The Insider’s Guide to Moving and Living in Sweden

I am good at English. Still – it is really important to make an effort to learn Swedish.

Learning Swedish is essential. We do not expect your Swedish to be perfect in any way. When you decide to stay in Sweden you will notice that language is key. If you let us – we are keen to help you. We have already been through the lagom and fika and semla, and we would like you to learn the rest as well.

Even though we consider ourselves to be brilliant in English, and are happy to speak English to you – you need to make the effort of learning Swedish in order to truly integrate. Learning Swedish is key to understand and to be able to navigate through our society. If you try your very best with learning Swedish we will find you lagom and try our very best to make you feel at home. However, don’t forget to tell us that you would like to practise Swedish – otherwise we will take every opportunity to practise English.
A bit contradictory, ursäkta!

An important part of our DNA is parental leave and combining career and kids. Your Swedish colleagues will stay home for VAB.

An important part of the Swedish DNA is our 480 days of paid parental leave, paid out by Försäkringskassan. Coupled with five weeks paid vacation, it gives us the opportunity to enjoy parenthood and family life without taking away the privilege of having a career from any parent.

We are proud to be able to grant women and men the access to both being a parent and having a career. Couples are encouraged to share parental leave as equal as possible in order for children to be able to spend time with both their parents.

Then again – career and small children can be a challenge when parental leave has come to an end and therefore we have VAB. It’s short for vård av barn which means that a parent has the right to stay at home and take care of their little ones when needed. Flues, colds or chicken-pox are inevitable when children are young. Parents can stay at home getting paid from Försäkringskassan if their children are not well enough to attend daycare or school.

If you are not sure whether you are entitled to parental leave or VAB, check with the Social Insurance Agency, Försäkringskassan: forsakringskassan.se

We address each other by first name. Yes, that’s true. Let’s use Anna Andersson since it’s a combination of the most popular first name and the most common surname. Anna Andersson might be a miss, mrs, or whatever – we don’t care, to us, she will be just Anna. We rarely use titles to address anyone apart from members of the royal family or an extraordinary old and stubborn aunt.

Cash is not a Swedish king thing. We are extraordinary digital when it comes to money transactions, banking and finance. In fact, we have come to a point where most shops stopped handling cash. We pay by card, Apple Pay or the Swedish invention Swish. It is almost impossible to manage without Swish since it is used in shops, restaurants, fruit or flea markets as well as to transfer money between individuals.