Megumi
Icelandic (for learners)

Is icelandic in your opinion a difficult language to learn? What made you wish to learn it?

I'm not advanced, but it reminds me to english (some words) and the grammar is quite complicated. Not the verbs, much more the plurals, the articles...Some nouns change in declination (Anna-Önnu).

I decided to learn it some years ago, when my friend was learning norwegian...I tried icelandic and was great! I love the pronunciation, the culture, the thorn letters (æ,ð,þ). Although I don't have many free time, I'm trying to keep on learning. Can't wait to be able to read the folktales in icelandic!

Mar 21, 2014 2:28 PM
Comments · 4

Já, ég er sammála þér!

March 23, 2014

Well, first of all, I don't believe in the idea of languages being "difficult". Sure, it helps if they use a script that you're familiar with, there is a large overlap in vocabulary and the grammar is relatively simple (few declensions and stuff). But saying that a language is difficult just serves to discourage you and will make learning the language difficult. This is a nice article about this subject: http://www.fluentin3months.com/most-difficult-language/

 

The languages I learned before I started with Icelandic were Persian and Kurdish. Especially Persian was quite tough, as I didn't know the script, and most of the vocabulary wasn't anything like the words in the languages I knew. In the beginning, it would take at least 10 seconds to read even one word in a very simple short story. Now imagine what happens if that short story is 300 words long... Compared to that, Icelandic is a breeze. I could understand the main idea of some texts after only a few weeks of learning it. I just focus on this part of the language, and it makes me say that learning Icelandic is easy. It becomes really fun and enjoyable. Icelandic is beautiful. Language learning is great. Stop saying that it's difficult; start learning! Enjoy! :-)

March 22, 2014

I really want to learn it. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. If anyone wants to help me learn, that would be great! haha

March 22, 2014

I find it harder than German or Spanish mainly because of declensions and vocabulary. Many "basic" words are easy to learn for people who speak English (faðir, hundur, ...) but more complex words that exist in most european languages (politics, culture, ...) are completely different in Icelandic. 

 

It is however an awesome language to learn!

March 22, 2014