I’ve been—very slowly—learning Icelandic for the bulk of 2018. Today, I can recall a fair amount of vocabulary, pick out lots of basic words from Icelandic podcasts/radio/film, understand some of what I read in (verrry beginner level) Icelandic children’s books, and have some basic conversation exchanges. (Although, the conversation exchanges I can have are quite limited; it always feels like I’m following a script and simply recalling conversation patterns from memorization—I know, I know…I have to start somewhere.)

For the amount of months that have passed since I downloaded my first Icelandic app (shoutout to Mango Languages!), it feels like I should be much further along than I am. However, I’m not sure what I envisioned that to look like by this point of my Icelandic language learning adventure. 🙂

So here I am—months into trying to figure out this very old, very difficult language that, for whatever reason, I love so much—with no concrete benchmark goals for myself ever set. I went from practicing Icelandic every day via morning vocab practice, audio lessons in the car, and reading practice at night to…practicing vocab when I can. My Pimsleur-filled commute has slowly shifted to all things political news podcasts (I live in the U.S., so you can guess where my head’s been at), and I find myself practicing speaking Icelandic less and less. Yikes!

So how do we make room for the things we deeply value in the midst of the regular chaos of life?

I always seem to be a bit more intentional about things when I write it out, so why not blog about learning one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers? My hope is that this little blog will serve two purposes:

1. Help me solidify my Icelandic lesson learnings by writing down my “aha moments” along the way. (Fingers crossed that I even find a bit of encouragement over the weeks/months to see my own growth.)
2. Encourage other aspiring Icelandic language learners. (I remember trying to find online resources that listed a bunch of Icelandic workbooks, apps, etc. in one place, and while that surely exists, I never found much that was as comprehensive as I was looking for. I have spent so. much. time. researching all of the possible Icelandic language learning resources accessible to me here in the U.S., and I’ll certainly share everything I’ve found along the way here.)

As I write this, there’s about one quarter left in 2018. I don’t have a firm expectation for where I’ll be in my language learning adventure by the end of the year, but I do have some Icelandic milestones I hope to hit.

So with that, here I go…

Heyrumst,

Sarah