Soffía's Icelandic log

[Elenia]

Hey, I also followed your log on the .com site. I'm a sucker for Icelandic logs, and with each one I read, I want to learn the language more! It's always very exciting for me to read the things written in the various Icelandic logs and see how much I can understand. Sometimes I gave to make more of an effort, but other times I barely have to make any effort at all. Thanks, Swedish!

I can understand your listening comprehension dilemma. I enjoy listening to a select few podcasts in English, but I only ever do so when I am with my sister and she is listening to one. I have never gone out of my way to listen to one. I also don't listen to the news or the radio in English, and I only watch TV and Films rarely. Small wonder that my accent in my native language is extremely dodgy! However, like you, I have made an effort to listen to things in my TLs, and it really has worked wonders on my listening comprehension. For French, spending ten months in France, going to extremely lengthy lectures improved my listening comprehension no end. Even without any way to look up unknown words, I found that I could understand more and I even managed to learn new words and collocations. For Swedish, my listening journey started off around a year ago, a far as I can recall. I watched programs extremely intensively, with Swedish subtitles on. When I had no access to a separate subtitle file, I would pause playback and look up every single word. That kind of thing isn't much fun, and isn't sustainable, but after watching the same clips a few times, I found that my comprehension was much better. I've recently improved a lot, although I'm not sure how. In fact, I just posted on my log about this. Somehow, I've reached intermediate level comprehension - I'd say it is a shaky B1 - without doing much intensive listening work at all. The most intensive thing I have done since those early 'looking up every word' efforts is learning song lyrics.

Finally, German. Like you, I was sure that I didn't take in information from audio. I persisted in thinking this, even after the French Miracle. Howver, I am a keen follower of Bakunin's log, and he very kindly made me some recordings following the natural listening method he is using to learn Khmer. I have found picking up vocabulary from these recordings very easy, much easier than picking up new words in reading. I believe this has a lot to do with German grammar - I don't understand grammar at all - but also because of the method itself. I won't go into details here - this is already a much longer post than I intended! But the audio in these recordings is focused on vocabulary acquisition, providing a lot of repetitions of interesting words in context. Very different to listening to an audiobook (another thing I have started doing and enjoying), and very useful. I also had the joy of understanding a bit of what was said when I went out for dinner with a German friend and her parents, so that was a nice plus.

Sorry for this extremely long message, and a very hearty well done on your progress. Also, did you ever make it out to the Scandinavian meet? I think I would like to go to one when my Swedish is a bit more solid, as I'm hoping to up my comprehension of the related languages at some point in the future.

Good luck going forward

[Soffía]

Hey, I also followed your log on the .com site. I'm a sucker for Icelandic logs, and with each one I read, I want to learn the language more! It's always very exciting for me to read the things written in the various Icelandic logs and see how much I can understand. Sometimes I gave to make more of an effort, but other times I barely have to make any effort at all. Thanks, Swedish!

Apologies for my late reply; it's been a busy week! I'm really glad to know that you're finding my log interesting. Swedish will certainly help you with Icelandic if you ever choose to study it properly - and I must say that I hope you do, because it would be great to have more company! (Although Icelandic seems disproportionately popular given what a small country it is.)

I've recently improved a lot, although I'm not sure how. In fact, I just posted on my log about this. Somehow, I've reached intermediate level comprehension - I'd say it is a shaky B1 - without doing much intensive listening work at all.

I'm in a similar situation - when I went back to Icelandic this summer I found my listening comprehension had taken a big step forward... somehow. I knew I was coping a lot better with comprehension in the course that I took, but it really did hit home for me when I was sitting in the coffeeshop at lunch and realised that I had started idly listening to a news story on the radio without really thinking about it. I've not quite replicated that particular miracle but it shows that the capacity is there somewhere. If I would only be more systematic about my studies, great things might happen!

On the other hand, improving my vocabulary and grasp of figures of speech through reading will also help with comprehension...

I've actually been doing things completely the wrong way round at the moment and watching Grey's Anatomy in English with Icelandic subtitles, since it doesn't have Icelandic dubs. This is not helping my comprehension but, since I tend to pay a lot of attention to the text and less to the audio, I'm learning all sorts of vocabulary and phrasings in Icelandic without - and this is great - having to look anything up. I'm finding it surprisingly productive, and without anything involving effort or deep concentration.

