This Should Prove a Challenge!!

With a lot of encouragement from P, I've decided to have a crack at learning a teeny bit of basic Icelandic.  Icelandic is a notoriously difficult language to learn - it's a pretty-much-unchanged-for-a-thousand-years West Norwegian dialect (imagine if we were still speaking old English similar to the original Beowulf and you get something of the idea.) 

Plus I am a total dimwit when it comes to learning foreign languages.  I am the woman who managed to get an ungraded 'O' level for French (still my 'finest ever' exam achievement.  Though I recently read Jack Dee's autobiography and he managed a stonkingly impressive result of three ungraded 'A' levels - way to go, Jack!!)  I also managed to fail my Latin 'O' level - twice (a D grade both times as I knew a heck of a lot about the Roman way of life but frankly b*gger all about how to translate Latin into English or vice versa.  As a form of consolation prize I did get a grade A 'O' level in Roman Civilisation - how useful an 'O' level can you get!!)

P - who is a native German speaker - and I have lived together for nearly 17 years and still, I'm totally ashamed to say, my ability to speak German is only at the 'smattering' level.   P not only speaks German (obvs.) but is also fluent in English and French, taught himself very passable Norwegian in three months and is now teaching himself Mandarin!!  My sister - who is also much better at languages than me - is currently teaching herself Swedish, having had a go at Spanish a couple of years ago.

Me, I'm a total foreign language klutz.  I'm pretty sure it stems from never having grasped the basics of how the English language works.  Sure, I know what is right and what is wrong but I don't know why.  I also only have very a vague notion of what an adjective, verb and noun are.  I know, totally shocking!!  I'm not sure if it's because I went to a junior school that was only interested in teaching maths and PE (so not my thing.)  Or if it is because my teacher for the final two years of junior school was a native Welsh speaker who had only learnt English at the age of 10.  Or maybe it's just the way my brain is wired - who knows. 

I have watched an inordinate amount of Icelandic-language films and TV series lately (with English subtitles of course) - thanks to a very generous birthday present from P consisting of three Icelandic film DVDs, two Icelandic TV series DVDs and an Icelandic documentary DVD.  Which when added to the films and TV series in Icelandic we already had probably means we've got the biggest Icelandic-language DVD selection in Essex!!  Thanks to all that DVD watching - and with the hope of another visit to Iceland in the not too distant future - I'm pretty enthused to try and speak a few words, or even sentences, myself.  Progress will no doubt be slow but I'm looking forward to at least giving it a go.

Comments

[Maureen]

Good for you, Elizabeth.You'll soon be reading Jar City in the original.

I think William Morris also taught himself Icelandic in order to translate all those amazing sagas so little known by the rest of us.

[Loo]

You're brave! Good luck. Blimey, P knowing all those languages! I'm envious (and a foreign language klutz too!). xx

[Jean]

Well done you. I feel exactly the same way you do about languages but soooo want to learn Italian. I'm gonna give it a crack whilst you're learning Icelandic.
Hot and cold climates the perfect ying and yang.