Icelandic

Does anybody know of any uni offering this course? Or even better is anybody currently studying Icelandic? Any information would be great :smile:

Ucl

Hylean

Your help is much needed :h:

Hylean knows everything there is to be known about Icelandic, so if he sees this message, he'll probably help you :yep:

Reply 3

hannah_dru

I always fancied having a stab. Haven't found anywhere in Brum though.

Reply 4

PJ991

What draws you to Icelandic?

Reply 5

Hylean

Anatheme

Hylean knows everything there is to be known about Icelandic, so if he sees this message, he'll probably help you :yep:

One, you're a sneaky devil and thank you.

Two, why the hell are you in Holywood?!

To the OP, ask away, I can give you pretty much the entire lowdown on the places you can study Icelandic in the UK and elsewhere, either as a degree or just a module.

I've just completed my BA Icelandic at UCL, you see.

Reply 6

Anatheme

Hylean

Read the profile for more info about my location :ninja:

Reply 7

jimjomjam

Not much point in doing Icelandic, unless you want to be an interpreter for a bankrupcy agency. :wink:

Reply 8

Hylean

jimjomjam

Not much point in doing Icelandic, unless you want to be an interpreter for a bankrupcy agency. :wink:

Classic. Now go home. Plenty of reason for doing it.

Reply 9

UserXYZ

The thrill of learning a language is using it and exploring country(s) which speak it, you will not feel this thrill learning Icelandic. You will spend 3 years learning a completely pointless language and explaining to people why you are wasting your time doing it. So you'll get some insight into how the Vikings used to talk but you'll ask yourself eventually "Was it really worth studying Icelandic for that and just so I could feel special?". The answer will be no.
Study a decent language - Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, something that you can USE.

Reply 10

Hylean

UserXYZ

Well, for a start, the person would spend four years studying Icelandic, not three. Second, the Vikings did not speak Icelandic, but an older version of Icelandic known as Old Norse. They are exceptionally close, but they are not the same. Pronunciation differs wildly between the two, for example, if you believe Michael Barnes. Furthermore, how the hell does studying Icelandic not allow them to feel the thrill of exploring the country? Iceland does still exist and is bigger than Ireland, with a lot more to see in it. Jesus, how narrow minded are you? There's arguably less to see in Portugal or Brazil than there is in Iceland, making Portugese, by your arguments, less important.

Retard.

Reply 11

UserXYZ

I know the Vikings did not speak Icelandic hence the use of "some insight".
What has Ireland got to do with anything? They speak English there you know and I would also not suggest learning Gaelic as a foreign language degree unless you want to get in touch with your culture or something. Besides your comparison between Iceland and Ireland is ridiculous, Ireland has 20 times the population.
And there isn't much thrill to exploring Iceland, its very small and most of it is barren and unpopulated. Also, many people there speak good English.

And if you insist on trying to compare Icelandic to Portuguese...let's look at some stats

Portuguese speakers : 240 million (that's 240 million people you can converse with in a language you have dedicated yourself to learn)

Icelandic Speakers: 320, 000 , seriously you have got to be kidding.
320, 000 people many of whom will be able to speak English probably better than you can speak Icelandic? Why bother?

As for your assertion that there is less see and do in Brazil/Portugal than in Iceland...well I don't know if you've ever looked at a world map but...

Land area of Iceland: 103,000 km²

Land area of Brazil alone: 8,514,877 km2

Erm yeah, I think you failed with that argument.

I'm not narrow minded but you can't seriously think that studying Icelandic will open the world up to exploration as much as studying a language like Spanish, Chinese or Portuguese. Its just a waste of 4 years.
I'd rather learn a language that could help me talk with 1.2 billion people and explore a country with 5000 years of rich culture and history (Chinese, China) than learn a language that would help me talk with 320, 000 people all confined to one really boring island.

Reply 12

Hylean

UserXYZ

Since when has the ability of the country's inhabitants to speak English ever been a deciding factor in learning the language? If that argument held any water, most languages would not be taught, including the ones you are arguing for. Besides, just because someone can speak your language does not mean you should automatically disregard theirs. This argument is the reason the UK no longer teaches languages to even GCSE level and why Brits are viewed across the world as ignorant.

