It took me about a year to learn Spanish so you can imagine how my confidence went down the toilet when I realized that the story wont repeat itself with Icelandic.
After the first year when I realized that I still don't speak more than just few words, I decided that instead of trying harder and actually sit down and learn that damn language, it will be wiser to complain and stick to English. After all Icelanders do speak English don't they?
Coming from Israel, I never imagined I'd have to learn a language worse than Hebrew. Oy vey, I was so wrong.
There are less than 300,000 people in the whole world who can speak Icelandic. You see, I always thought that Hebrew is useless. (reminder: There are over 7 billion people in the world today, with 200,000 added each day)
Finally, I decided to get myself together, I paid 15,000 Krona and joined Icelandic course. I sat down in a class full of Polish people. Many Polish are here for work (at least they used to be until the economic crisis hit us) and even though I'm half Polish myself (nobody is perfect), I wasn't in the mood to sit for two hours and listen to "Polandic". I decided to quit after two lessons.
LESSON NO.1: Icelandic for beginners.
LESSON NO.2: Icelandic for advanced.
LESSON NO.2: Icelandic for advanced.
And if that's not enough, here is your first real Icelandic lesson.
Wait until she teaches you to say "Hi" than the real fun begins...good luck!
28 comments:
Hey Guy! Today at lunch (Santa Maria in the city ironically enough) my friend from Australia asked me how my Icelandic grammar was going. Bah, not my favorite topic of conversation. Anyhow, we agreed with you about Mimir. It was useless for me. But my friend was telling me about a decent tutor, who uses Skype (she lives in France or Norway or something). I contacted her a while back, but have not set up a time. I have a feeling though, honestly, that I need a male tutor, since I tend to remember things better that way. Anyhow, just thought I'd mention it, since perhaps the gender dynamic works the other way for you.
Well, this is great. I was going to have you teach me Icelandic. I wasn't going to pay you; I was just going to bring beer.
Oh, well, I'm plowing through the University of Iceland's "Icelandic Online" course. Not bad, so far.
Pictures really look very cool! Iceland is awesome!
- Pixellicious Photos
and I thought learning Arabic was hard, GL my friend!
Zigmund
I guess I won't be going to Iceland anytime soon anyway so I'm not going to hurt my poor brain by even attempting to learn that crazy difficult language! Good luck ;)
Great pictures!! Sorry but you can count me out on foreign languages, unless Southern speak counts, like "ya'll come back ya here". My Father is Mexican and speaks fluent Spanish. Guess what? I got an "F" when I took Spanish in High School, lol.
That looks amazing. (The language AND the pics). Look, Latin's a dead language, but what's the harm? Learn Icelandic. You'll never ever contract dementia.
Lord, even the letters don't make any sense in my head. The Dutch language is a lot easier. Good luck, you will need it ;-)
I am horrible at learning foreign languages. My mind goes blank! Good luck!
I can barely master my own language! How could I possibly learn Icelandic? haha. But I think it's a very neat language...I have a friend who speaks it and it sounds really cool! :]
I am so glad that you didn't tell your readers that you are married to one of the best Icelandic teacher in Iceland... that speaks English to you most of the time. Thanks love:)
As you sayed Guy, Icelandic is very complicated and you should take as it comes, you know ive been in this country for almost 4 years now and still I find myself in the same position that you are, I can tell you this,in my case ive learned more trying to avoid the learning process, before i was trying to learn it and it was simply way to much information to process at my age.
meaning just let it flow and pick a few words now and then and if you have the chance practice it with your daughter, friends, and family like i do. ( simple sentences)
There is no point of learning the grammar if we are going to have an accent that sucks like the polish, Icelanders wont understand you anyway.
so first the accent , then the grammar . thats the way i do it.
and take it with humor, as my friends says to me, how are you doing with the elvish...:D.
Worst case scenario...we wont learn it... so what. :)
Hahahaha! Good luck .
haha... I can understand what you are suffering because I am also in the same situation ^^ I am Vietnamese living in Korea for studying science (not social things).
First time, I came to Korea, I tried my best to study... as you know, Korean language is totally strange to me, maybe you too, because the use their own characters and even their grammar structure is totally reversely to English, haha
But because I am studying in English, I use Korean for some of social activities and for non-English speaking Korean ^^ So actually I were not really pushed to learn it... after over three years, my Korean is still under average even I really want to improve :D, I feel lazy ^^
Anyway, learning a new language is also interesting thing I think... but TOUGH ^^
Have a nice weekend
(주말에 보네세요 - in Korean: Ju Mal re Bo Ne Se Yo)
@Lissy - Didn't I mentioned that I'm married to an Icelandic teacher? And I heard she's pretty good at her job too.
