When are languages most likely to interfere with each other for you?

[einzelne]

I don’t think I ever had good listening comprehension to be honest. I got sort of annoyed at myself because I read Icelandic to myself in a Spanish voice.

It's hard to comment on your situation, not knowing your background. Listening comprehension is the hardest skill to master, usually it significantly lags behind. It's my rule of thumb to accompany all reading with audio at least for a year. It's easy now with popular languages since there are lots of audiobook available. But I don't know the situation with Icelandic and Hebrew.

Anyway, since you study languages by yourself, here's a very good and realistic guide on how to learn languages by yourself. May be it will be of help.

[Lisa]

It's easy now with popular languages since there are lots of audiobook available. .

I tried this with Spanish... but audiobooks gave me a false sense of comprehension compared to people talking. Helpful, certainly; but I could understand audiobooks okay but when confronted with ordinary people talking it was another story. I think it's the changes in pitch, and variable speed of words within sentences, that throws me off in ordinary conversation (also at least in Spanish they speak even faster in person than on audiobooks), compared to the more evenly measured reading in an audiobook. Movies and tv shows are a bit more realistic...

[einzelne]

I tried this with Spanish... but audiobooks gave me a false sense of comprehension compared to people talking.

That's true, listening audiobooks for understanding real people is far from enough. It's a just first step. But to my mind, it's the most effective tool to activate the language in your head. You will start 'hearing' the text while reading. It will definitely solve the problem of 'reading to yourself Islandic texts with a Spanish voice'.

[sporedandroid]

I tried this with Spanish... but audiobooks gave me a false sense of comprehension compared to people talking.

That's true, listening audiobooks for understanding real people is far from enough. It's a just first step. But to my mind, it's the most effective tool to activate the language in your head. You will start 'hearing' the text while reading. It will definitely solve the problem of 'reading to yourself Islandic texts with a Spanish voice'.

It seems like Icelandic is just way harder than other languages. This is especially noticeable with German. I dabbled a bit in German, but I’m already better at understanding German. Even though my overall level is lower and I didn’t intentionally work on my German listening comprehension. It could be because German sounds closer to English and it also sort of sounds like Hebrew. I notice that my French listening comprehension also improved a bit just by studying Hebrew.

I already have a pretty good idea of how to improve my listening comprehension, I just can’t do it right now. My issue with Icelandic is that they don’t have a whole lot of subtitled media and probably don’t have all that many audiobooks either. I think I still have to decide whether I truly want to learn Icelandic or I’m just feeling nostalgic. Maybe I’ll just end up learning some other Scandinavian language. My issue right now is that I can’t exactly decide on one.

[lemme_try]

The first language I started teaching myself was Icelandic when I was fourteen. Not the easiest language, but the fact that it’s Germanic definitely helped with memorizing vocabulary. I’d say I got to a pre-intermediate level. Right now I have a lot of gaps in grammar and bad listening comprehension. I don’t think I ever had good listening comprehension to be honest. I got sort of annoyed at myself because I read Icelandic to myself in a Spanish voice. I really didn’t want Spanish to interfere with Icelandic and now I feel the same about Hebrew. While I can’t say level is high, I found it easier to study Icelandic compared to German.

Hebrew in a was sort of the opposite for me. I had a very hard time with vocabulary at first, but I found listening easy from the get go. When I started noticing patterns more it made vocabulary a lot easier. I’d say I’m intermediate with no active skills or much formal study. I think I underestimated how much effort understanding Hebrew is for me because I often listen to music in Hebrew. I find that makes it a lot lower effort to understand. It sort of keeps my mind in a flow. When I try to study other languages that breaks the flow and I see how shaky my level really is. I’ve never learnt any languages to a solid or advanced level as an adult. I’m willing to wait longer until Hebrew is more solid.

In my opinion, if you feel your grammar is lacking, the best antidote for it is grammar drills. If you feel your listening is not good, then you should listen more along with the text. I feel it is all about deliberate practice. As long as you don't stop learning, you will keep improving. Consistency is a key. It is all about breaking that intermediate plateau, then it gets easier.

[lavengro]

... My issue right now is that I can’t exactly decide on one.

All the cool kids are learning norsk right now. Norge has both brunost og knekkebrød. Seems like the inevitable language and travel choice.

[Mista]

My issue with Icelandic is that they don’t have a whole lot of subtitled media and probably don’t have all that many audiobooks either.

If you want to get an impression of the availability of audiobooks, this is the site I get mine from: https://www.hljodbok.is/

The selection is fairly limited, but on the other hand, it's completely different from what it was two years ago, when I first checked it out. So over time, the selection will be bigger (also, if you see something you want, you shouldn't wait too long ...)