Glossary entry

Swedish term or phrase:

Lek och allvar på både lek och allvar

English translation:

Fun and seriousness: be friendly with your seriousness and be serious with your fun

Added to glossary by Charlesp
Jan 21, 2014 23:42
10 yrs ago
Swedish term

Lek och allvar på både lek och allvar

Swedish to English Bus/Financial Human Resources Motivational policy
Doing a website where they want to motivate employees/co-workers at meetings, kick offs, and similar.
This is a subheading with a partial description -- "Genom att samarbeta utvecklar dina medarbetare förståelse och förmåga att se varandra med nya ögon"

Ok, I get the idea, but I'm still recovering from a series of highly technical texts that have drained my creative capabilities (not generally one of my stronger suits anyway).

Does anyone want to suggest a catchy word-play to match this? Seriously?

Thanks in advance!
Change log

Jan 27, 2014 16:42: Charlesp Created KOG entry

Discussion

Yngve Roennike Feb 1, 2014:
The "real deal" versus "fooling around." "att leka på allvar" is to play as if it were real, that is what readily comes to mind, when you hear that phrase. Att göra nånting på allvar is to do something for real. There is this shift in nuance. IOW, på riktigt, which is somewhat substandard, is synonymous with på allvar, IMO.
Charlesp Jan 27, 2014:
Yes, I agree. It is a bit long. In fact, the first part (before the semicolon might be sufficient).
Deane Goltermann (asker) Jan 27, 2014:
Clicked wrong before commenting But thanks to both of you for your responses -- I went the 'serious' fun in the end, shortening Charles' suggestion. Thanks again!

Proposed translations

3 hrs
Selected

Fun and seriousness: be friendly with your seriousness and be serious with your fun

Fun and seriousness: be friendly with your seriousness and be serious with your fun.<i/>

Well, it may not be entirely catchy as a jingle, but I think it fits in with Swedish workplace culture.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Yngve Roennike : Nah, "på allvar" is a Swedish expression meaning "for real." So "for fun and for real" would convey the meaning of på lek och allvar.
11 hrs
Yea, that is one meaning. But words/terms have more than one meaning. And the primary meaning of på allvar in Swedish means to take something seriously, or "seriousness."
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+1
5 hrs

Play and work, both at play and at work

Based on some very common phrases:
"we play hard and work hard" (ca 5 million hits in Google)
"we work hard and play hard" (only about 362,000 hits)
Peer comment(s):

agree Michele Fauble
14 hrs
Thank you, Michele
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