"I recorded myself speaking Icelandic and I found myself sounding like a Finnish man trying to speak Swedish." LOL we've all been that Finnish guy trying to speak Swedish at some point in life.
I am also learning icelandic! I searched all over my city to find some kind of a guide book or a vocabulary and finally found one that has been laying there since 2008 and was the only edition available (got -45% off because of it)😂 Greetings from Latvia 🇱🇻
"You can do it!" is the automatic response that UA-cam thought I should reply with. Well, in this situation when you don't have a lot of distractions, it's easier to focus, but I do feel like I could have spend way more time with it. A man without a plan, but a mission, ha ha.
TheSwedishLad I feel like you can always think you could’ve done more, though. Like in exams I often think I might have done better if I spent an extra 10 minutes revising rather than watching UA-cam, even if I’ve studied hard! It’s hard to know what the optimum amount is sometimes for things like this!
I'd love for you to do an Old Norse learning challenge! Use the best of your Swedish-Norwegian-Danish-Icelandic skills and sound like a true viking! :D
"What you see is not how you say.." :D That's Swedish too, and, I think pretty much every other language, apart from Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian :D
Icelandic phonetics are scarily close to Finnish though. The words are for the most part different of course, but the way it sounds is close enough that as a Finn if I wasn't paying attention and someone was speaking it on the street like 20 meters away I could honestly think they're talking Finnish. :p I think it might be because Icelandic is closer to Old Norse than the Scandinavian languages, and Finnish has been heavily influenced by older forms of Germanic languages, including Old Norse and Old Swedish
@@ivomoreira42 These languages are Serbo-Croatian or Macedonian, Ugro-Finnic languages, Latvian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian (some of them partially, because they e.g. have 2 letters or group of letters (i,y or h, ch) for 1 sound). And I can recommend Esperanto with only 16 rules and no exceptions.
Great job! Heel goed! (dutch, not that difficult ;) About 2 years ago (stuck at the Reykjavik airport on my way to Canada), I bought an Icelandic grammar and workbook to see if it was really that hard. Since I am working with the native languages of the Americas (hence my destination), I didn't think it was that difficult. Compared to other Germanic languages, sure... but compared to, let's say, Mohawk (one of my working languages, only a few thousand speakers) with its +/- 86 different personal pronoun forms (I, we 2 excluding you, we excluding you, we 2 including you, we including you, I versus you, we 2 versus you, we versus you, you versus me..... etc...etc... etc... ), it wasn't too bad at all :) The most difficult thing however came the next day, when I finally decided to convert the Icelandic króna price I had paid to euros!!! (never was a book more expensive.. :))
My grandmother was the last of the Norwegian speakers in my family when they came over to America and I wish I would've learned something from her as I want to speak in any of those languages. This gives me motivation
It was interesting because some of the words were quite similar to english, like I could vaguely work out what they meant, e.g two brothers and little brother.
Gott kvöld means good evening, good night is goða nótt The thing they were saying is that if you want to say “have a good evening” to one person then you say eigðu gott kvöld, but if there are more then 2 persons you say : eigið gott kvöld It’s just the conjugaison of the verb
@@JackHiper tell my Swedish gf that. I'm terrible at language other than English. I've tried numerous apps for learning Swedish... Then she constantly tells me that it's wrong 😂😂😂 So I've given up.. Lol
@@erickhanley1571 Its hard to crack the code maybe of your first second language. Then the third becomes much easier. I got somewhere close to fluent in Swedish quickly after absolutely powering through German with a huge amount of effort. Swedish is easier than German but the process of learning how to learn is in my opinion the biggest part of my success. That and really wanting it. I know now in retrospect learning German was more of job or chore. I really really enjoyed learning to speak swedish. A dumb thing that also helped I think was spending 30 minutes or so at a time just listening to Swedish being spoken and not really trying to actively learn. I did this with Alex and Siggie videos on youtube that are all in Swedish. Just listening to native speakers use a language teaches you the melody or prosody of the language without you knowing that you are learning.
Another thing I did when learning swedish was to watch a simple movie, pick one character, and always try to say that persons lines back in Swedish while the movie is playing. Stopping the movie sometimes but normally just letting it run and actively trying to speak those lines. I always used movies I had watched several times before and enjoyed. You have a Swede to help you but maybe she just likes you the way you are and does not think you need to speak her language. For me I had a few people at my company I could ask questions on the phone sometimes for help when I got really confused.
