Customer Reviews

Colloquial Icelandic: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

...if you're serious about learning Icelandic, or at least being able to comprehend it to some small degree. There are so few Icelandic study aids available to the autodidact that _anything_ is useful -- but this one is not only useful, it's invaluable, if only because it's the only known audio/text learning guide to the language that I know of.

But this doesn't get high marks purely by default. It's actually a fairly compact little book with extensive dialogue and grammar exercises that the student will find useful. The tape dialogues are invaluable for learning pronunciation of words and individual phonemes. The latter is especially important, as there are many counterintuitive bits to Icelandic pronounciation which, if not done properly, can make one sound like a total fool when attempting to speak. The dialogues are useful as well, in that they illustrate what seems to be an unfortunate tendency on the part of Icelanders to completely gloss/glide over certain words in conversation.

At the risk of sounding like the back cover of a Berlitz language guide, with only two lessons in this book I was able to understand written Icelandic much better than before, and was even able to pick words out of conversations here and there. (Be warned that Icelanders seem to have a tendency toward speaking _very_ fast; thus, repeated attention to the dialogues will be useful.) Most importantly, I was able to function in Iceland without having to rely totally on English. While most Icelanders speak English to some degree, anyone planning to do any amount of exploration in the countryside had better know some Icelandic, if only to be warned of perils such as driving offroad into geothermal areas.

And it always helps to exchange pleasantries in your host country's native tongue.

I've been to Iceland a couple of times and been ashamed to find that the language is so alien that barely a single word of it filters through. I'm going again soon and I've decided I want to at least understand a little of what I hear and read, even though "talarðu ensku?" (do you speak English) is a question you hardly need ask in Iceland. Learning a little of the language is all part of the fun!

Having tried and discarded the impenetrable "Teach Yourself" book, I came across this, and find it much more approachable.

I highly recommend getting the tape/CD that goes with this book. It really helps you understand how words sound when they are strung together in phrases and sentences. And it helps you get a handle on the subtleties of pronunciation. Without the tape/CD, it would be much less enjoyable.

Thankfully, the book starts out very simply, with greetings, pleasantries, "my name is" etc. The progression is well judged, so you don't quickly feel out of your depth, and it's satisfying to realise that the things you learn early in the book make sense later on. There are exercises to do, here and there, if you want.

I'd definitely recommend this to beginners who are more interested in starting to understand day to day Icelandic than studying Icelandic grammar. It doesn't give you lists of conjugations and declensions to learn, but gradually and gently introduces new elements of the language so that you don't feel overwhelmed, and genuinely feels like an aid rather than a hindrance.

A warning though: if you're not quite familiar with ENGLISH grammar, you'll reach a point in even this book that could be a stumbling block. Make sure you at least know the difference between the direct and indirect object before you get to the chapter about declensions!

The Icelandic language has a complex morphology that requires some dedicated study in order to master. And this book does a decent job of introducing elements of the language through engaging topics about daily life.

The two CD recordings, however, have some disappointing quirks:

1. The publishers have added fairly noisy sound effects of background commotion to the CD recordings such as those that you would find in moving airplanes, fuzzy telephone lines, and other crowded public places; the logic most likely being that we sometimes encounter background noises when we are trying to communicate, so why not make us learn the pronunciation with this same kind of interference. The result is that the sounds of Icelandic are presented in a muffled and indistinct way on the CD. It would be more logical to use the recordings to present the sounds of the language in the purest way possible during the learning phase so that the listener might stand a chance of acquiring them. I cannot imagine a classroom teacher bringing in recorded sound effects to play during class time. We have enough practice in listening to background noises in real life without having them manufactured and thrown at us during our learning phase of a language.

2. There is a lot of English on the CD recordings. First of all, every Icelandic conversation has a lengthy, detailed presentation of the setting in English. Second, the Icelandic conversations are often interrupted with bits of advice such as "Now see whether you can understand the name of the company that the speaker will mention next" or "Try to understand the numbers in the next sentence." This kind of information could easily be included in the textbook or in an accompanying flyer. There is no way of blocking this interference; and after multiple listenings, when a listener might like to hear only the spoken Icelandic, the listener is forced to hear the presentations and the interruptions repeatedly.

3. It should also be noted that the Icelandic phonemes are presented once, and the dialogues are presented at a normal rate of speech by the speakers. This is probably neither good nor bad, but if you prefer to listen to slower-paced Icelandic while learning the sounds, the recordings will disappoint you.

With the background noises, the introductions, and the interruptions removed, the recordings could be a satisfactory adjunct to the textbook.

This new book on Icelandic is a very well structured book that will enable the serious learner to communicate quite confidently in Icelandic. For a long time now, there has been a shortage of good books for people wanting to learn the language; "Teach Yourself Icelandic" is unsatisfactory and Linguaphones outdated version is a catastrophy. This book, on the other hand, is up-to-date and easy to use. In each chapter new vocabulary and aspects of grammar are introduced in a very logic way, gradually building up your language-skills from the beginning.

Since my grandmother speaks a very archaic dialect of Swedish, I found this book extremly easy - 75% of the vocabulary and most of the grammar was already familiar to me. If you don't have that kind of background, be prepared for a rather hard language to learn; the grammar is admittingly a bit complicated. On the other hand, all aspects of grammar are dealt with very thoroughly and they shouldn't present any major problems.

