Who am I?
How to talk about myself in Swedish?
Vad har du för yrke? Kommer du från USA? Talar du svenska? – so many important questions! What are the answers? Do you know how to talk about yourself in Swedish? Let’s practice together!
There are many phrases which you can use to talk about yourself. Some of them are basic, other are more advanced.
Basic phrases:
If you’re a beginner or if you want to talk about the basics, you can use some of these phrases:
- Jag heter + ditt namn = My name is + your name
- Jag kommer från + ditt land = I’m from + your country
- Jag bor i + din stad = I live in + your city
- Jag är + ditt yrke = I’m + your profession (WATCH OUT! In Swedish you don’t need an article here! Jag är lärare. NOT:
Jag är en lärare.) - Jag talar + språk = I speak + languages
So, I would say:
Jag heter Maryla. Jag kommer från Polen. Jag bor i Warszawa. Jag är lärare i svenska. Jag talar svenska, engelska och polska.
Ok, but what if you want to ask other people to introduce themselves? In such case, you can use these questions:
- Vad heter du? = What’s your name?
- Varifrån kommer du? = Where are you from?
- Var bor du? = Where do you live?
- Vad har du för yrke? = What do you do for a living? (literally: What’s your profession?)
- Vad talar du för språk? = What languages do you speak?
What I like? What am I good at?
But maybe you’re not a complete beginner anymore and you want to tell us more? Do you want us to know what you love or hate? Then you can use these verbs (here I list them in the present tense):
- gillar = like
- tycker om = also like
- älskar = love
- hatar = hate
If you want to say that you like/love/hate something, you put the thing you like/love/hate after the verb:
- Jag gillar kaffe. = I like coffee.
- Jag tycker om hundar. = I like dogs.
- Jag älskar musik. = I love music.
- Jag hatar spindlar. = I hate spiders. (I really do!)
But what should you do if you want to tell us what you like to do? The beginning of your sentence will be the same:
Jag gillar / tycker om / älskar / hatar…
Then we need to add the activity in its basic form (infinitv). The basic form consists of two words, just like in English. For example: att springa = to run.
- Jag hatar att springa. = I hate to run.
- Jag älskar att baka. = I love to bake.
Now, maybe you would like to tell us something about your strong and weak sides.
If you want to say that you’re good at something, you can say: Jag är duktig på + the activity (verb). For example:
Jag är duktig på att sjunga = I’m good at singing.
Are you bad at something? You can use the basic adjective ”dålig” which means bad, or maybe a more dramatic one, “usel”, which means “hopeless”. For example:
Jag är dålig/usel på att räkna i huvudet = I’m bad/hopeless at calculating in my head. (Unfortunately, that’s true when it comes to me!)
So, I would introduce myself like this:
Jag heter Maryla och jag är lärare i svenska. Jag älskar mitt jobb! Jag gillar att arbeta med människor och att prata mycket. Jag tycker också om musik och jag är ganska duktig på att sjunga. Tyvärr är jag usel på att räkna i huvudet och jag hatar det.
Fun Fact: Jantelagen
You should though be careful when you talk about yourself. Don’t be too proud of your achievements.
Have you noticed that I’ve written “ganska duktig”, which means “rather good”, and not just “duktig”? Do you know why? Am I not that good at singing? Well, that’s actually possible. But even if I was the best singer in the world, I’d probably have written the same thing, because of the Law of Jante (Jantelagen).
What’s Jantelagen?
Have you ever heard about Aksel Sandemose? He was a Danish writer, a rather controversial one considering that he’s described as a mythomaniac and that his own son accused him of incest. In one of his books, “A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks” (1933), Sandemose created a fictional town called Jante, which inhabitants followed strict social rules:
1. You shall not believe you are anything.
2. You shall not believe you are as much as us.
3. You shall not believe you are wiser than us.
4. You shall not imagine you are better than us.
5. You shall not believe you know more than us.
6. You shall not believe you are more than us.
7. You shall not believe you are good for anything.
8. You shall not laugh at us.
9. You shall not believe anyone cares about you.
10. You shall not believe you can teach us anything.
(Quotation’s source: BBC, accessed: 01.10.2021)
- You shall not believe you are anything.
- You shall not believe you are as much as us.
- You shall not believe you are wiser than us.
- You shall not imagine you are better than us.
- You shall not believe you know more than us.
- You shall not believe you are more than us.
- You shall not believe you are good for anything.
- You shall not laugh at us.
- You shall not believe anyone cares about you.
- You shall not believe you can teach us anything.
(Quotation’s source: BBC, accessed: 01.10.2021)
Those rules compose the Law of Jante. Although Sandemose wrote his book almost a century ago, Jantelagen is still in force in modern Scandinavian societies, where equality and modesty are highly prized virtues. That’s why you shouldn’t tell other people about your personal success, for example about how much you earn. Otherwise, they’ll probably be embarrassed, because according to the Law of Jante you shouldn’t think that you’re better than others.
Don’t you believe me? Check out this video were one of the most famous Swedish actors in Hollywood, Alexander Skarsgård, talks about his experiences connected with Jantelagen:
Considering that, I should have probably written: Jag gillar att sjunga, men jag är inte så duktig på det (I like to sing, but I’m not very good at it).
And you? Who are you? Vad heter du och varifrån kommer du? Vad
gillar du? Let me know in the comments!
Sources:
- Booth, M. (2015), Skandynawski Raj. O ludziach prawie idealnych, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego (The English title of this book is The Amost nearly Perfect People. Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia – it’s really interesting!)
- Savage, M. (2019), Jantelagen: Why Swedes won’t talk about wealth, BBC Worklife, accessed: 01.10.2021