I think learning Icelandic is a wonderful idea cause it is kind of the equivalent of Latin or Ancient Greek for the North Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Faroese. I think learning Icelandic is not without interest for an English speaker either.
I must say, I'm in a weird situation where my father is Icelandic but I don't know Icelandic. Men jag kan skriva och prata på svenska eftersom jag bodde och studerade i Österbotten i över 6 år. Just randomly stumbled upon this video, so funny that I know English and Swedish but not the language my father speaks, so I can fully relate to your outlook on the language. 😅 Hoping to someday learn Icelandic.
I noticed from studying Icelandic that they too, much like Mexican Spanish, run words into each other and cut off phonemes when they have similar sounds.
Hej, Martin! Grattis för din Islenska! I am from Brazil and the only two countries I already visit by now are Sweden (2016) and Iceland (2018). I am very in love with both countries and I am trying to learn both languages even those are so different than Portuguese. That's why I know you are doing good in Icelandic. Best regards from Brazil!
I'm trying to learn some German, but I haven't found a single course that is decently organised so I can make a proggression as I learn. Most of them are about basic phrases and random vocabulary. I want to speak the language; not just memorise phrases and random words that I won't be able to put into a sentence properly. Really frustrating.
I hear you. I don't want to learn how to order dinner or talk about luggage, I want to learn how to put sentences together once I've learned the words. The big thing with German is learning the noun-classes (a.k.a. "grammatical genders") and the 4 noun cases. Use Anki and put together a set of flash cards for the nouns. Learn the "gender" with the meaning of the noun. BTW: I think the *stupidest* thing ever is calling noun-classes, "genders," because that's *not* what they are! In fact, it's a mistranslation of the Latin grammatical term, "genus." "Genus" actually meant something more like category, group, and yes, gender. But calling the noun-categories in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Icelandic, Russian, etc. etc. … calling them "genders" implies that in German, spoons have a penis and forks have a vagina. Yes, the word for spoon (der Löffel) is in the same noun-category as the word for man, and the word for fork (die Gabel) is in the same noun-category as the word for woman. The words for man and woman have to go *someplace*, but that doesn't make them the most important words in that category. You could just add easily make German's 3 noun classes, "dog," "cat," and "horse," instead of, "masculine," "feminine," and "neuter." Anyway, start with nouns and their categories ("genders").
Have you tried watching German movies? I currently use VPN to watch shows on Netflix in my target language. Finding a tandem partner online can also be helpful.
Så coolt. Vad använde du dig av för att lära. Har samma känsla för språket som du. Det är svenska, norska och random alien. 😁 Så jävla bra du gjorde ifrån dig. Skitbra jobbat på sju dagar.
This was awesome! Why I am just seeing it now, I have no idea. The “upside” of being at home so much more, discovering new things and challenging oneself. For example, how I found your channel to improve my Swedish. Also I have been teaching myself some crafts, such as knitting and jewellery making. Never stop learning!
I'm an American who's been trying to learn German for a few years, and have been wanting to learn Icelandic for 5 years, and finally started. Its interesting, there are weird similarities to English and German, and from what I know of Old English ( Pre Norman), there's even more similarities
Hi I’m German and English has also it’s origins from Germanic language. People came from Angeln and Sachsen and settled in England after the romans were gone. Then the Vikings came to England and also influence the language. It’s very interesting.
@@Schauerland It definitely is! My stepmother is actually from Mainz, which used to be an old Roman fort, and what I understand to her, as a result, in some parts of Germany that were under Roman Occupation, the accent developed differently as well! Something that you might find interesting is the Great Vowel Shift that occurred between 1400 and 1700, it's considered the period when English started straying from its Germanic roots, and German started forming into what is considered more modern German! (Also, as a sidenote, my last name is Latin, often associated with Spain and Latin America, but I get it from ancestors who came to the U.S. from Oppau, which is why I am so interested in Roman influence in Germany)
I'm sure you did far better than many could with Icelandic after 7 seven days Martin! I tried learning about 5 years ago, having already learnt Swedish for 4-5 years, but it's so much different with Icelandic having cases and more emphasis on grammatical gender. I can say however, that I am working on Polish too, ever since I met my girlfriend nearly 3 years ago. After that, I think Icelandic might seem more friendly to me xD
Hebrew and Arabic has almost same content but the grammar is very different! Water in Arabic is maan and in hebrew is maim. Sun - Shams (Arabic) Shemesh (hebrew).
