Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.02.2013, Blaðsíða 10

Mountaineers of Iceland • Skútuvogur 12E • 104 Reykjavík • Iceland
Telephone: +354 580 9900 Ice@mountaineers.is • www.mountaineers.is • www. activity.is
SUPER JEEP & SNOWMOBILE TOURS
him water, letting him use the toilet,
and bringing a doctor to check on him.
Reykjanes District Court ordered the
man to pay 20,000 ISK in damages.
After about 13
years, the City of
Reykjavík ap-
proved an ap-
plication from
the Muslim So-
ciety of Iceland to buy land for the
purposes of building a mosque.
Vice Chairperson of the Muslim So-
ciety of Iceland Salmann Tamimi, who
filed the original application said he
was overjoyed to hear the news, and
hopes to start building this summer.
The mosque will be built in Sogamýri,
which is a bit out of the way, but a plot
of land nonetheless.
Minister of the Interior Ögmundur
Jónasson got himself in hot water
when the Icelandic media reported
that he was trying to ban porn. Blog-
gers raged, the Pirate Party accused
him of censorship, and thousands of
college-aged males began Googling
“proxy server.” In reality, porn is al-
ready banned in Iceland. What the
Minister is trying to do is get an actual
definition of “porn” on the law books,
and trying to update the existing porn
ban law to account for the Internet.
EU talks had been closing in on
home base, with the dreaded chap-
ters on fishing and agriculture loom-
ing on the horizon, when it was an-
nounced that the accession talks
would be put on hold. Not stopped,
not set aside, but “slowed down” due
to elections this April. Nonetheless,
this prompted EU opponents to loudly
proclaim that we must have a refer-
endum on whether or not to continue
talks again. But even the president
seemed confused.
Finally, EFTA ruled in Iceland’s fa-
vour in the Icesave dispute over
whether or not Iceland had broke
international law when it allowed Ice-
landers to withdraw their money from
Landsbanki after the 2008 crash, but
not foreigners
who had money
in Landsbanki’s
Icesave branch.
The verdict pre-
vents the UK
and Netherlands
from suing Iceland for potentially bil-
lions of euros. Iceland is ecstatic.
- PAUL FONTAINE
– Continued –
Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey,
Saadet Ozdemir Hilmarsson moved
to Iceland in 2008 when she married
an Icelander. Before moving, she had
studied tourism and hotel management
in Istanbul, and was also certified as a
kindergarten teacher. Despite her pro-
fessional skills, finding permanent em-
ployment has been hard, she says, due to
the language barrier.
Saadet is currently studying Icelan-
dic, and speaks enough English to get
by in daily life. But she is also eager to
find a community in her new home, to
take part in cultural events and organ-
isations like she regularly did in Istan-
bul. “Since I arrived, I’ve been digging
around,” she says. “I wonder, what more
can I do to adapt to the life and culture?”
Lenka Kovářová, a Czech woman
who completed a Master’s degree in
Nordic Religion at the University of
Iceland and has lived in Reykjavík for
nearly seven years, has asked herself
similar questions. Lenka speaks fluent
Icelandic but is also finding the Reykja-
vík job market to be tough. “I am at a
crossroads,” she said. “I am looking for
ways to make connections and meet
new people.”
Enter the new Café Lingua pro-
gramme at the Reykjavík City Library.
This weekly programme is part of the
library’s extensive multicultural ini-
tiatives and aims to bring Reykjavík
residents together in the spirit of lin-
guistic exchange and exploration. “Our
languages, whether they are mother
tongues or foreign languages, give us
both roots and wings,” says Kristín R.
Vilhjálmsdóttir, the director of mul-
ticultural projects at the library, who
organised the programme.
BREAKING BARRIERS
At its inaugural event in November
2012, native speakers of 14 different
languages—from Icelandic and Lithu-
anian to Arabic and Filipino—were in-
vited to represent their mother tongue
in a round of “language speed-dating,”
where the nearly 80 guests were given
the chance to “meet” each language in
a series of five-minute introductions.
Saadet, who volunteered to repre-
sent Turkish, thought it would be a
good opportunity to meet other people
who share her interest in learning
about other cultures, give some posi-
tive context for her country—which she
says is often only known through nega-
tive news—and dispel some confusion
around the Turkish language. “Turkish
is often mixed up with other Middle
Eastern languages.”
Tung Phuong Vu had parallel mo-
tivations for participating. “There
wasn’t a Vietnamese representative, so
I thought it was a great opportunity to
represent our language. I realised af-
ter talking with people in Café Lingua
that many foreign friends thought that
Vietnamese uses the same characters
as other countries in the region. But
afterwards, they seemed to have more
comprehensive understanding about
our language.”
Lenka was one of two Czech repre-
sentatives and was pleased that people
were interested in the Czech language,
which has a very complex grammar
and pronunciation. She was also happy
to have the opportunity to distinguish
Czech culture from that of other Slavic
countries. “There aren’t many Czech
people in Iceland,” she said. “It is nice
to have the opportunity to show people
the things that are unique in our cul-
ture and language.” The Café Lingua
meetings, she said, have been good op-
portunities to “build bridges” over any
preconceptions that people have about
a particular country or region, and find
to common ground as well as under-
stand difference.
BUILDING BRIDGES
Café Lingua has also been a place
for people to put their current lan-
guage skills into practice. Joanna
Marcinkowska, Café Lingua’s Polish
representative who is an advisor for for-
eigners at Reykjavík’s Human Rights
Office, believes that an informal social
environment is key for new speakers
of a language. “It always works better
when you are not in the classroom.
Especially for people who already have
some knowledge of the language but
are not able to practice it ‘live.’”
Since the first Café Lingua, there
have been further language speed
dating rounds, as well as a multilin-
gual poetry reading and a Christmas-
themed event where attendees shared
holiday songs and customs while en-
joying gingerbread and jólaglögg. In
February, the library will host a conver-
sation with Icelandic musician Tómas
R. Einarsson, who will speak about his
experiences learning Spanish, as well
as the Cuban influences in his music,
much of which has been recorded in
Havana, Cuba.
For Saadet, seeing other people’s in-
terest in other cultures and languages
at Café Lingua has been clarifying. “It
was like turning a light on...In Turkish,
there is a proverb that says, “The per-
son who speaks one language, is one
person; the person who speaks two lan-
guages, is two.” - LARISSA KYZER
Speed-Dating At Café Lingua
Putting a face to the many languages and cultures of Reykjavík
…In Turkish, there is a
proverb that says, “The
person who speaks
one language, is one
person; the person
who speaks two lan-
guages, is two.
“
„
Iceland | Dating NEWS IN BRIEF
JANUARY
Alísa Kalyanova
Kristín R. Vilhjálmsdóttir, director of multicultural projects at the library.
10The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 2 — 2013 Café Lingua meetings are held every Monday from 17:00–18:00 at the main branch of the Reykjavík City Library
(Tryggvagata 15, 101 Reykjavík). Information about forthcoming events can be found on the Café Lingua Face-
book page or on the Reykjavík City Library website: www.borgarbokasafn.is.