Team Nordic [study and support group]

[Soffía]

Anyone interested in learning Faroese? Everyone seems to forget about it when they're discussing Nordic languages – and, unless I'm mistaken, there's no one on the forum who's done anything with Faroese.

Apparently the format of the Icelandic Online course is being exported to the Faroes. Looks like the first part is intended to be complete in 2017.

More details: http://english.hi.is/frettir/icelandic_ ... d_exported
And if you can read Faroese already: http://setur.fo/en/language-and-literat ... e-bjargni/

I had a very conflicted relationship with Icelandic Online, to say the least, but it did me a lot of good. It got me to the point that I could read native materials and that's about all you can ask.

Faroese is intriguing. The written language is fairly similar to Icelandic but the pronunciation is very different and there's very little mutual intelligibility. (Source: watched an Icelandic travel documentary about the Faroes. The host of the program ended up speaking to the locals in English.)

There's something cool about the idea of learning a language that's only spoken by 50,000 people. But no, it's not really worth it for me, not serious study anyway. I'm idly considering visiting the Faroes next summer and if I do go, I'll probably do a bit of casual study before that. Maybe I should wait to make my trip until after the course comes out...

[Expugnator]

I know one guy from the islands and I have a few textbooks plus a couple of novels. It's definitely on my list when I'm comfortable with the continental language, perhaps even higher than Icelandic, but becoming comfortable with Norwegian is a big issue now.

[Soffía]

I know one guy from the islands and I have a few textbooks plus a couple of novels. It's definitely on my list when I'm comfortable with the continental language, perhaps even higher than Icelandic, but becoming comfortable with Norwegian is a big issue now.

I seem to have collected some resources as well. I have a textbook called "Faroese: A Language Course for Beginners," plus a Halldor Laxness novel and a Harry Potter novel in translation. What more could a person need?

On balance I think I'm more interested in Norwegian or Danish than Faroese, but in terms of travel it's the other way around, so we'll see what wins out.

What attracts you to Faroese specifically?

[Expugnator]

I don't know, maybe the fact most of the people are attracted to Icelandic Really, it seems to have some more unique features. At least judging by the spelling of seems a little more exotic than Icelandic or Norwegian. And the idea it's spoken in small islands, that seems really cool, too.

[Soffía]

I don't know, maybe the fact most of the people are attracted to Icelandic Really, it seems to have some more unique features. At least judging by the spelling of seems a little more exotic than Icelandic or Norwegian. And the idea it's spoken in small islands, that seems really cool, too.

I get the impression that some of the orthographic uniqueness comes from the fact that it wasn't a written language till the mid nineteenth century, or at least hadn't been for a long time. Then they decided to write it in a way that was similar to Icelandic, but in actuality it doesn't line up all that well.

The glamour of obscurity I definitely get! For me the reason I won't pursue it further than dabbling is that there's not too much literature I'm excited about. That seems to be the final decider for me.

[Elenia]

Anyone interested in learning Faroese?

Well, I'm interested for the purposes of knitting tourism... but that's about it (Expug, you may well see me lurking around Estonian for the same reason!)

[Montmorency]

I happened to switch on the radio today, and someone was talking about dried cod. I pricked up my ears, thinking it might be about Norway. I learned rather a lot about "Stokkfisk" and "Klippfisk" on our cruise there a few months ago. However, it soon transpired that it was in fact about the Faroes.

It's all in English and it's mostly about the food there, but some people might be interested in the cultural aspects.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gcvx2
"Food, Fishing, and the Faroes".

[Olekander]

I'd absolutely love to learn Faroese! Exotic and obscure, beautiful and mysterious. Plus it's not even that far from Britain if I did want to go and live there to practise. Might even become a local celebrity haha!

[Montmorency]

Hello fellow Nordic lovers,

Might I just highlight the posting I just made in the general section about ARK no longer processing orders to people from non Norwegian addresses. I'm wondering if all the Norwegian booksellers will adopt the same policy, and what the reason for it could be. (Surely not because of Brexit already?? Anyway, it doesn't only apply to the UK as far as I can see).

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3101

Thanks for any thoughts / ideas about what is going on. (Either here or in that thread linked above).

[andrepleite]

There's a new textbook on the market for those who want to learn faroese.

http://www.local.fo/beginners-book-faroese-language/

Looks like you can order it here for 150 Dansk Kronor (without shipping):

http://bms.fo/ShopItem/90022/8078


Too sad that I do not allow myself to start with Faroese this year. (what a struggle)