Haha I'm also tempted to do the same thing. Once you learn one germanic language, it helps a lot in understanding the others. I feel at the very least learning to understand the entire Nordic branch is a sort of reasonable goal. 😂 Jeg studerer norsk nå, så jeg forstår også litt dansk i skrivingen og også svensk hvis jeg prøver mye..
As I was born and raised in the US and know little to nothing of the Scandinavian languages, Should I start with one first? I would like to learn most or all including Old Norse.
Nice video, I'm planning on learning Icelandic too. I can understand northern Norwegian dialects that are quite similar so I probably have an advantage
Americans, in particular, should pay attention to this video's message. It is OK to make mistakes when learning something new - the only thing that matters is that you try ... and keep trying. [If you're about to post a Yoda-inspired response to this ... grow up ;p] EDIT: There is a language class near me that has a number of tables, one person sat at each table, and a flag of the country they speak the language of. You pick a table, sit down and they will introduce themselves in their own language. That's it ... the rest of the conversation is then a series of back and forth where you try to understand what they are saying, and reply or ask them a question ... but they will ONLY speak in their own language. If you cannot converse, they will begin making statements, maybe about the weather outside, through the window; about their clothing, about the table or flag, about their body (hair, eyes, etc) or your body .. and you begin to pick up small bits of conversation/vocabulary. The first visit is likely to cause anxiety, lol, but on subsequent visits you will begin to use the phrases they used, but use them first .. "how are you", "it's a nice day today", "i like your shirt", and you then learn what they say in response to that and to pick up on things they change ... e.g from "I am good" to "I am tired" etc. After a few visits you will be sitting down and having a 5-10 minute conversation with them, in their own language, without even thinking. Of course, once you start to get the hang of the language, pronunciation, etc, you can spend time at home learning new words/phrases. This is called "immersion learning" and it is the fastest way to learn a new language ... because you have no choice but to do so.
Next challenge: Try to learn Polish in one month. There are lockers in the Malmö Central station which you can use in Polish (and also in Swedish, English, German and French).
Hello, I am very interested in learning Icelandic, but I don't know how to go with it. I would be grateful if a learner of Icelandic could tell me their study plan, the resources they are using... Thank you.
Interesting why Icelandic language is going on other way away from the scandinavian languages, norwegian, danish and Swedish are most closing but Finnish is another family language.
Hey, great video! Very impressive! I want to learn Icelandic, I understand a little bit of Norwegian(bokmål). As a Swedish speaker, do you think I should learn more Norwegien first to help me to learn Icelandic? Or does it not help me? I am an English speaker
I don't have the best insight for you as I'm also an English speaker learning Norwegian, but I can say that when I've dabbled in Icelandic, my Norwegian knowledge greatly helped in understanding it. Especially if you know a bit about the various dialects spoken in Norway, and not just bokmål. Norwegian is definitely a more approachable language for English speakers than Icelandic. I kind of wonder if you weren't already learning it, if there would be anything to the strategy of choosing to learn an easier language from a family before tackling the one you really want to study, or if that just causes more confusion.
I applied to an icelandic course in University back in February and I still have problems even with the basic sentences 😂 by the way I saw your story on instagram and "Eg a Lif" is the reason why I decided to give icelandic a try😁
I have been trying to learn Icelandic myself for the past two months, but stuck with where to start. How did you start tackling this language? was just a a lot of vocabulary and grammar throughout the whole process? Any suggestions would be helpful! thank you!!
I felt starting with the basic verbs, the pronouns and then vocabulary (nouns) was a good way to go. Then you have the bone structure to add tissue to. Being Swedish there are a few smaller similarities which obviously helped me, as opposed to have gone in froma. totally different language tree.
