Living lagomly
We have always been proud that we have one Swedish word that cannot be translated, and furthermore, cannot even be used by others. It is our own word, lagom, which means: not too much and not to little.
This way of living is the essence of everyday Swedish life and one of the reasons behind the international Swedish phenomena known as "the Swedish model".
The Swedish model is closely related to another Swedish expression for social success – "välfärden". Exactly what it means is hard to say, we think the mening is that everyone living in Sweden should live lagomly according to the Swedish model in order to be part of the välfärd surrounding them.
Will the Swedish model survive? Will the Swedes continue the struggle towards the middle? And will the Swedish people still go for mellanmjölk in the future? Nobody knows.
A touch of Sweden
Lagom
Not too much and not too little. Yes, you know the idea, but you don't have one little word for it.
Hotdog with shrimpsalad
Meat and seafood at the same time.
Swedish weapon industry
Bofors sell weapons to any country as long as they promise not to use them.
Ombudsman
A man or a woman appointed by the government to protect the people against the government.
Mr and Mrs Svensson
Volvo, two children and a dog.
Klämdag
An excuse not to work. It means if one or two days are squeezed in between holidays, they are klämdagar, squeeze-days, and why should we work on those days when we don't work on the holidays surrounding them.
Kask
50 percent coffee and 50 percent vodka. Coffeebreak and party at the same time
Allemansrätt
The "all mans right" Gives everyone in Sweden freedom to walk around on everyones properties. As long as you dont walk into a "Militärt skyddsområde" which means Military Protected Area of course.
Industrisemester
July is not a good choice if you want to visit Sweden in business. Sweden is closed for vacation. But come back in August and we'll help you again.
Radhus
A swedish semidetached house is as near as lagom you can come in real estate in Sweden.
A part of the Swedish model
A contribution to the people of Sweden. In Sweden you never go the extreme way or the easy way. We always go in between. Why go for standardmjölk (regular milk 3% fat) or lättmjölk (low fat milk 0,5%) when you have the option to choose mellanmjölk with 1,5% fat.
This is what Sweden is all about ....according to Forsbergsskola.