middle path in Eastern philosophy, or Aristotle’s ‘golden mean’ of moderation in Western philosophy, it is said that the concept of lagom penetrates the Swedish way of life. Indeed the word lagom can be used in many situations to describe something that is ‘just right’.

Living in Sweden, you hear the word ‘lagom’ often. And just when you think you’ve understood it, something happens that makes it clear that you haven’t understood it at all.

For example, a person can be ‘lagom tall’ or ‘lagom short’ but that is not necessarily the same height.

Things can be ‘lagom funny’. Although said with some irony perhaps, what does this actually mean? That something is funny – but not too funny?!?

Lagom can also be used as an adjective – ‘that jacket is lagom on you’. Does this means it fits perfectly? Or does it mean it looks good enough – perhaps even mediocre?

And finally, things can be ‘precis lagom’, or precisely lagom. A concept that is so fuzzy for those of us not indoctrinated into it, can also be really exact.

The word lagom is generally believed to stem from the days of the vikings. When the vikings would pass around the mead to be drunk, it was important to take enough but not too much. The mead should last for the whole crew (in Swedish ‘lag’ + around ‘om’ Lagom = round the whole crew). Other etymologists claim that it comes from the Swedish word for law – lag – and means according to the folk law, or ‘according to common sense’ as we would say in English.

Whatever the origin, there is a meaningful cultural significance of the word lagom. The value of “just enough” is seen favorably in society as a sustainable alternative to the hoarding extremes of consumerism. But it could also be viewed as repressive – for example, it’s less ok to be too showy about wealth and power.

In a single word, lagom is said to describe the basis of the Swedish national psyche, one of consensus and equality. Despite a shift towards individualism and risk-taking in recent years, it is still widely considered ideal to be modest and avoid extremes.

But is Sweden really as lagom as it thinks in comparison to other contries? There are research databases that claim otherwise. I’ll talk about these in a later blog.

Right now, this amount of text feels, well,….lagom.

Any foreigner arriving in Stockholm yesterday would have been surprised to see the tons of snow that were dumped on the city from the heavy sky. Even though they couldn’t speak Swedish, they would have picked up on one expression – a word that was heard on everybody’s lips. A word that had to be the most commmon word of the day yesterday.

The word? Fan!

The meaning? Something like fuck/shit/damn and used in this case in disappointment and dismay as the snow lashed down.

Swearing in Swedish is usually something I try to avoid. I think it’s difficult to swear in a foreign language because you don’t really understand the nuances and strength of the word in question. It’s easy to cause offence.

A recent article in a newspaper took up this issue of swearing in different cultures. All cultures have swear words and most of them are connected to what is considered taboo in that culture. Common themes are religion, genitals, toilet, sex and mothers.

In the Nordic countries, ‘mother’ isn’t such a loaded theme and therefore doesn’t feature in the common swear words. The strongest swear words are those connected to genitals, usually the female.

If you know more Swedish words than ‘fan’ and you’re interested in reading more, here’s the link:

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/idagsidan/samhalle/han-ar-expert-pa-svarande_5929059.svd

In January, Sweden’s leading newspaper looks back at the year that’s been and selects all the new words that have been created. Swedish media are really good at preserving the Swedish language and creating new words, and this is an important function for all small languages. The varacious apitite of English is slowly devouring small languages around the world.

Some of the new words that came up in 2010:

Sosseväskan – Socialist Designer Handbag
Vabfebruari – February month when most parents stay home from work with sick kids
Köttklister – Glue that holds together bits of meat
Vulkanflyktning – people trapped abroad after the volcanic eruption on Iceland
Playa – to watch a program on the internet that you missed when it was broadcast on the tv
Grogghaggor – Booze bitches – relating to the Sex and the City gang (and the like)
70 percenter – a person who waits to the final week of the sales
Pinjemun – to eat a bad pine kernel and get a bad taste in the mouth for weeks
Fritzla – to hide something or somebody very successfully
Hipsterbuk – the fat that hangs over the top of too-low-cut jeans
Kaffeflicka – a woman who is invited to gentlemen’s dinners to drink coffee (revealed in a scandalous book about the king)

Last night, on Swedish television, a new programme aired. Called ‘Young and Spoiled’, it is a reality show about a group of young people who are very spoiled by their parents. The programme could easily have been called ‘Spoilt Rotten’. These ‘kids’ are aged between 18 & 24, and have never worked a day in their lives. They are put into a house together to see how they manage fundamentals such as cooking, cleaning and getting up to go to work. Of course, they don’t. And therein lies the entertainment.

I was fascinated less by the kids and more by the parents. Misguided adults who don’t see that they are doing their offspring no favours in life by pandering to their every whim.

In Swedish, because it is so common, there is a word for these type of parents. They are known as ‘curling parents’ – a reference to the Olympic sport of ice curling. Just like in the icy sport, curling parents smooth the way for their children. They sweep away any obstacles and make life easier. They think they are taking their role as a parent seriously. Life is so difficult anyway that they should try to cushion the blows for their,let’s face it, grown up children. But what they’re really doing is robbing their children of the chance to develop essential life skills and feel a sense of personal responsibility and achievement.

As far as I know, there is no equivalent word in English for ‘curling parents’.

This must be because they don’t exist in the UK. Right?