I lived in Iceland for a couple of years before it became hip (late 90s). I worked hard on a couple of major sounds with my office translator. You got the ö way better than I can. but you aren't so good on the various "L" (and LL - includes a click out of the side of your mouth sounds). I remember one time with Icelandic friends and they said Icelandic is pronounced exactly as it is spelled and I got a good laugh exactly pronouncing Icelandic phrases exactly as they are spelled - like goðan dagin (Go' die). Hvað er Þessi (Qwa airh (even the Þessi is dropped).
Wow, man, you did it and did it well. Now try !Xóõ, haha. Just kidding. I have to say I didn't knew that Icelandic was so close to Swedish. Comparing with Romance languages, I would say that Portuguese, Spanish and French are like Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, respectively. Icelandic is Romanian, that distant cousin with a kind of idiolect.
@@Neophema Yes, they are. But, as I said, "it's like", not "the same". So I did a comparison, not a statement. Of course the three North Germanic languages cited above are much closer than the Romance ones. As a matter of fact, for a native Portuguese speaker, Spanish is easy-peasy; for a native Spanish Speaker, a lot more troubled time understanding Portuguese. On the other hand, both of them has problems when it comes to French, just like -- as far as I know -- it's a little bit more difficult for Norwegians and Swedes to understand Danish because of the lots of vowel sounds, throaty pronunciation etc. That's what I meant...
I watched Icelandic shows and short films with subtitles, used a language app and studied some of the basic verbs and nouns and built it out with vocabulary. A few words here and there are quite like Swedish but it's a treacherous path to fill in the gaps. I also spent many hours of every day with this during that week and the pressure of having to speak to an unknown native was a good motivating factor. Good fun and I am surprised how well the conversation went..
Martin, if you're going to continue learning Icelandic there's one word I can help you with : já is pronounced like yow to rhyme with cow . Nei eða já was the Icelandic entry in Eurovision 1992 ua-cam.com/video/ELSuY9riUUY/v-deo.html . Have a good day . :)
Im german and im just learning some islandic :) there are also many words that are or sound like in German. Some words we don’t say every day and some words we only use in a “slang” way. And yea it’s very hard if the spelled word sound completely different than it’s written. That drives me insane 😂
Frekar nálægt talhætti okkar, þú vannst þetta verk vel passar samt betur en þú gerðir gott starf, bein þýðing úr "you did a good job" passar ekki alveg en þetta er samt helvíti fín þýðing annars. Tók eftir því að þú lést stórann staf í Kanada og lítinn staf í íslensku sem er hárrétt! 8.5/10
The "Þ , þ" letter has a sound very similar to the "TH" in the word "Thought" (a hard sounding "TH") The "Ð , ð" letter has a sound very similar to the "TH" in the word "This" (a soft sounding "TH") You weren't far off with the F or PH sounds you made but the other two are more accurate in pronounciation, and the name "Svíþjóð" is actually a VERY good word to practice those sounds as it incorporates them both.
@Əbu Zörğhanürr At-Türkməni same sounds yes but they have a different harshness to them. Icelandic is my native language and I have helped many people get those sounds right. The harder to teach pronounciations are the different ways we use LL and GG sounds depending on what other letters are around them.
The distinction between þ and ð is linguistically called "unvoiced" and "voiced". They're nearly the same sound, but have a single difference between them: one is said with the vocal chords "turned off" and the other is said with the vocal cords on. 'p' & 'b'; 't' & 'd'; 'k' & 'g'; 'f' & 'v'; 'þ' & 'ð'; 's' & 'z' - they're all unvoiced/voiced pairs.
Maybe I will to make youtube video about top facts about the languages BUT dont know exact. Do you have someone idea for me so dont hesistate write to me in comment!
In my very short experience, it really comes down to the basic necessary verbs and then building a vocabulary. I understood basically everything he said because of context. Like "lengi laera islensku", which I could figure out from just those three words in an otherwise much longer sentence. Sure, I've lived in Norway and I grew up close to Denmark, so that might have given me a little edge.
Being from Western Norway myself (it is even closer on paper, as both are old West Norse variants of Norse), it is really strange to listen to icelandic, basically what you said, it is in a way like listening to your own language, but at the same time, so very different. But I felt I could always understand what the guy you were talking to said. But you did great though. You could easily learn icelandic pretty well if you kept it up for a few years!
"I recorded myself speaking Icelandic and I found myself sounding like a Finnish man trying to speak Swedish." LOL we've all been that Finnish guy trying to speak Swedish at some point in life.
