Soffía's Icelandic log

[Iversen]

Thank you for the reference to laeknabladid.is. It can be a problem to find large amounts of non-fictional text in Icelandic so I'm not terribly picky, but I would never have thought that long biographies of doctors could be worth reading.

[Soffía]

Thank you for the reference to laeknabladid.is. It can be a problem to find large amounts of non-fictional text in Icelandic so I'm not terribly picky, but I would never have thought that long biographies of doctors could be worth reading.

You're welcome! I should try reading some of them myself - I only came across the site because I was looking for interviews with the author of "Krabbaveislan."

But if you really want massive quantities of Icelandic non-fiction, without having to buy books, try this collection of thousands of dissertations, theses and other academic writing from Icelandic universities. Some terrible student work in there but also some interesting stuff: http://skemman.is/is/

[Soffía]

"Bítlaávarpið" is fine. I don't love it, but it's cute, and it's much easier than I remembered. Maybe my comprehension has taken another little leap upwards, or maybe it just seems easy in comparison with the endless run-on sentences of "Krabbaveislan." Anyway, I intend to take it with me on a work trip this week, to read on the plane. Hopefully I'll finish it before I get back.

So that I don't lose track of them, I'll link here some segments of Kiljan. I really ought to watch more of it. Or these segments at least!

Authors of children's books read extracts from their books: http://www.ruv.is/frett/rithofundar-seg ... barnabokum
Jón Gnarr discusses "Útlaginn": http://www.ruv.is/frett/svona-missir-folk-vitid
Einar Már Guðmundsson (author of "Bítlaávarpið" and "Englar Alheimsins") discusses "Hundadagar": http://www.ruv.is/frett/jorundur-hefdi- ... alin-i-dag

[Soffía]

Just spent a wonderful few days in Moscow and, oh god, now I want to learn Russian.

I promised myself that my next language would be easier than Icelandic. I don't think that's true of Russian but, minus the alphabet, it's not harder either, is it?

[Josquin]

Depends on what makes a language hard for you...

The Cyrillic alphabet isn't particularly difficult. You can learn it in one afternoon. Reading fluently takes a little bit more time, but it's no particular challenge.

The pronunciation might be a little bit more tricky, as Russian has "hard" (normal) and "soft" (palatalised) consonants. Also, the vowels are only fully pronounced in stressed syllables, otherwise they are mumbled or "reduced".

The grammar is comparably complex to Icelandic, although it's not quite as irregular. On the other hand, Russian wouldn't be the best example for a very regular language either... The declension and conjugation patterns are quite complicated.

The vocabulary is a little bit more exotic than in Icelandic, as Russian is a Slavic language. On the bright side, Russian has more international loanwords instead of the crazy "native words only" policy of Icelandic.

All in all, Russian was easier to learn for me than Icelandic, because there are far more resources available for Russian. You've got good courses, grammars, exercise books, podcasts, and TV shows, all of which doesn't really exist for Icelandic.

Well, Russian is a major world language, while Icelandic is merely spoken by 300,000 people on a tiny, cold island. So, you can see the difference...

[Soffía]

Funny how I still feel intimidated at starting a new book, before I get into it. I've decided to save Pals saga for next year, for it is long as well as new - I've been looking forward to reading it for a long time now, so maybe it's just that I've built it up too much in my mind. Anyway, it's Íslenskir kóngar next, then a bit of re-reading. By the beginning of next year I should have worked through my backlog sufficiently to justify ordering some new books, hurrah!

It looks like I should be able to meet my goal of 4000 pages for the year (raised from 2500), or at least come close enough to consider it achieved. Given that I didn't finish my first Icelandic book till April of last year, I think I can count that as a major success. My listening comprehension seems to have come along with my reading, even though I've done very little actual listening.

Makes me start wondering what goals I ought to set for next year. Obviously I'll be finishing the Super Challenge although that won't be too much pressure (moving on for the double... that would be too much). I could probably commit to doing another 4000 pages without too much difficulty but I wonder whether I should branch out a little bit. There are lots of podcasts I like the look of, so maybe I should pledge to listen to an hour of audio per week. (I dropped my audio pledge pretty quickly a few months ago.)

And I mustn't forget that I wanted to finish IOL 3 and 4 this year. A solid day of work would probably do it. More symbolic than anything else – I'm not one of those people who's thorough with their courses – but it's a loose end that would be nice to have tied up.

And then there's French, the wildcard in all this. If I decided to pick up French seriously, that would definitely mean cutting back on the time for Icelandic. I can't decide when is the right moment and I am, perhaps, a bit impatient about going through all the beginner effort again before I'm actually able to use the language. But what keeps enticing me on is the thought of the world of content that will open out to me once I've gained a foothold in French.

