Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

Allt gott har ett slut, all good things must come to an end. The Transparent Language Swedish blog is being discontinued so it’s time to say hej då kära läsare (goodbye, dear readers!). From Swedish grammar to music, food, and culture, we’re covered a lot of content together over the last few years. Don’t worry, the Transparent Language Swedish blog articles of the past aren’t going anywhere – you will still have access to your favorite and most helpful posts – but for this last article, I thought it would be fun to share some content highlights I enjoyed writing the most.

I stumbled upon Transparent Language as I was lesson planning for my own Swedish students. As you know, the Swedish blog is chock-full of great language learning and cultural content so naturally, I wanted to be a part of it! I said hej to you all for the first time with the post As Fall Sets in, Swedes Bring on the “mys” in October of 2019. 

Since then, I’ve written one post weekly -123 posts if you count today’s. I remember thinking it would be difficult for me to come up with an original idea every week. But in hindsight, it wasn’t. The nature of language learning is so vast and complex that topics abound! Let’s dig into some of my favorita blogginlägg (favorite blog posts) from the last few years.

Favorite Swedish grammar posts: 

Ah, grammar. Vi älskar det, ibland mer och ibland mindre. We love it, sometimes more and sometimes less. Despite a love-hate relationship with grammar, we depend on it as language users. Hej nybörjare! (hej, beginners!) once you have a good grasp of present tense verbs, it’s time to use the infinitive form with helping verbs – it’s a way to step up your Swedish. Below are some oth

Intermediate learners should not neglect the basics but also focus on developing their language with concepts like present participles and mastering bisatser and present participles! See these topics below:

Favorite Swedish food post:

I loved highlighting Swedish cooking traditions with Det svenska köket series, but my favorite post would have to be Bake Swedish Cinnamon Buns Using Imperative Verbs. I put together a step-by-step guide for making soft, delicious cinnamon buns. I also got to write about Våffeldagen with my friend and Nordic food geek Patrice:

Not a waffles fan? Practice your Swedish while you roll out pepparkakor och dricker glögg.

Swedish Blog with the most comments:

Idioms are always a fan favorite amongst language learners. They are metaphors, figures of speech, that most often cannot be translated well into another language. In this post, I give readers the Swedish idiom, the literal translation in English, and the English language idiom of equivalent meaning. It was the post with the most comments!

Swedish culture blog posts:

Ever had trouble staying motivated in your Swedish study? A great way to mix up your study routine is to infuse your personal interests into your study routine. For example, you can follow Swedes on social media, as I’ve explained in this post.

Enjoy poetry? Meet Karin Boye in this blog article, although her biography is kind of a bummer, I ADORE her writing. Music meets poetry with this blog about Molly Sandén’s interpretation of an Edith Södergran poem. And finally, literature fans should definitely check out this intro to contemporary writer Johannes Anyuru. 

Swedish Blog Favorite music post:

Missed the boat about monthly music posts? Do a bit of rewinding and you’ll find that the post first of every month is music-themed. If you’re a newbie to Swedish music, see this intro post – and bonus, the spellista (playlist) is all Swedish artists singing på svenska.

I think my favorite music post highlighted sámi music. My friend Evelina contributed to it. Read it here!

Slutet gott, allting gott! All’s Well that ends well.

Thanks to Liz Stopka for hopping on the blog team recently. Catch up with Liz and her work for the American Swedish Institute education team.

As for me, you’re welcome to follow along with my adventures on Instagram @djingenting, although I’ll admit I don’t post that often. I want to say a big tack to all of you for following this blog and sharing your enthusiasm for learning Swedish with me. I’ve appreciated your readership and kindness, and encourage you all to keep up with your language learning discovery – immersing yourself into another language and culture can be more valuable than you first expect it to be.

Sköt om er, take care. 

     

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Photo by Trent Erwin on Unsplash

Are you looking for Swedish learning resources outside of your regular textbook? Or just looking for a refresh of resources you already use? This blog will highlight several great resources for Swedish learners broken out  by language level. 

A Resource for Beginning Learners 

After covering the basics of Swedish, a great way to increase your vocabulary is through reading. 8sidor is a fantasisk resource for learners as it presents Swedish and world news in a lättläst (easy to read) format. Readers can also listen to each article. There are topics to interest anyone with the sections Sverige (Sweden), Världen (the world), Sport (sports), Kultur, (culture), Vardags (everyday life), Krönika (opinion), and Alla väljare (all voters, summarizes important societal issues). 