Having a finnish mother in law i get to hear this quite often. ^_^
🤣🤣🤣
Icelandic is a beautiful language!
I am also learning icelandic!
I searched all over my city to find some kind of a guide book or a vocabulary and finally found one that has been laying there since 2008 and was the only edition available (got -45% off because of it)😂
Greetings from Latvia 🇱🇻
Sveiki!
Tere!
You did great! I’m learning Swedish at the moment, but you encouraged me to take up Icelandic afterwards😉Best greetings from Poland!
An intense week, but I did learn quite a lot in that time.
@@TheSwedishLad Do icelanders learn any other Nordic Language(s) Norwegian, Swedish, Danish?
I haven't seen this channel is who knows how long. I'm so happy to see you still making great videos, even during COVID.
This is so cool! I wish I had the discipline to sit down and learn a language like that from scratch in just one week!! 🤯
"You can do it!" is the automatic response that UA-cam thought I should reply with.
Well, in this situation when you don't have a lot of distractions, it's easier to focus, but I do feel like I could have spend way more time with it. A man without a plan, but a mission, ha ha.
TheSwedishLad I feel like you can always think you could’ve done more, though. Like in exams I often think I might have done better if I spent an extra 10 minutes revising rather than watching UA-cam, even if I’ve studied hard! It’s hard to know what the optimum amount is sometimes for things like this!
Wow! For one week of learning Icelandic this is like really good!! Mjög vel gert! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Takk fyrir Svanhildur. You have a lovely name :)
I'd love for you to do an Old Norse learning challenge! Use the best of your Swedish-Norwegian-Danish-Icelandic skills and sound like a true viking! :D
As an Icelander who also speaks Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, Icelandic IS old norse ;) Nice job Martin! Kveðja frá Íslandi :)
"What you see is not how you say.." :D That's Swedish too, and, I think pretty much every other language, apart from Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian :D
Yeah, absolutely phonetic languages. This letter/pattern of letters = this sound. No exceptions!
What do you mean? SK SKJ SJ completely look like they sound.
Romanian is phonetic apart from a few exceptions
Icelandic phonetics are scarily close to Finnish though. The words are for the most part different of course, but the way it sounds is close enough that as a Finn if I wasn't paying attention and someone was speaking it on the street like 20 meters away I could honestly think they're talking Finnish. :p
I think it might be because Icelandic is closer to Old Norse than the Scandinavian languages, and Finnish has been heavily influenced by older forms of Germanic languages, including Old Norse and Old Swedish
@@ivomoreira42 These languages are Serbo-Croatian or Macedonian, Ugro-Finnic languages, Latvian, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian (some of them partially, because they e.g. have 2 letters or group of letters (i,y or h, ch) for 1 sound). And I can recommend Esperanto with only 16 rules and no exceptions.
he's got some good basics, anyone who's never experienced similar language / expressions who never be able to get this far in just 7 days
Þú ert að læra íslensku? Mjög gott! Ég líka.
Ég er Íslendingur
Halló🙂
@@bjarnimoraa1063 hæ, gaman að heyra!
Takk Max:)
"You're learning Icelandic? Very good. I...like (it/that)?" I guess. (Swedish dude here btw)
You can kinda figure it out as a Scandinavian.
@@Lindormber nästan! Ég líka betyder jag också.
I want to learn Icelandic so bad! But I Don't find so many things on the internet:(
Same
An intresning challenge in language learning. Good job/Bra jobbat/Gott starf Martin :-) 👏
Great job! Heel goed! (dutch, not that difficult ;)
About 2 years ago (stuck at the Reykjavik airport on my way to Canada), I bought an Icelandic grammar and workbook to see if it was really that hard.
Since I am working with the native languages of the Americas (hence my destination), I didn't think it was that difficult. Compared to other Germanic languages, sure... but compared to, let's say, Mohawk (one of my working languages, only a few thousand speakers) with its +/- 86 different personal pronoun forms
(I, we 2 excluding you, we excluding you, we 2 including you, we including you, I versus you, we 2 versus you, we versus you, you versus me..... etc...etc... etc... ),
it wasn't too bad at all :)
The most difficult thing however came the next day, when I finally decided to convert the Icelandic króna price I had paid to euros!!!