Icelandic is a very interesting language which have remained remarkably true to the language spoken by the Vikings. By learning Icelandic you will not only be able to cope in Iceland, you will also understand the more than 1000 years old nordic sagas in their original form.

...of course, there isn't really anything else out there, especially with tapes. The book is very well-organized -- a necessity since Icelandic grammar is quite difficult. I do agree that the tapes (there are only two) should have a lot more Icelandic on them, since it is not easy to listen to the language on the Internet and have a clue as to what they are saying. Although the book, if used thoroughly, will give you a great start, there is no intermediate course in existence as far as I know, and so don't expect to learn the (spoken) language al that well from just this course.

Just to clarify, I ordered this course and the package I received included both CD's and tapes (2 of each). This is one of the best courses I've seen on learning Icelandic.

There is much to like in this book's organization and well-paced presentation. The only nit I have to pick concerns certain difficulties I have encountered with the tapes. The dialogues are read at normal conversational speed, and these readings reflect the elisions and other normal distortions of the spoken language. I like to listen to a new dialogue over and over again until I begin to 'hear' the meaning through the words with little or no effort; however, this becomes rather difficult when, as happens now and then, the amount of elision is so extreme that entire words seem to drop by the wayside. This begins to be a problem already in the first chapter (e.g. in "og hvað ætlar þú að gera núna" I fail to hear "ætlar" at all after countless attempts). A welcome addition to the book would be a discussion of the changes that are typical of connected speech. One normally encounters this sort of discussion when learning Italian, for instance. It makes life easier for the student, as it is much easier to hear what one knows to listen for. Without such perceptual guidance it is also extremely difficult to imitate faithfully the rush of sounds one has just heard. Perhaps it would also help to have at least the first several dialogues read in more than one fashion, with a more deliberate delivery followed by one at normal speed (or vice versa).

It's fun to learn Icelandic, because of its multifunctionality: even if the opening of the present Icelandic society to you may seem insignificant (with 290,000 speakers a very small language), you can also learn it for reading the medieval sripts of the Saga's and Edda's in their original form. And if you just enjoy learning languages, Icelandic may just be the step-up to Latin and Greek, also languages with plentiful inflections.
This book is very very cool for self-studying Icelandic, whatever your reason to learn this most beautiful language. The book is divided in 16 lessons, gradually introducing you to new aspects of language, not found in English. The environment is amazingly fun, Daisy Neijmann did an honourable job, finding press-cuttings and other helpful items to have you "playing" with the language, when doing exercises (with full key!). There are also Icelandic texts here and there, which you can translate, if you want, because the correct translation is given in the back. The texts and exercises almost always have something to with Iceland.
Icelandic is hard to learn, especially when you are not familiar to terms like "subject", "dative" and "article". Lucky for you, Daisy has included a full list with all those terms, so you'll be brushing up your English as well!
The separately sold cd set, is not essential, but makes the pronunciation easier and with it, you can create a moment of being totally snow-bound by the Icelandic language, which, above all, is a good thing to become more or less fluent!
Buy this, and you can look forward to knowing a fairly high amount of Icelandic, and if worked consequently and eager, already in 3 months!

This book does a pretty good job of introducing a rather difficult language---my wife and I moved to Iceland a year ago and we have been using this book as part of our learning process. No textbook can make one master a language, of course, but this is a reasonable overview of how teo introduce yourself, order food, and pick out some items from the newpaper. However, I must second the suggestion that the book needs a thorough explanation of elisions----the connection of sounds typical in everyday speech. English speakers do this also; terminal "t" often becomes a "d", as in "....what are we doing now?" Anyway, the peculiarities of daily Icelandic pronunciation deserve a at least a mention, and not least because the excellent native speakers on the CD make no bones about going slowly for the foreigners.
Secondly, some reviewers (and Daisy Neijmann herself) have mentioned that once you have mastered (!) Icelandic, you can "appreciate the sagas in their original form." That is rather hyperbolic; not many contemporary Icelanders can understand the original texts of the sagas. The ancient language in which, for example, Snorri Sturluson (author of Egils saga) spoke and wrote,was much harder and crisper, and since then many consonant sounds have softened; i.e. terminal "k" is now written and sounded as terminal "g"; the names "Haraldr" and "Eírikr" and now rendered both in speech and writing with and additional vowel----Haraldur and Eírikur. My point is that the suggestion that a non-native speaker upon completing his study of Colloquial Icelandic can strait proceed to the original saga texts is rather far-fetched. Icelanders today often read a modern translation of them, in the same way that it is quite difficult to understand the original Chaucer.
Those two points aside, this a fine book, and helpful for anyone who plans for a stay in Iceland. If you're just going to Reykjavík for a party, don't bother.

I was getting ready to give a speech in Iceland and had no idea what the language sounded like. I tried several CD-based language courses, but none of them taught you more than just colors and common names. This CD course was EXCELLENT! I tested my Icelandic on the phone before I left and my hosts in Iceland were astounded at my pronounciation and knowledge of the language.
The lessons seemed strange at first because there is no direct translation of what you are saying. If you stick with it long enough to get past chapter 6, you'll be saying things like a native AND you will be understood!