8sidor is a great way to get a quick rundown of the most important news from Sweden, på svenska. Another way to use the site is to read world news which you may already be familiar with in English in order to build your Swedish vocabulary around important current events. Recently, the site also started featuring Åtta frågor (eight questions) which is a trivia quiz about the past week’s news. It’s a fun way to test yourself on both current events AND your Swedish vocabulary, win-win!

I use the site regularly with my Swedish students, and recently featured an 8sidor article in this blog post about Sweden’s response to the war in Ukraine.

A Resource for Intermediate Learners 

To continue building your listening skills as an intermediate learner, it’s important to….listen! Nyheter på lätt svenska (News in easy Swedish) is a great resource. In just five minutes, the program recaps the most important news stories every weekday – a perfect bite-size language exercise to build your Swedish learning habit. There are also subtitles so you can read along for some extra support while listening. 

To test yourself, try watching without subtitles first and see how much you can follow along with. Then, turn on the Swedish subtitles while listening and see how much more you can understand. Working on learning how to talk about the weather? Each episode ends with the väderrapport (weather report) – perfect for practicing weather-related vocab! 

Advanced

Here comes another plug for reading as a great way to keep growing your vocabulary, especially after reaching an advanced level of Swedish. Reading from diverse genres and authors will expose you to lots of new categories of vocabulary. For example, reading  deckare (detective novels) will present you with lots of words related to crime and investigations while reading a nonfiction book about eels will expose you to lots of vocabulary related to the ocean, science, and well, eels.  

If you’re still gaining confidence in your Swedish reading, you can try a lättläst (easy to read/abridged) book. Here’s a list of titles available from LL-förlaget. 

If you’re a seasoned Swedish reader looking for boktips (book tips), I recommend checking out the SVT program Babel, one of my all-time favorite shows. The show explores all things literary with host Jessica Gedin interviewing a handful of Swedish and international authors each week. Each episode also includes a discussion by the författarpanel (author panel) of a different literary topic as well as a visiting musical guest or poet who performs their work at the end. Babel is a fantastic way to keep up with what’s going on in the literary world of Sweden, and increase your vocabulary, perfect for all book and language nerds!

Tips! If you live in the US, it’s impossible to have books shipped here from any of the big book companies in Sweden. If you don’t have a kind Swedish friend to send you books, you can purchase e-böcker (e-books) widely such as at the website Bokon.

Grammatik / Uttal

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge of svensk grammatik (Swedish grammar) or perhaps work on your uttal (pronunciation), there are a ton of great resources on YouTube. Many Svenska för invandrare (Sfi) (Swedish for immigrants) teachers in Sweden have created videos explaining grammatical concepts and pronunciation features of Swedish. Simply search for Sfi plus any grammar or pronunciation topic and you’ll find lots of videos.

One example is Peter SFI who has covered a wealth of topics on his channel. A couple of recent videos include Stavning och uttal (uttalsproblem) (Spelling and pronunciation (pronunciation problems) and Tänker, funderar, undrar (Think, ponder, wonder). 

What are your favorite Swedish learning resources? Let us know in the comments! 

Lycka till (good luck)! 

       

Comments

• Hej Jane! Thanks for reading the blog. For the books, ... by Liz S
• I have long wondered why books from Sweden may not be shipped ... by Jane Hunt

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Photo: C. Bowen, Stockholms tunnelbana, Nordiska museet ads

Bank with us. Check out our new exhibit! Looking for something tasty for dinner? Stockholm’s tunnelbana (subway) might as well be a marketing agency, because it’s packed with advertisements. Good ads pose a question, make a demand, or grab your attention with a familiar face or flashy artwork. This week we’ll study three different types of language used in Stockholm tunnelbana ads.

Stockholm is known for having a great public transportation system. With around 900,000 passengers moving by bus, train, and boat each day, it’s no wonder that advertisers choose this medium to get their message in front of people. Before we dig in – I should mention that I am not affiliated with any of these companies, nor is Transparent Language, but I DO work in marketing, so this post is fitting.

Below, we’ll look at some examples of reklam (advertisements) using statements, commands, and questions.  I took photos inside the tunnelbanevagnar (metro cars) and på väggarna vid spåren och rulltrapporna (on the walls next to the tracks and escalators). All of these were spotted at various stops in March of 2022. You’ll see insurance companies, delivery services, and organizations directly addressing current events – like the war in Ukraine and the ongoing pandemic.