@fredwrite - It is one of the few cases that I'll have to admit that I'm the wrong guy for it.
@His living sacrifice - Spanish is my favorite language in the world. You don't know what your missing...
@omchelsea - There are other things in Iceland that can cause you dementia. Things like over using your brain to learn unlreanable language.
@staceyjwarner - Your English sounds good to me.
@Alejandro - And what about getting decent job in Iceland, can you do that without speaking the language?
@Galaxy6139 - Vietnamese, Korean it all look Chinese to me. Every one of us carry is own sack of burdens, but it looks like you are doing better than me.
@Mika the roofer - Thanks!
@Amy- You call Icelandic "neat". Interesting.
@Dutch donut girl - There is no need to say "even" for the obvious ;)
@Guðrún G. S. - I love you baby.
After living here for almost a year and a half, and with 2 semesters of "Icelandic for Foreigners" at Haskoli Islands, I still block out the Icelandic. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. And trying to speak it feels like I'm chewing on broken glass.
I did my best to read the signs you posted.
I think I'll just stick to English.
Icelandic is not on the list :(
http://www.freetranslation.com/results/freetranslation_default_ver2.asp
Oh gosh. I keep saying I'll learn another language, but it's so hard!
I can handle bless bless!
haha! hilarious. i REALLY want to go to iceland now. the signs are SO flippin cool.
Wow...uh, Japanese is MUCH easier to learn...but I think Icelandic sounds prettier!
been there 5 years...words are still murdering my mouth everytime i say something...We should get award for learning icelandic...or a tax discount !
Oh my - I had to laugh out loud... Very funny -
Love,
Kelly
ahahahah :)
testing...testing
Shalom Guy = שלום גיא
http://www.freetranslation.com
i must agree with you. I have been living here in Iceland for four and a half years and my knowledge of the Icelandic language has not improved much. I have two kids now and the eldest is now going to leikskola. I find it really hard to learn this language. My accent too is not that good. Sometimes I need to call the school to inform them that my son cannot make it, they find it hard to understand what I was saying even if it was a simple Icelandic sentence. I, too studied Spanish for a year(in college) and was good at it (i believe) but this language is totally different. About getting a decent job here in Iceland, it is also hard for me to find one. I tried getting a job in a leikskola, even as an assistant to look after the kids or someone who would assist in the kitchen. They need me to speak real good Icelandic. It was kind of frustrating for me, having been able to find and maintain a very good office based job in my own country (I worked in a multinational company, one of the world's biggest, I do not intend to brag, just want to share my frustration, i hope you understand).
I am hoping to land in a decent job someday. I am still keeping my fingers crossed and has not stopped trying to learn Icelandic.
Lucky are those who came here during the early stages of their lives when they can go to school together with Icelandic children or teenagers. They can mingle with them and learn as they have fun unlike us who try to learn the language the hard way and mingle with other people who also do not know the language fluently.
Good luck to the both of us.
¡Qué interesante ver que el español es tu idioma favorito!
Mi lengua materna es el español y siempre me sorprende ver cuán popular se ha vuelto aprenderlo.
Sobre el islandés, llevo un poco menos de un año y medio viviendo en Islandia y mi relación con el islandés ha sido completamente diferente a la de muchos... y por lo que leo... diferente también de aquéllos que han posteado aquí. Actualmente ya hago toda mi vida cotidiana en islandés... evito el inglés hasta más no poder (incluso diciendo que simplemente no hablo inglés).
Discrepo con la opinión de muchos respecto a que es innecesario o menos importante estudiar y aprender de corazón la gramática. Es un paso importante y que debes tomar desde un comienzo, pues si no te creas vicios que de los que no podrás deshacerte con facilidad cuando quieras comenzar a hablar más correctamente.
Mi consejo: estudia la gramática y ejercita hasta que te aburras.
La pronunciación la obtendrás sólo con el uso (y la ayuda de tu esposa, claramente). La gramática la obtendrás SÓLO estudiando y EJERCITANDO.
Espero que entiendas todas mis palabras y refresques el español en tu mente.
Te dejo un saludo y el enlace de mi galería de flickr... si quieres mirarla:
www.flickr.com/rod_is
Rodrigo
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