Icelandic Language Cliché

Our destination lecturer repeated something I've heard time and again: that the Icelandic language is extremely hard to learn.

I'm not sure who first started this rumor, but I beg to differ.

I'm not saying Icelandic is easy, but look at these signs I saw during our visit.

If you take a moment to haphazardly sound out the Icelandic words, you can often hear the English equivalent: “Opin" for "open," "snoj," for "snow," "blessud" for "blessed," and "saltlakkris" for "salt licorice."

I've been exposed to German and Dutch, so that helps, but still: Is it really that hard to tell this is a sign for "Christian's bakery"? (At the time, the smell of fresh pastries wafting through the air, really drove it home.)

Other phrases are not as apparent, but make sense in context. After my stroll through Isafjordur's historic cemetery, I realized that "Her hvelir," means "here lies" even though it doesn't quite sound the same.

So of all the languages I've been exposed to while traveling, I would definitely NOT describe Icelandic as the hardest to understand.

Personally, I find Korean much harder!Read more