OBS! Click on the photo to expand it. Then click the back button in your browser to return to the blog. 

1. Påståenden – Statements

Straightforward syntax helps advertisers get right to the core of their message. Expect creative, but simple language.

Organization/Company           svenska                                engelska

Dagens nyheter              Det är mycket att ta in               It’s a lot to take in.
WWF                               Mer växtbaserat är din                More plantbased is your
                                         superkraft mot klimatkrisen.      superpower against the climate crisis.
Mooova                           Du fotar, vi hämtar.                     You take a photo, we pick it up.
Lantmännen                  Länge leve jorden.                         Long live the earth.

2. Imperativ – Command Form

The imperative, or command form, is used when the speaker is directing someone else to do something. Think giving directions, training someone on a new process, guiding a friend through a recipe, etc.

A longtime favorite of advertisers, this grammatical style directs readers to take action. “Check out our low rates,” “create your free account,” “order online now,” and so on.

   Organization/Company           svenska                          engelska

Svensk insamlingskontroll           Rädda barnen.                  Save the children.
Allakando                                        Höj betygen.                   Raise your grades.
Max                                                   Beställ via vår app.        Order in our app.
Vrak museum             Dyk in på stans nyaste museum.       Dive into the newest museum in town.
SL                                      Visa omtanke, hålla avstånd.        Show care, keep your distance.
Lendo                                Jämför, jämför, jämför.                  Compare, compare, compare.
Agria                                  Försäkra ditt djur hos oss.             Insure your animal with us.

For a reminder on how to conjugate the imperative via verb groups, see my post: Bake Swedish Cinnamon Buns Using Imperative Verbs!

3. Interrogativa / frågor – Questions

Asking a question in ads is highly effective because it feels less direct than the last two categories. It makes potential customers stop and ask themselves, “Am I REALLY paying too much for my car insurance?”

Organization/Company

Notar                          Vill du också sälja din bostad till rekordpris?  Want to also sell your home for a record (high) price?

Lexly                          Samboavtal mellan Gärdet och Hornstull?*

*A samboavtal is an agreement signed between two domestic partners to protect their individual rights to their housing if the relationship were to end.

I look forward to the summer when more tourists are visiting Stockholm. I expect that the English language ads will increase significantly. I’ll keep you all posted! What else would you like to see now that I’m in Stockholm? Post in the comments below!

       

Comments

• @Joe In reply to Joe. Thanks for following the blog, Joe! ... by Chelsea B
• Hi Chelesa, All your blog posts are very helpful to learn ... by Joe

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Photo by Tina Hartung on Unsplash

The world’s attention has been focused on Ukraine since the Russian invasion two weeks ago, and Sweden is no exception. This week’s blog will summarize what Sweden’s response to the crisis has been (with links to articles where you can read more) as well as highlight two specific articles to provide you with useful vocabulary for reading Swedish news covering the war. 

Vad gör Sveriges regering? / What is Sweden’s government doing? 

Sweden has responded very quickly to the crisis in Ukraine, and on several fronts. The Swedish government quickly authorized sending monetary aid to both Ukraine’s military defense and to humanitarian organizations. More unusually for Sweden, the government also decided to send military vapen och utrustning (weapons and equipment) to Ukraine. This decision marks the first time Sweden has sent weapons to a country at war since 1939 when they sent weapons to Finland which had been attacked by the Soviet Union. 

Both statsministern (the prime minister) Magdalena Andersson and Kung Carl Gustaf have held speeches to the Swedish public in recent weeks. Andersson emphasized that the threat to Sweden, and all of the EU, has now increased and that Sweden’s defense would receive more funding, noting “Vi svenskar ska försvara vår demokrati” (We Swedes will defend our democracy). It’s quite unusual for a Swedish prime minister to hold a speech directly to the nation, and happens only in extreme situations. It has only occurred four other times in history, with two of those times occurring during the pandemic. 

Currently, there is also a debate going on in the government and amongst the public about whether or not Sweden should join the military alliance, NATO (Norway and Denmark are members, but Sweden and Finland are not). As of now, Andersson continues to reject the idea at this time as it would “ytterligare destabilisera den här delen av Europa” (further destabilize this part of Europe). 

Vad gör svenska folket? / What are the Swedish people doing?