Sorry for this extremely long message, and a very hearty well done on your progress. Also, did you ever make it out to the Scandinavian meet? I think I would like to go to one when my Swedish is a bit more solid, as I'm hoping to up my comprehension of the related languages at some point in the future.

No need to apologise, it's tremendously helpful to know that someone else is taking an interest!

I haven't been along to a meet-up yet, although I have subscribed to the emails of the Icelandic Society in London, which holds a lot of events. Could give me a good opportunity to eavesdrop on Icelandic in the wild, if I can bring myself to go along after work. Perhaps someday soon.

[Elenia]

I'm in a similar situation - when I went back to Icelandic this summer I found my listening comprehension had taken a big step forward... somehow. I knew I was coping a lot better with comprehension in the course that I took, but it really did hit home for me when I was sitting in the coffeeshop at lunch and realised that I had started idly listening to a news story on the radio without really thinking about it. I've not quite replicated that particular miracle but it shows that the capacity is there somewhere. If I would only be more systematic about my studies, great things might happen!

On the other hand, improving my vocabulary and grasp of figures of speech through reading will also help with comprehension...

I've actually been doing things completely the wrong way round at the moment and watching Grey's Anatomy in English with Icelandic subtitles, since it doesn't have Icelandic dubs. This is not helping my comprehension but, since I tend to pay a lot of attention to the text and less to the audio, I'm learning all sorts of vocabulary and phrasings in Icelandic without - and this is great - having to look anything up. I'm finding it surprisingly productive, and without anything involving effort or deep concentration.

Wow, that must have felt really cool! I have never had a moment where I've suddenly started understanding something without realising, but my 'lazy' gains often make me wonder what I'd be able to achieve if I were a little more proactive and consistent. But even the slow, scenic route is better than no route at all!

I also understand your predicament of having few dubbed things, but I've seen improvement in my Swedish from binge watching subbed episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. I did make a point of keeping up the source language audio input as well, but probably not as big a point as I should have.

I haven't been along to a meet-up yet, although I have subscribed to the emails of the Icelandic Society in London, which holds a lot of events. Could give me a good opportunity to eavesdrop on Icelandic in the wild, if I can bring myself to go along after work. Perhaps someday soon.

I've only been to one meet-up, for the Swedish Meet-Up group. Actually going was terrifying, but I really enjoyed it once I got there. It was a really nice experience, and really reassuring to know that, hey, actually I can use this language to communicate! Sadly, their meet-ups always seem to clash with something, and it's always the meet-up that gives.

I hope you can go to one soon, and have as positive an experience as I did, hopefully even better

[Soffía]

Wow, that must have felt really cool! I have never had a moment where I've suddenly started understanding something without realising, but my 'lazy' gains often make me wonder what I'd be able to achieve if I were a little more proactive and consistent. But even the slow, scenic route is better than no route at all!

That's always been my philosophy! The leap in listening comprehension came mostly because I was on an intensive one-week course. Really helped.

I hope you can go to one soon, and have as positive an experience as I did, hopefully even better

Thanks. I'll have to see what's coming up soon.

[Soffía]

Somehow this Bank Holiday weekend has turned into a bit of an Icelandic marathon, which is not what I'd planned at the beginning of the weekend. But it was very rainy.

I have:

• Finally caught up with my Memrise reviews using the new "speed review" feature. I love the thing; it's my new best friend. Almost certainly better to type words out while reviewing, but if I ever get through the "First 5000 Icelandic Words" course (currently at 290/4038), it'll be by speed reviewing. I've also been eying up the course on "Icelandic verbs - present & past simple," because I feel I could do with some proper memorisation and drilling. We shall see.

• Watched the news. I should really watch the news every day, it's only twenty minutes. Exciting story of the day: "Akureyri - bær eða borg?" (Akureyri: city or town? This is a big question because traditionally Reykjavik has been held to be the only city in Iceland.)