Wow, stats. Great way of proving nothing really. The reason I brought in Ireland is because, as I said, Iceland is bigger than Ireland. If the Irish spoke Gaelic, as they should, then I reckon more people would learn Irish. As it is, it's having a bit of a renaissance in the north where I'm from. Moving back to Iceland, though, there is a lot to see in Iceland, ranging from volcanoes to glaciers to rare animals to ways of life not found anywhere else. That's without mentioning the girls. Brazilian women, not so nice.

Portuguese is also a language that can be readily understood if you speak Spanish at all well, so one could argue it makes far more sense to learn it than Portuguese. Where does that argument stop? When one language is the only spoken language in the world, pretty much the way English is at the moment. I refer back to my first paragraph for my views on that.

Basically, this argument comes down to two sides: you who views language as nothing more than a commodity and me, who views language as an interest in and of itself. The OP seems to fall on my side of the fence if they are choosing to learn Icelandic, or maybe, they wish to move there. It's what I plan to do once I've got enough money saved up. Choosing to study a language should never be based on amount of speakers or any of that crap, it should be based on what interests you, etc.

So, basically, take your "Icelandic will not get anywhere" based argument and go elsewhere. They have no place around anyone who enjoys learning languages.

Reply 13

PJ991

I would much rather learn Icelandic than Portuguese or whatever else was suggested.
Iceland looks like an amazing place to go, regardless of population, and being able to speak the language of where you go is even better. I'd rather not be seen as the ignorant English person who shouts and points because he is too lazy and up his own bum to learn another language " because the whole world speaks English"

And the thing about 240 million Portuguese speakers. You're never going to speak to that many people (bad argument I know, but I'll point it out)

If you wanted a job using your language, Icelandic has far fewer people learning it, so it makes your skills even more valuable. And if you say you speak Icelandic, then that is just massively impressive if you ask me, more so than most other European languages.

Icelandic history is also quite fascinating, and language learning is not all about how many people you can potentially talk to. There can be many personal reasons for doing so.

Iceland looks a magnificent place to go, and Hylean, I am quite jealous about the fact that you get to live in Iceland. I would love to go.

Reply 14

UserXYZ

If you want to learn a language of a country where most of the inhabitants can already converse with you in English anyway that's fine.
But I think you'd find that 99% of people when asked would consider an Icelandic as pretty useless when compared to the languages of the world's emerging economies - Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Indonesian.

If you want to learn Icelandic because you like talking to volcanoes and wildlife and you like their history then fine, but don't pretend that learning Icelandic is going to give you lots more opportunities in life and in a career.
Also don't pretend that its useful in any way because its not, almost everyone in Iceland can speak English. Oh and I knew someone who did Icelandic at UCL, the only reaction she ever got when she said she studied it was "Why?/What's the point?/Are you crazy" so if you're doing icelandic to just look special and different, you're actually just ending up looking like a pretentious tw*t.
I just think you're wasting 4 years of your life but that's just my well educated, accurate opinion.

P.S. There are only 320, 000 frakin Icelandic speakers in the world! WHAT THE FRAK IS THE POINT!!?

Reply 15

PJ991

UserXYZ

Your well educated opinion? Or you complete ignorance towards other cultures?

And Portugal, an emerging economy, are you cracking jokes? The same goes for Spain, but its economy is bigger than Portugal's anyway.

Only fools say: "What's the point in 'x' language?" because they expect the whole world to cater for them.

Reply 16

Hylean

UserXYZ

Wow, not only are you narrow minded, but you're also shallow and care about what others think of you! How amazing your self-esteem must feel.

Yea, for the past four years I've been asked the same kinds of questions, so ******* what? I love Icelandic, I want to live there, study there and all the rest. Isn't that enough reason to learn a language? How does learning it then make it a waste of my life? I ask you to study Icelandic literature for an MA and PhD without being fluent in the language. There isn't anyone who spends the four years doing the degree if they are doing it just be different, believe me, the degree is not easy enough for that kind of person. You're talking about one of the hardest languages in the world, mate.

Again, you stress the fact that Icelanders speak English. So do the Brazilians, the Chinese, the Spanish, in fact, everyone speaks English because it is the global language. That argument is pointless. If you are going to argue that, then the only language you should learn is English.

As for the emerging economies, are you joking? Out of those, the only one that is anywhere near emerging or important is the Chinese market and all the people you'd be doing business with speak English anyway, to throw your argument back at you.