In addition to the government response, the Swedish public has been mobilizing to assist Ukraine. Unicef Sverige received over 23 million kronor in donations over the course of just one week. Svenska Röda Korset, Radiohjälpen and SOS Barnbyar are other humanitarian organizations who have received millions of kronor to support Ukraine in recent weeks. Many Swedes are also collecting donations of necessities such as clothes, blankets, medicine, and more to send to Ukraine. 

There has also been a record number of nearly 10,000 applications to join hemvärnet (Sweden’s National Guard) since the war started. Typically, they receive only about 5,000 applications for the entire year. One recent applicant who was interviewed about his decision said he chose to join because although he has no prior military experience, he wanted to be able to contribute something to society. 

Hjälpsamma ord och fraser / Helpful vocabulary

8sidor recently published an article called Många vill hjälpa Ukraina. Let’s take a look at some of the sentences and learn some key vocabulary. 

“Kriget i Ukraina har gjort att det är stor brist (lack) på saker som människor behöver för att leva.”

“Vi arbetar … för att hjälpa barn med rent vatten, mediciner, sjukvård, kläder och mat. (clean water, medicine, healthcare, clothes and food)”

“Sammanlagt har människor i Sverige skänkt (have donated) över 100 miljoner kronor till organisationer som hjälper människor i Ukraina.”

“Det finns också olika insamlingar (collections) av kläder, filtar och leksaker i Sverige.”

A piece from Radio Sweden på lätt svenska entitled Första gången som flyktingar får skydd i hela EU discusses a recent EU decision about refugees from Ukraine. 

“För första gången någonsin får flyktingar (refugees) stanna i EU i ett år.” 

“Det gäller (applies to) de personer som flyr (are fleeing) från kriget (the war) i Ukraina.” 

“Skyddet (the protection/refuge) kan också förlängas upp till tre år.”

“Kommunerna i Sverige har börjat arbeta med att kunna ta emot (to be able to accept) många flyktingar från Ukraina.”

“Många ukrainare (Ukrainians) som bor i Sverige försöker hjälpa sina släktingar. “

Other useful vocab:

       

Comments

• Thank You Sweden! by Ljungberg

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Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

Power ballads. Wild costumes. Great production value. Campy humor. Melodifestivalen is here! Each year, Sweden holds a competition to select their entry for the Eurovision song contest. This colossal televised event shakes up Swedish pop culture for several weeks each spring as millions of viewers cheer on their favorite Swedish acts. If you’re into schlager, this is definitely for you. If you don’t know what that is – read on! This week we’ll look at 5 core elements of Melodifestivalen to prep you for the semi-final on Saturday! 

1. Formatet / The format

Melodifestivalen gets started months before the actual live shows. Artists must submit their bidrag (entry) for review in September of the previous year. From there, a jury selects the top bidrag to enter the competition. At least 10% of the songs must be in Swedish, although the winning songs tend to be på engelska (in English). Typically, English songs have a broader appeal once each country competes in Eurovision.

Song lengths are 3 minutes max and there are other regler (rules) for the music and stage performance. If you are accepted into Mello (slang for Melodifestivalen), you’ll first compete in 1 or 4 total deltävlingar (heats). After the semi-final, and final …it’s off to Eurovision for one lucky bidrag. Each of these events is televised on SVT and runs for a couple of hours.

Read Melodifestivalen Swedish Song Contest Breakdown! for a bit more about Mello and learn additional vocabulary.

2. Programledarna / The hosts

The hosts of Melodifestivalen are almost equally as important as the songs themselves. They are responsible for introducing the live acts, addressing publiken och tv-tittarna (live audience and at-home viewers), getting backstage interviews, and delivering skits and songs between performances. Swedish singer Oscar Zia is this year’s main host and performed a spoof song and dance called Vilken jävla press (What f***ing pressure) it is to host the contest, which sounds cheesy, and it is, but in the best way, I assure you!

3. Deltagarna / The participants

28 deltagare (participants) entered the competition this year. Covering pop-rock, ballads, and even opera, this year’s songs showcase some of the best låtskrivare (songwriters) in Sweden. You’ll notice that some of the bidrag even share låtskrivare. All of this year’s songs are in the spellista (playlist) below. Unfortunately, most of them are in English. BUT, they are a few notable ones in Swedish, including Mello’s 2019 winner, John Lundvik’s Änglavakt. He was voted straight to the final this year!

Who is your favorite? Tell me Mello predictions below in the comments! (I’ll post mine there too!)