(never was a book more expensive.. :))
Keflavik is a nice place to be, but those Icelandic handmade socks will leave a mark in your bank account, ha ha.
Great video! You did great for only one week! thanks for posting!!
I'm quite proud of myself. I thought I would be saying What? the whole time.
@@TheSwedishLad haha me too😂 I've been learning swedish for almost a year, and I feel that you speak better Icelandic than my swedish😂
Takk fyrir og bless bless
Bæ
My grandmother was the last of the Norwegian speakers in my family when they came over to America and I wish I would've learned something from her as I want to speak in any of those languages. This gives me motivation
It was interesting because some of the words were quite similar to english, like I could vaguely work out what they meant, e.g two brothers and little brother.
Many words in Icelandic are similar to, if not the same, as Welsh - the pronunciation is not far off either.
Gott kvöld means good evening, good night is goða nótt
The thing they were saying is that if you want to say “have a good evening” to one person then you say eigðu gott kvöld, but if there are more then 2 persons you say : eigið gott kvöld
It’s just the conjugaison of the verb
Wish I could learn Swedish in a week 😂😂😂
I think you could take a major step in a week. you already have english and Swedish is not that different in vocab or grammer.
@@JackHiper tell my Swedish gf that. I'm terrible at language other than English. I've tried numerous apps for learning Swedish... Then she constantly tells me that it's wrong 😂😂😂
So I've given up.. Lol
@@erickhanley1571 Its hard to crack the code maybe of your first second language. Then the third becomes much easier. I got somewhere close to fluent in Swedish quickly after absolutely powering through German with a huge amount of effort. Swedish is easier than German but the process of learning how to learn is in my opinion the biggest part of my success. That and really wanting it. I know now in retrospect learning German was more of job or chore. I really really enjoyed learning to speak swedish. A dumb thing that also helped I think was spending 30 minutes or so at a time just listening to Swedish being spoken and not really trying to actively learn. I did this with Alex and Siggie videos on youtube that are all in Swedish. Just listening to native speakers use a language teaches you the melody or prosody of the language without you knowing that you are learning.
Another thing I did when learning swedish was to watch a simple movie, pick one character, and always try to say that persons lines back in Swedish while the movie is playing. Stopping the movie sometimes but normally just letting it run and actively trying to speak those lines. I always used movies I had watched several times before and enjoyed. You have a Swede to help you but maybe she just likes you the way you are and does not think you need to speak her language. For me I had a few people at my company I could ask questions on the phone sometimes for help when I got really confused.
@@JackHiper thanks so much for the advice. I will try again and try the listening too. Cheers
You're amazing Martin! Thank you for such positive videos! 🙂
I think learning Icelandic is a wonderful idea cause it is kind of the equivalent of Latin or Ancient Greek for the North Germanic languages such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Faroese. I think learning Icelandic is not without interest for an English speaker either.
I love this, you did so well ! It's actually inspired me too. Although speaking another language to a native speaker is so scary haha
I was really self-conscious the night before, and in the beginning. Very giggly.
Icelandic online has a few classes aimed towards those living and working in Iceland(English speakers)
I must say, I'm in a weird situation where my father is Icelandic but I don't know Icelandic. Men jag kan skriva och prata på svenska eftersom jag bodde och studerade i Österbotten i över 6 år. Just randomly stumbled upon this video, so funny that I know English and Swedish but not the language my father speaks, so I can fully relate to your outlook on the language. 😅 Hoping to someday learn Icelandic.
Finding a native Icelandic is kinda hard
I noticed from studying Icelandic that they too, much like Mexican Spanish, run words into each other and cut off phonemes when they have similar sounds.
Hej, Martin! Grattis för din Islenska! I am from Brazil and the only two countries I already visit by now are Sweden (2016) and Iceland (2018). I am very in love with both countries and I am trying to learn both languages even those are so different than Portuguese. That's why I know you are doing good in Icelandic. Best regards from Brazil!
Cheers man!!
I'm trying to learn some German, but I haven't found a single course that is decently organised so I can make a proggression as I learn. Most of them are about basic phrases and random vocabulary. I want to speak the language; not just memorise phrases and random words that I won't be able to put into a sentence properly.
Really frustrating.
I hear you.
I don't want to learn how to order dinner or talk about luggage, I want to learn how to put sentences together once I've learned the words.
