Iceland review - 2016, Page 48

46 ICELAND REVIEW
Roman Chudov
Russian,
Icelandic
12 years old
Karítas Herdísardóttir
Icelandic
10 years old
Kamil Wojslaw
Polish,
Icelandic,
some English
11 years old
Friðjón Ingi Davíðsson
Icelandic
7 years old
Timothy Jón M.
Patambag
Bisaya,
English,
Icelandic
11 years old
Bali Nói Veselaj
Albanian,
English,
Icelandic
10 years old
Bjarki Adam Ert
Polish, Icelandic
8 years old
Arion Aron Veselaj
Albanian,
Icelandic
10 years old
Sonja María Canada
English,
Icelandic
10 years old
Icelandic. Still she is exposed to many
other languages during the school day.
“It’s a bit weird hearing all these languag-
es I don’t understand,” she comments,
adding that she nevertheless thinks it’s
cool. Karítas Herdísardóttir is one of
the few students whose parents were
both born in Iceland. She says she enjoys
hearing different languages spoken every
day. “I don’t understand what they say
because I only speak Icelandic but it is fun
to hear different languages. When there
are new students [who have just moved to
Iceland], I try to teach them new words
and correct their Icelandic,” she says.
Despite 25 different languages being spo-
ken at the school, all teaching takes place
in Icelandic. However, on Saturdays, the
association Móðurmál offers classes in
mother-tongue languages at Fellaskóli,
open to all children, as it is common-
ly agreed that strengthening a student’s
first language makes it easier to learn a
new one. The program is not connected
to Fellaskóli, but many of the students
attend classes.
MULTICULTURALISM
The students at Fellaskóli
speak a combined 25
different languages.