4. Vibben / The vibe

Schlager is the European genre best associated with Melodifestivalen and Eurovision. Schlager has a simple pop structure and a happy-go-lucky sort of vibe. This leaves room for acts to be wildly creative and think outside of the box. In recent years, hip hop, reggae, country, and even heavy metal songs have done really well in both Melodifestivalen and Eurovision. Just when it feels like you’ve seen it all on the Eurovision stage, an act will surprise you! Remember Lordi, Finland’s 2006 hard rock winners?

Truth be told, some Swedes avoid Mello like the plague because, let’s be honest, it can be a bit much. But, you can’t argue with Sveriges mest sedda program (Sweden’s most seen program) in history. 2006’s final broke the record with over 4.2 million viewers.

5. Rösten / The voting

How does voting work? For the deltävlingar and semi-final, artists are awarded points based solely on a public vote. The vote is divided by age group. To mirror the Eurovision voting system, each age group has 12, 10, 8, 5, 3, and 1 points to award to the most popular songs. It was a little weird to see that the 3-9-year-olds have their own voting group, but I guess toddlers know how to text now?

The top two artists from each deltävling, head straight to the final! The 3rd and 4th place songs respectively move to the semi-final.

For the final, the public vote is combined with an international jury vote. Tabulating the votes is dramatic and drawn-out, everyone loves a little suspense though, right?

Vill du titta? Want to watch? 

You can watch back any of the deltävlingar here on SVTplay. Use the same link to watch the semi-final this Saturday, March 5. A week later is the final on Saturday, March 12. Both events broadcast at 8pm CET.

     

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What do Boston, Christchurch and Östersund have in common? They’ve all recently been featured on På spåret, a popular Swedish frågesport (trivia) show! Are you a geography nerd? This charming show is for you! 

Vad är På spåret? (What is På spåret?) 

På spåret (on the track) is one of Sweden’s most popular TV shows and features teams of celebrities competing to answer geography-based trivia. It was originally developed by SVT Göteborg in 1987 and was hosted by Ingvar Oldsberg until 2009, when Kristian Luuk took over as host and Fredrik Lindström as judge. 

On the show each week, participants are shown film clips, usually from the front of a moving train, and receive clues from the host in order to determine where they are headed. The clues, which typically feature lots of ordvitsar (puns), start off rather difficult and get progressively easier (with decreasing point values) as they get closer to the destination. Once they “arrive”, the teams are asked wide-ranging questions about their destination which could be anywhere in the world. På spåret also features two musical numbers each episode with corresponding trivia questions. This season has featured a rotating husband (a house band, not a husband!) every few weeks with a diverse range of excellent musical guests.

Vem är deltagarna? / Who are the participants? 

In this season, there were nine lag (teams) split into three groups. The lag included a mix of well-known Swedes from idrottare (athletes) to komiker (comedians) to musiker (musicians). Readers of this blog will definitely recognize rapper and author Jason Diakité on the list and likely his partner and good friend, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, too. Unfortunately, the pair just missed making it to the final having lost their semi-final match. The teams who did make it and will compete in the final this Friday, February 25th, are Hanna Hellquist / Ina Lundström and Cecilia Düringer / Jonatan Unge. 

In fact, columnist and radio host Hanna Hellquist and comedian Jonatan Unge have met in a trivia competition before – the difference is that previously, they were on the same team! The duo won the show Alla mot alla not long ago, but in the På spåret final, they’ll be facing each other as competitors. Hanna is joined by teammate Ina Lundström, a comedian and host of the pandemic hit podcast Flashback forever. Jonatan’s teammate is Cecilia Düringer, a history teacher and program host. Cecilia and Jonatan handily won all of their matches and even hit a poängrekord (points record) of 51 together this season. They are the storfavoriter (big favorites) to win the finale – but will they?! You’ll have to tune in to find out! 

Viktiga ord och fraser/ Important words and phrases

Before you dive into the finale, let’s learn some helpful På spåret vocabulary. 

• The catchphrase of the show is Vart är vi på väg? (To where are we headed?) which Kristian Luuk starts off every new journey with. Note here the use of vart (to where) rather than var (where) – because we are moving towards a destination. 
• You’ll also hear the phrase Vi reser mot ________ . The preposition mot has several meanings, but in this case we need it to indicate that we are traveling towards a destination. 
• The participants themselves sit in replicas of train cars referred to as burar. Throughout the episode Kristian refers to the lag by where they are sitting – either in 1:a klass (first class) or dressinen (a type of pedal-powered rail-cycle). At the end of the match, Kristian shouts “Välkomna ut ur burarna” (welcome out of the cages!)
• When the participants are ready to guess the destination, they have to dra i nödbrömsen (pull the emergency brake) and give their answer.  
• Närmast vinner (the closest wins) is a new segment this year in which teams have to place a world city as close as they possibly can on an unlabeled map and närmast vinner! 

