# I passed my exam! In Icelandic! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 21, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687 "2011-11-21T21:30:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/1 "2011-11-21T21:30:19Z")
It won’t change my life in any way whatsoever. It doesn’t give me a qualification that will be of any use. The subject is a hobby I will never make a living from, nor would I want to. Most of my fellow students were kids. The thing is, if I had done this course in my first or second language it would have been no challenge whatsoever, and there would have been no pride in the achievement. Common sense and stuff I learned as a child would have got me through the exam without revising for it. But passing an exam in my fourth language, second best in my class when my course mates are all native speakers? Hell, I’m proud of myself. I don’t speak it enough, because my vocabulary and grammar make me sound like a three year old, so I’ve mostly been getting by in other languages. This is a bit of a confidence boost, though, and I will try to stop worrying and start speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/2 "2011-11-21T22:00:53Z")
Huzzah! ---
**Author:** ![Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acorns.but_not_Bacon)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/3 "2011-11-21T22:39:37Z")
Congratulations! It means more than you say. You can communicate much better with many more people, a very valuable skill. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/4 "2011-11-21T22:58:53Z")
Congratulations! Where are you studying Icelandic? Háskólí Íslands, one of the American universities that offers it, or elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/5 "2011-11-21T23:30:33Z")
Comngratulations! You can carry your battle axe with pride. ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/6 "2011-11-21T23:41:41Z")
I’m living and working in Iceland at the moment. My exam was actually the theory part of an equestrian course - in Icelandic, which turns out to be a good way of improving your language skills too. There are language courses locally for foreigners, which are fun but you mostly end up chatting to other foreigners in English. I think I’ve learned more through Háskóli Íslands’ online courses. I also had a private tutor when I first arrived. The frustrating thing is being able to understand very well but not being able to express yourself properly, and contributing in a group conversation is a non-starter. And the grammar is off-putting. For instance, there are 13 different declensions for something as simple as the number “one”, including the plural forms (for things like “one pair of socks”). ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/7 "2011-11-21T23:43:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Comngratulations! You can carry your battle axe with pride. When they present me with my battle axe, I’ll know I’ve made it 😃 ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/8 "2011-11-22T00:58:13Z")
I don’t believe you. Because, you see, I visited Iceland in August and I can say that, unequivocally and without exception, the Icelandic language is universally unpronounceable. I mean, [completely unpronounceable](http://www.flickr.com/photos/53157520@N07/6115180556/in/set-72157627596036834). Seriously, though, congratulations, that’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/9 "2011-11-22T00:59:32Z")
> [@toodlepip](#): > > I’m living and working in Iceland at the moment. My exam was actually the theory part of an equestrian course - in Icelandic, which turns out to be a good way of improving your language skills too. There are language courses locally for foreigners, which are fun but you mostly end up chatting to other foreigners in English. I think I’ve learned more through Háskóli Íslands’ online courses. I also had a private tutor when I first arrived. > > The frustrating thing is being able to understand very well but not being able to express yourself properly, and contributing in a group conversation is a non-starter. And the grammar is off-putting. For instance, there are 13 different declensions for something as simple as the number “one”, including the plural forms (for things like “one pair of socks”). And how! I grew up as the child of an Icelandic expatriate, and my Icelandic has gotten fuzzy at best. I can tell you the right word for certain contexts, but I’d be pretty screwed if I had to get around with no English speaking anywhere. Interestingly enough, I did a week-long horseback riding camp, where I took all the testing in Icelandic; I did pretty well, but not spectacularly, as I wasn’t familiar with horse anatomy in English, let alone Icelandic. Oh, if you’re living in Reykjavík and enjoy the club scene, check out FKNHNDSM; they regularly play Kaffíbarinn and one of them is the SO of one of my childhood besties. This assumes that you’re of an age and interest for the tiny crowded clubs and flamboyant nightlife in Iceland. ETA: **interface2x** , those are pretty easy. Just learn to talk like you’ve got a bunch of pebbles in your mouth and you’ve had three or four shots of whisky. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/10 "2011-11-22T01:07:13Z")
> [@Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](#): > > Congratulations! It means more than you say. You can communicate much better with many more people, a very valuable skill. Well, not _that_ many more people, but still! It’s totally awesome. I’ve always wanted to learn a Nordic language myself but have never quite gotten around to it. I did, however, take an undergraduate linguistics seminar in which Old Norse was the subject language, so I do know a little bit about it and Icelandic. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/11 "2011-11-22T01:08:47Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > Congratulations! > > Where are you studying Icelandic? Háskólí Íslands, one of the American universities that offers it, or elsewhere? I don’t believe the OP is American, from the use of _revising_ to mean “review”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/12 "2011-11-22T01:33:35Z")
Do you find that knowing some Icelandic makes it easier to read Old English? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/13 "2011-11-22T01:51:55Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > ETA: **interface2x** , those are pretty easy. Just learn to talk like you’ve got a bunch of pebbles in your mouth and you’ve had three or four shots of whisky. 😉 Like you are from Denmark? GD&R ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/14 "2011-11-22T11:33:44Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Do you find that knowing some Icelandic makes it easier to read Old English? I’ve got the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf (bilingual edition), and I never had that much trouble parsing the OE text because a lot of the words looked either like Icelandic or like a cross between English and Icelandic. However, at the time I was reading it, I had also taken two years of high school French, two years of high school German, and three semesters of university German, so that may skew results. 🙂 > [@aruvqan](#): > > Like you are from Denmark? > > GD&R LOL. My last encounter with a family of Danes was at a school I worked for. They start speaking to each other about where to meet at the end of the day and their groceries [in Danish], and all I can think about while setting up their accounts is how funny they sounded to me while still being relatively intelligible. I didn’t get as far as “you guys speak some funny Icelandic”, but I sure thought it, having not heard Danish for about 10 years at that point. ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/15 "2011-11-22T13:08:07Z")
> [@nashiitashii](#): > > …Oh, if you’re living in Reykjavík and enjoy the club scene, check out FKNHNDSM; they regularly play Kaffíbarinn and one of them is the SO of one of my childhood besties. This assumes that you’re of an age and interest for the tiny crowded clubs and flamboyant nightlife in Iceland. Thanks for the tip, although I am based in Akureyri, and don’t make the trip to Reykjavik very often. The nightlife here is quite impressive for a small town, it seems everyone in Iceland plays in a band of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/16 "2011-11-22T13:13:39Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I don’t believe the OP is American, from the use of _revising_ to mean “review”. Indeed. I’m Norwegian, but I’ve spent most of my adult life in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acorns.but_not_Bacon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-passed-my-exam-in-icelandic/603687/17 "2011-11-22T14:42:52Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Well, not _that_ many more people, but still! Oh. Ok. Yay a few more people! 😃