No one here has ever said it will give career opportunities or life chances, unless, like me, you want to live in Iceland, where it is pretty much an essential. For someone who seems to know so much about Iceland, you seem to not understand that the Icelanders are actually rather xenophobic a lot of the time and have a large distrust of foreigners in general. Only within the past decade have they repealed a law which stated you could only earn minimum wage if you had studied Icelandic for more than 70 hours. Furthermore, they also had a law that stated if you wanted to become an Icelandic citizen, you had to change their name to the Icelandic system.

Now, like I said, take yourself away. You treat languages as commodities, I don't and most people who want to learn Icelandic don't. Your opinions aren't helpful and they just show you as narrow minded. I will not have anyone tell me I wasted four years of my life because my values don't match theirs.

Oh, and stop trying to be cool by using a script writer's way of getting around the swear-word ban.

Reply 17

UserXYZ

Hylean

Again, you stress the fact that Icelanders speak English. So do the Brazilians, the Chinese, the Spanish, in fact, everyone speaks English because it is the global language.

Everyone speaks English do they? So there are 6 billion English speakers in the world are they? If you'd ever traveled outside of Iceland and Ireland you might know that actually not that many people speak halfway decent English in East Asia or the Latin American countries.
People's English in Asia is often very bad. I've lived in China for a year and studied at university there and met very few Chinese who could speak English well at all. I've also traveled in Japan - its a similar situation there if not worse.
Its true English is the international language of commerce but you are radically oversimplifying and to say that knowing the native language of the country you are doing business in is not extremely important is just ludicrous.

Hylean

As for the emerging economies, are you joking? Out of those, the only one that is anywhere near emerging or important is the Chinese market and all the people you'd be doing business with speak English anyway, to throw your argument back at you.

Got to be the most ignorant post in your entire response.
You don't need to have studied emerging economies (which I have) to know just how wrong this statement it. Aside from China, Brazil and Mexico are two of the world's largest emerging economies. Dude, buy a book or surf wikipedia for 10 minutes or something.

Not sure when this argument got so heated but its clear you don't know much about anything perhaps outside of Iceland. I appreciate you enjoy learning languages (I do too you know and have a decent working knowledge of about 5) but you need to close the Icelandic books for a second and get some general knowledge in your brain. Apart from that you and me are clearly worlds apart. I want a payoff from learning something, you clearly don't really care and the learning is good enough, maybe you're a robot.
Well I hope you're happy up there on that barren rock.

Oh and I'm hardly trying to be "cool" (what are you 12?) by using a made up swear word from a sci-fi tv show, that's probably anything but.

Reply 18

stinkyalice

Thought I'd revive this one. Icelandic is a pretty cool language and deserves to be up there on the languages forum. I would be happy to do language practice with anyone who wants (although, judging from this thread, such people are few and far between). As far as I am concerned, the reasons to learn Icelandic are as follows:

-It is incredibly rare to find languages which have been changed so little over a thousand years. Icelandic is one of these.
-Once you understand Icelandic, you will basically be able to read everything which has been written in the language from the saga age onwards (sometimes with the help of a glossary). Yeah, Viking wisdom. How many English speakers can read Beowulf?
-Iceland is a very interesting society to study, and relatively little is known about it compared to Spain, for instance. I am doing a folklore course at University of Iceland and there is a wealth of material about the conversion to Christianity, the witch hunts in Iceland and, well, cool stuff. Much of which hasn't been translated to English. Even Iceland's recent past is very interesting and a lot can be learned from it. An example of this would be the 'Reykjavik Murders' recently covered on BBC news.
-It's a great place to live. Incredibly low crime rates, hot people and gender equality and all that. Plus open air heated swimming pools in every town. And landscapes nicer than any I have ever seen in my life. And when you live here it's kind of sh*t not to speak the language
-A very funny TV show called naeturvaktin, plus its sequels dagvaktin and fangavaktin. All come with English subtitles if people are interested in buying.

Hylean is right that it can be hard, but I would not say it's one of the hardest in the world. I think that whether a language is hard depends on what the mother tongue of the person who's learning it is. For an English speaker, I could imagine Mandarin and Japanese being much more difficult in terms of the amount of hours you have to put in before you can actually understand stuff. Icelandic is fiendishly complicated but at least the alphabet makes sense to an English speaker. Sort of.