• Read thirty pages of "Englar alheimsins" while listening to the audiobook. This is fantastic for listening comprehension because the author reads really slowly, but it's painfully slow when it comes to reading along. I tried various approaches and ended up mostly settling on reading the chapter first and *then* listening to it. This takes longer but I like being able to look up a few words without needing to pause the audio, as well as having some idea what I'm listening for before I start listening. We'll see how this evolves.

• And, finished a book...

4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Litli prinsinn" (91 pages)

After giving up on it once, I finally managed to make it through (after starting again). If I hadn't allowed myself to read each chapter in English after reading it in Icelandic, I would have missed a lot. I wonder whether the translator used particularly poetic language on purpose, or whether it's simply old-fashioned language (the Icelandic translation was first published in the '60s), but there seem to be places that are considerably more opaque than they need to be.

I decided to read this in one concerted effort because I got tired of having it on my side table, but when it comes to learning Icelandic specifically, I really wouldn't recommend it as a beginning book. Perhaps I'll come back to it in a year or two and see whether it's become easier to cope with.

[Elenia]

• And, finished a book...

4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "Litli prinsinn" (91 pages)

After giving up on it once, I finally managed to make it through (after starting again). If I hadn't allowed myself to read each chapter in English after reading it in Icelandic, I would have missed a lot. I wonder whether the translator used particularly poetic language on purpose, or whether it's simply old-fashioned language (the Icelandic translation was first published in the '60s), but there seem to be places that are considerably more opaque than they need to be.

I decided to read this in one concerted effort because I got tired of having it on my side table, but when it comes to learning Icelandic specifically, I really wouldn't recommend it as a beginning book. Perhaps I'll come back to it in a year or two and see whether it's become easier to cope with.

Well done on your extremely productive weekend. I love The Little Prince, but it's a far harder book than one would expect, I find. I've read it quite a few times in English and French, and each time I think I pick up on something I didn't get the first time. I think it would be a really good book to go back to in a year or so, as it's (relatively) short. You'll definitely notice an improvement

[Expugnator]

If I remember well, I used to follow your log at HTLAL as well. The fact there is a show about people who are learning the language only adds up to the Wanderlust!

[Soffía]

A couple of weeks ago I finished the second volume of Jón Gnarr's autobiography, which I really enjoyed. It combines a simple, accessible style with a growing-up story that isn't simple at all (it's a tale of his early teen years as a misunderstood punk in Reykjavik). Sadly the third and final volume in the series isn't out till next year; I'll be awaiting it eagerly.

Since then I've been finding difficulty sticking with one book. I've started and stalled on several, and am starting to think that maybe I need to give myself a bit of a break. Or they're too hard. Or both.

I've been poking at the Icelandic Online course, wondering whether I ought to go back to that for a change, for a grammar refresher and since I never finished it. Oddly, they assess the final section, IOL5, as being at CEFR level C1. I doubt it somehow.

Whenever I have pauses with my Icelandic I find myself pondering learning French, which is my next target language. Sometimes I still feel like I can decipher newspaper articles in French more easily than I can in Icelandic, despite the fact that I've never studied French. However I suspect it's a "grass is always greener" situation, and that I should probably establish myself a bit more in Icelandic first.

[Soffía]

Doing a bit of (very) beginning French with Duo Lingo. It's not a bad interface to keep you studying (unlike certain online Icelandic courses that I could mention...) but the manufactured sentences are very trying. I imagine I'll get some sort of basic knowledge out of it (though I don't believe I'm 20% of the way to anything meaningful, as the course claims I am), but it's not how I would have gone about putting together this sort of course.

As I'm having a bit of a struggle with my Icelandic books at the moment, I've gone back to RÚV. The evening news wasn't too bad last night, so clearly my Icelandic competence hasn't completely disappeared.

Also I started exploring the children's section of the site, which was clearly a good idea. I've just discovered Vísindavarp Ævars, which is very clearly narrated and sounds as though it will be interesting. There's a TV version too - Ævar vísindamaður! I like Ævar already. <3

[Iversen]

I rarely read fiction, but "Englar alheimsins" by Einar Már Guðmundsson is actually one of the few novels I have read in any language the last couple of years. However I prefer Lifandi Visindi...