As a non-Swede, it can sometimes be difficult to klura ut (figure out) the destination, as the ordvitsar (puns) can be quite luriga (tricky), and especially so without a deep knowledge of Swedish culture. However, it’s still a fun show to watch and you just might surprise yourself with how well you can do! 

Test your geography by watching the finale and all of this season’s episodes here: 

https://www.svtplay.se/pa-sparet

     

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Photo by Chelsea Bowen, suitcases, passport, dalahäst

Exploring a new city, navigating a foreign language and culture, starting at a new university or job – these are all things to consider when moving abroad. Why this topic for this week’s blog? Because I myself am in the process of moving abroad – to Sweden, and it’s all I can think about!

As I’m sitting amongst moving boxes, piles of donation items, and trying to eat the last of what’s in my fridge and freezer, I’m thinking about my checklist for moving to Sweden and all the things I’ve done to get to this point. Below, I will outline my process for moving to Sweden in 6 steps and we’ll stock our vocabularies along the way.

*Please note, this is in no way a comprehensive guide to moving to Sweden. Consult the proper Swedish authorities for the details, I link to some of them below.

Jag ville flytta till Sverige, så här gjorde jag / I wanted to move to Sweden, this is what I did:

att flytta      to move
→ flyttar → flyttade → har flyttat

1. Jag sökte intressanta jobb. I looked for interesting jobs.

Arbetsförmedlingen is the Swedish Public Employment Service and is a great place to look for work. With their job board Platsbanken, you can look for work via keywords like ort (city) and yrke (industry). I used LinkedIn’s job board too and set alerts for jobs in my field in major cities Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö. In most cases, you’ll need a heltidsjobb (full-time job) to justify a work permit.

Jag gick på anställningsintervjuer och till slut fick jag ett anställningserbjudande.
I had job interviews and in the end, got an offer of employment.

2. Jag ansökte arbetsvisum och uppehållstillstånd. I applied for a work visa and residence permit.

Migrationsverket is the Swedish Migration Agency and the folks who process all study, work, and residence visas. Their website has loads of information on what steps to take when moving to Sweden. The U.S. is utanför EU (outside the E.U.) so my arbets- och uppehållstillsand (work and residence permits) needed to be submitted and approved before entering Sweden.

Tillsammans med min nya arbetsgivare ansökte jag arbetstillstånd och uppehållstillstånd via Migrationsverket.
Together with my new employer, I applied for a work permit and residence permit via Migrationsverket.

3. Visumen är klara, dags att packa resväskorna! The visas are ready, time to pack our bags!

Jag och min partner packar väskorna och säljer våra möbler. Vi behåller inte så mycket.
My partner and I are packing our bags and selling our furniture. We’re not keeping very much.

…if it doesn’t spark joy, we’re not keeping it. Ever heard of Swedish dödstädning ( death cleaning)? It’s a very pragmatic way to think about your life and your clutter because you can’t take it with you when you’re gone, right?

När vi landar i Sverige måste vi…once we land in Sweden, we have to:

Photo: by Tushar Mahajan from Pexels

4. Besöka Migrationsverket / Visit the Migration Board

Vi måste lämna fingeravtryck och bli fotograferad.
We have to give our fingerprints and have our photos taken. Once that is complete, we’ll get our uppehållstillståndskort (residence permit cards).

5. Folkbokföra oss på Skatteverket / Complete our Population Registry at the Tax Agency

Om man ska bo i Sverige ett år måste man bli folkbokförd.
If you’re going to live in Sweden for a year you must join the population registry.

After that, you get a personnummer, your Swedish ID number. Skatteverket’s website has a series of short Ny i Sverige films explaining this process in more detail.

6. Hitta boende / Find a place to live

Finding a place to live in large Swedish cities can be difficult. Many people end up getting an andrahandskontrakt (a second-hand contract), and subletting a place from someone else. Blocket.se is a great online marketplace to find bostad (housing) and the möbler (furniture) to fill it.

Have a better idea about what moving to Sweden entails?

Great! Now that I’ll be living in Sweden, I’d love know what type of content you want to see more of. Let me know in the comments below!

       

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