Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2011, Síða 46

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46
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2011
Language | Icelandic
Why don’t those damn
foreigners just learn Ice-
landic? Language learn-
ing is highly subjective and,
as Icelanders love to tout, the lan-
guage is complicated and difficult.
It takes many years to reach ‘com-
municative competence,’ many
more to acquire the level needed
to read about politics in the daily
paper. Samuel Lefever, Lecturer at
the University of Iceland, states, "If
citizens are to play a full role in to-
day's Europe…they will need com-
petence in a range of languages as
well as positive attitudes towards
speakers of languages from out-
side their immediate community."
Hmm... "a positive attitude," you say?
The general attitude towards any other
languages here in Iceland, especially in
the job market, is negative (with some
exceptions for other Nordic Languages
and English). Here is a random quote
from an anonymous Icelandic teenager
on the website Dr.is: "I just hate those
foreigners that come to Iceland to live
here but don’t have the decency of put-
ting some effort into learning Icelandic
(they never even try) I really dislike that
kind of group." Whether or not you
agree with the teenager’s statement,
you cannot deny that you’ve heard it
many times.

LINGUISTIC DISTANCE
The concept of ‘linguistic distance’
regards the extent to which two lan-
guages differ from each other. One
of the reasons why immigrant groups
differ in their overall acquisition of the
Icelandic language is the distance be-
tween Icelandic and the individual's
mother tongue. Although there are no
figures to relate Icelandic to other lan-
guages, we can use English as a yard-
stick, because English and Icelandic
have a rather short linguistic distance
from one another. The highest levels
of language acquisition are Swedish,
Norwegian and Dutch, while language
learning is at its lowest levels of acqui-
sition for Asian languages such as Ko-
rean, Mandarin, and Japanese as well
as Arabic.
One can assume that if since the
difficulty for English speakers to learn
Asian languages is great, the difficulty
of Asian born immigrants to learn Ice-
landic is relatively equal. I believe that
part of the reason why a large group
of Icelanders share the anonymous
student's view about the Icelandic
language is because most Icelanders
speak English very well, and usually
at least one other Nordic Language.
They might think: "If I can learn another
language then so can these lazy immi-
grants."
SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?
There are an estimated 350.000 Ice-
landic-speakers in the world, whose
population is now close to 7 billion.
This means that less than 0,04 % of
the world speaks Icelandic. I, and most
citizens, new to Iceland, appreciate the
age, beauty, and preservation of the
language, yet feel it is important keep
in perspective how tiny Iceland is and
how little relation to intelligence the
skill of speaking this language actually
has.
Within the theme of non-discrim-
ination, a dialogue about the small
dog syndrome, which plagues Iceland,
should be opened. For the future of
people who settle here, many tempo-
rarily, devoting large amounts of time
to learning the Icelandic language is
impractical. Where will they use it? The
likelihood of ever running into another
person who speaks Icelandic outside of
Scandinavia is very slim. Combine this
with the fact that most come here to
work not to study.
Upon their first arrival, most immi-
grants see Iceland as a stepping-stone
and not a permanent home. Because of
the country’s isolation and the weather,
people initially assume that this is not
the place they want to root themselves,
yet after a few harsh winters they might
come to realise that this is a wonder-
ful place to raise a family and decide
to stay. In the meantime, they often
focus their efforts on learning English
or working. Therefore, there is an ini-
tial delay in many immigrants’ efforts
to learn Icelandic and, unlike other lan-
guages, there is almost zero chance of
someone arriving here having already
learned it at school or University.
LANGUAGE OF THE GODS
Iceland is a haven for nature lovers, a
safe place to raise a family, and gener-
ally a great place to live if you accept
your role as a foreign-minimum-wage
worker. If Icelandic isn’t your mother
tongue and you have big dreams, this
can become a land of discontent. It is
rare that a foreigner masters the Ice-
landic language well enough to study
law or medicine or philosophy, even af-
ter years of study. I am not advocating
that a person with non-perfect Icelan-
dic should become an Icelandic poet,
nor am I advocating not protecting
and promoting this beautiful language,
I am only calling for a realistic look at
language in general, within a plural-
istic society. We know that the ability
to learn languages is akin to a talent
and lends itself better to certain types
of personalities and learning styles.
Despite having no natural ability for
language learning, one can work very
hard to reach a certain level of commu-
nicative competence, which is the new
goal in language teaching. The new
aim in language learning is "the ability
to communicate competently, not the
ability to use the language exactly as a
native speaker does."
HOW DO YOU LIKE ICELAND?
When I open my mouth to butcher the
sacred language of !ór and Ó"inn, the
most common reaction is often that all
dialogue stops and I am obliged to an-
swer a series of questions. 1) Where are
you from? 2) Why are you here? 3) How
long have you been here? And 4) How
do you like Iceland? For the record: I
love it! My relationship with language
is, however, rocky. While I once strove
to perfect my Icelandic so that I could
speak without my awful southern ac-
cent distracting from what I was saying,
I recently adopted an attitude of accep-
tance. I will never be able to roll my Rs,
nor will I be able to properly explain
why an entire chapter in my ‘Pronun-
ciation of Modern Icelandic’ textbook is
dedicated to the seven different ways
one should pronounce the letter "g."
However, I can communicate compe-
tently and continue to improve.
B.R. NEAL
STEINGRÍMUR GAUTI INGÓLFSSON
Thoughts On Learning Icelandic
“Iceland is a haven for nature lovers, a safe place
to raise a family, and generally a great place to live
if you accept your role as a foreign-minimum-wage
worker.”
Have you had some problems learning Icelandic? Is it super-friggin-hard? Tell us about it!
Maybe we can make some sort of support group, who knows?