Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.11.2017, Síða 16

Integrating Into
Society Through
Icelandic Language

With tourism and foreign labour on the rise,
Icelandic courses struggle to remain accessible

Words: Jenna Mohammed Photo: Art Bicnick

For newcomers, integrating into
Iceland can be difficult. You don’t
know your way around the country
or are unfamiliar with social norms
and customs. But what makes liv-
ing here the most nerve-wracking
is being unable to speak or un-
derstand Icelandic. With tour-
ism increasing, and the strength
of Iceland’s job market, there is a
considerable amount of foreigners
from the EU who come to Iceland
to work for a short amount of time.
While speaking Icelandic is an es-
sential aspect to integration, the
majority of the population have a
very good grasp on English, so for-
eigners and tourists do not have a
difficult time communicating at
restaurants or bars.
But since Icelandic
is the primary lan-
guage, in order to
function in society,
it’s a good skill to
have.
With an influx
of non-speaking
Icelandic workers
and tourists, this
changes how locals
view everyday life
in Iceland. At most
shops you walk into
on Laugavegur, or
anywhere in the
downtown core, you
will most likely be served in Eng-
lish. Imagine being in your home
country and walking into your
favorite café and no longer being
served in your native language. It’s
a little weird, isn’t it? This raises
the question of how accessible Ice-
landic courses are to foreigners,
and what the implications are in
terms of having workers in many
industries that don’t speak Icelan-
dic.
In the tourist-dense village of
Vík, Anna Lára Pálsdóttir will be
teaching Icelandic for foreigners
who are living in the area. Anna is
currently the receptionist at Hotel
Katla. Over time she has observed
how non-speaking staff struggle to
integrate into their place of work.
Working as a counselor for immi-
grants, Barbara Jean Kristvinsson
has many years of experience in
understanding the struggle for-
eigners go through in obtaining
Icelandic language education and
how the courses that teach it are
operating.
Growing pains
Since the rise in tourism, locals
have not been able
to keep up with rap-
id changes in soci-
ety. Suddenly people
realize they can-
not walk into a bar
or restaurant and
speak Icelandic, and
people aren’t accept-
ing this as it’s a huge
change. According
to Anna, “Our so-
ciety has changed
greatly. Only in the
last six years there
has been an over-
flow of tourism and
with this you need a
lot more people to work in tourism
and we don’t have Icelandic people
to work these jobs.”
The tourism industry has be-
come Iceland’s biggest employer
over the years. In this sector, po-
sitions are being filled by foreign
labor. “Some Icelandic guests who
come to my place of work are the
ones who are offended that they
are being served in English,” Anna
explains. “They feel like they are
entitled to being served in Icelan-
dic. I think it's because people have
not fully realized this rapid change
in our society.” She believes locals
may feel bothered because they
don’t want anything to change. But
at the same time everyone likes
the capital that comes with tour-
ism. She continues, “It’s mixed
emotions; we can’t have it all and it
can never be a win-win situation.
Something has to give. We are feel-
ing the growth pain. Things are
changing and it won't be the same.”
Getting started
In smaller towns like Vík, start-
ing up new Icelandic courses for
foreigners can be more difficult
than in larger towns. “Icelandic is
an extremely important to being
part of Icelandic society. Out in the
country it’s just a logistics prob-
lem,” says Barbara. “It’s a lot hard-
er to arrange because it's private,
even though you’re reimbursed
by your union. Logistically, if you
have 200 people in a small village,
even if a large percentage may be
foreigners, it's still difficult to get
somebody to go there and open
a business.” Barbara claims most
companies will attempt to address
these issues.
Local tourist boards try to ar-
range Icelandic lessons for for-
eigners who are working in a par-
ticular field. “If you have a group
of people working in a fish factory
in the Westfjords for instance, that
factory will either hire a teacher
or subcontract with somebody
to conduct Icelandic lessons and
make it more trade oriented,” Bar-
bara says. Similar to what Anna
teaches, the courses aimed at for-
eigners give them the tools they
need to work in their field.
Seed money
Currently, very little is being done
to strengthen accessibility and
funding for courses. “Most of the
talk around immigration now is
more about border control, who
is allowed in,” Barbara reflects.
“Rather than asking how we are
going to make an integrated so-
ciety with what we have. What
happens after people immigrate
here?” After the financial crisis,
the amount of money put into
Icelandic lessons has decreased.
Barbara says the amount of re-
imbursement took a big hit and
since then it hasn’t gone back up
to the point where the ministry
is working on making it stronger.
For Anna’s course, if you are part
of a union, about 75% of the cost is
covered, and the rest comes out of
pocket.
Working a full time job and hav-
ing the responsibility of learning a
new language can be overwhelm-
ing. It would be ideal if all employ-
ers were on board with arranging
time for employees to learn Ice-
landic, and realize how beneficial
it is. Barbara claims that many
companies have courses for em-
ployees, such as the city of Reykja-
vik, which offers at-work courses.
Larger fish factories have this, as
well as the hospital system. “I’ve
heard of smaller companies that
don’t want this type of accommo-
dation because once people start
learning Icelandic, they can start
learning their rights,” says Bar-
bara. Foreigners need to demand
these classes and services, but they
aren’t very vocal about their needs.
Even though it wouldn’t cost much
to fund and make it completely
free, there’s a lot of prevention.
Barbara concludes, “You’re just go-
ing to get better citizens if they can
function in Icelandic.”
16 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 20 — 2017
“I’ve heard of
smaller compa-
nies that don’t
want this...
because once
people start
learning Icelan-
dic, they can
start learning
their rights.”
Barbara Jean Kristvinsson