I've started following French cycling commentators on Twitter, in the hopes that a) something will sink in by osmosis or b) the frustration of not understanding will spur me on to learning more. Also it's good fun: https://twitter.com/DansLaMusette/statu ... 7324687360

[Soffía]

Been thinking a bit about my philosophy of using native materials and basically it boils down to this: I'm learning Icelandic (French, what have you) in order to understand and use Icelandic. The sooner I can start doing that, the sooner I'm getting value from my language learning, rather than just working or studying. Once I can pick up a native book or listen to a native podcast, I am in fact living the dream. And I find it motivating to be able to tell myself that.

Anyway, I'm carrying on with Íslenskir kóngar, which definitely has more complex syntax and a larger vocab than other Einar Már Guðmundsson books that I've read, but I'm getting enough meaning to make it worthwhile. It's a fascinating look into the life of an Icelandic small town, and an Icelandic extended family ('ætt'), and tells the story of the Icelandic twentieth century before that. Definitely a case where I'm learning something about Iceland in a way that an English-speaker couldn't.

In other news I've decided again to start learning French. I have decided this about as many times as Peter Mollenberg has changed his study routine, but I'm thinking it might stick this time. Hopefully.

I'm on lesson 3 of Assimil, measured generously (that is, I haven't done everything 16 times over, as many people do), and am already feeling slightly bored with it. I've also been using Lingvist. I have c. 330 words there, but need to get through the backlog so that it actually starts showing me new words again. If I actually did the suggested 150 reps per day, I would really get somewhere.

It's amazing how many resources there are for French. In a way it was almost easier with Icelandic: there were enough resources, but also few enough that not much choice was required.

I've been dipping into bits and pieces of French content and it's surprising to me how often I can get the gist already. This is probably not unrelated to my impatience with structured study. Just for future reference as to what I've been doing:
https://french.yabla.com/player_cdn.php ... lang_id=en (Understood almost all of this, with subtitles)
https://www.francaisauthentique.com/voltaire/ (Understood quite a bit of this, again with the text)
https://www.franceculture.fr/architectu ... -orthodoxe (Didn't understand as much of this as I wanted to, but planning to go back with ReadLang as it's absolutely fascinating.)

Mostly I want to learn French in order to access the massive amount of literature, history and philosophy that the language has produced. But I seem to have discovered a new enthusiasm that may motivate me more in the short term: cycling. My goal is to learn enough by the next Tour de France to be able to follow written commentary on the Tour, and possibly also podcasts, cycling documentaries and so on.

I've already subscribed to some interesting French cycling accounts on Twitter. @DansLaMusette is very funny - @LeGruppetto has more serious coverage - and I'm also keeping track of two of my favourite riders, @romainbardet and @alafpolak.

Websites I've bookmarked:
http://www.cyclismactu.net
http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/
http://www.velo101.com/forum

I've also found some great-looking documentaries by searching for 'cyclisme' on YouTube. These include:
Les Scandales du sport – L’Affaire Festina
Parole de blaireau : Hinault vs Lemond
Dopage: ça roule toujours

It'll be quite a while before I can follow these properly, but I still may watch and take in the rhythm of the language. Super exciting!

[Elenia]

Enjoy! I was sadly unable to find enough in French that motivated me or kept me interested - although it still would be great to read La Morte d'Arthur at some point! I'm glad you've already got fuel for your French fire

[Soffía]

Enjoy! I was sadly unable to find enough in French that motivated me or kept me interested - although it still would be great to read La Morte d'Arthur at some point! I'm glad you've already got fuel for your French fire

Thank you, Elenia! It's fascinating how different languages/cultural outputs speak to different people. In general I've never found a shortage of content of interest in Icelandic, but for me French is like dipping into a massive sea of culture. Not to mention that there are tonnes of French books available at my local bookstore.

[Soffía]

Pronunciation is going to have to be a priority for me when studying French. I can easily imagine learning to read French pretty well while still not having much of a clue how to pronounce it, to say nothing of being able to speak it fluently. And I'm motivated enough by reading comprehension that I need to make certain it doesn't get too much in the way.

Obviously there are particular issues when it comes to French pronunciation but I had a similar problem, to a lesser extent, with Icelandic. By the time I took that one week summer course for beginners, I was distinctly a false beginner, yet wasn't all that great at making myself understood by Icelanders. Some drilling in phonology by our singing teacher and by an Icelandic actress who was teaching us recitation (great 'enrichment' activities, best part of the course) really made the difference for me. Maybe this time, now that I know what needs doing, I can (mostly) do it for myself.