Jante's Law

After 7 months in Copenhagen trying to understand the complexity of living in Denmark, it is time to bring up Jante's law, an unspoken code of ethics in Scandinavian-American culture. This law was created by Norwegian/Danish author Aksel Sandemose in 1933 when he wrote "En flygtning krysser sitt spor", a novel about Jante, a fictitious little village in Denmark where people live by 10 commandments to preserve social stability and uniformity.

Here are the ten rules to the law:

1. Don't think that you are special.
2. Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.
3. Don't think that you are smarter than us.
4. Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
5. Don't think that you know more than us.
6. Don't think that you are more important than us.
7. Don't think that you are good at anything.
8. Don't laugh at us.
9. Don't think that anyone cares about you.
10. Don't think that you can teach us anything.

To summarize, the Law of Jante was the very core of the speech of the people and the result of breaking this social code meant that your neighbors would despise you for your individuality, uniqueness, or an excess show of wealth. Furthermore, according to this website,

"Equality is an important part of Danish culture, so much so that, ‘success’ or what may be seen as a deliberate attempt to distinguish oneself from others may be viewed with hostility. This characteristic is called Janteloven or Jante’s Law by Danes.

Relocating alone to a country with a new culture and language, one experiences looking in the mirror daily, questioning values, prejudices and self definition. With Jante's 10 commandments,living in Denmark comes with a whole set of additional challenges.