The big thing with German is learning the noun-classes (a.k.a. "grammatical genders") and the 4 noun cases. Use Anki and put together a set of flash cards for the nouns. Learn the "gender" with the meaning of the noun.
BTW: I think the *stupidest* thing ever is calling noun-classes, "genders," because that's *not* what they are! In fact, it's a mistranslation of the Latin grammatical term, "genus." "Genus" actually meant something more like category, group, and yes, gender. But calling the noun-categories in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Icelandic, Russian, etc. etc. … calling them "genders" implies that in German, spoons have a penis and forks have a vagina. Yes, the word for spoon (der Löffel) is in the same noun-category as the word for man, and the word for fork (die Gabel) is in the same noun-category as the word for woman. The words for man and woman have to go *someplace*, but that doesn't make them the most important words in that category. You could just add easily make German's 3 noun classes, "dog," "cat," and "horse," instead of, "masculine," "feminine," and "neuter."
Anyway, start with nouns and their categories ("genders").
Have you tried watching German movies? I currently use VPN to watch shows on Netflix in my target language. Finding a tandem partner online can also be helpful.
Hey I’m German what do you want to learn :) where are you from? I’m trying to learn islandic atm
Så coolt. Vad använde du dig av för att lära. Har samma känsla för språket som du. Det är svenska, norska och random alien. 😁 Så jävla bra du gjorde ifrån dig. Skitbra jobbat på sju dagar.
7:24 I finally know, why you do not pronounce the trilled Swedish R, but the Danish R.
The truth shall set you free.
Danish roots.. stronk! xD
Well done! That's really impressive
This was awesome! Why I am just seeing it now, I have no idea. The “upside” of being at home so much more, discovering new things and challenging oneself. For example, how I found your channel to improve my Swedish. Also I have been teaching myself some crafts, such as knitting and jewellery making. Never stop learning!
I have been learning Swedish for while now. I had been going to evening class but due to corona, the classes are now online.
I'm an American who's been trying to learn German for a few years, and have been wanting to learn Icelandic for 5 years, and finally started. Its interesting, there are weird similarities to English and German, and from what I know of Old English ( Pre Norman), there's even more similarities
Yea I literally just found out that English was a Germanic language after 20 years. You’d think we were more Latin huh?
Hi I’m German and English has also it’s origins from Germanic language. People came from Angeln and Sachsen and settled in England after the romans were gone. Then the Vikings came to England and also influence the language. It’s very interesting.
@@Schauerland It definitely is! My stepmother is actually from Mainz, which used to be an old Roman fort, and what I understand to her, as a result, in some parts of Germany that were under Roman Occupation, the accent developed differently as well! Something that you might find interesting is the Great Vowel Shift that occurred between 1400 and 1700, it's considered the period when English started straying from its Germanic roots, and German started forming into what is considered more modern German! (Also, as a sidenote, my last name is Latin, often associated with Spain and Latin America, but I get it from ancestors who came to the U.S. from Oppau, which is why I am so interested in Roman influence in Germany)
Did you ever continue with Icelandic? I've been learning for 3 weeks and loving it.
Du tittade på Ófærð, yaaay! Isländska låter som älviska. Du gör väldigt sympatiska videor!
Im Norwegian, This language is very closely to Norwegian and the grammar and we both use some alphabet and I love iceland
I know this is an older video, but aside from memrise, can someone tell me other reliable resources for grammar?
Awesome work. Tusen takk for making this, it was very interesting. stay safe.
Thanks Pete!!
Wow this is inspiring. As a native Spanish speaker I will challenge myself to learn Portuguese or Italian in one week. Thanks!!
Do it!!! 👏
Hey, as a polish, quite interesting challenge :)
The "weird p" is the letter thorn: Þ/þ. We took it from the old english alphabet in medieval times.
I'm sure you did far better than many could with Icelandic after 7 seven days Martin! I tried learning about 5 years ago, having already learnt Swedish for 4-5 years, but it's so much different with Icelandic having cases and more emphasis on grammatical gender. I can say however, that I am working on Polish too, ever since I met my girlfriend nearly 3 years ago. After that, I think Icelandic might seem more friendly to me xD
Baby steps ;)
Bra jobba Martin :-D Jeg kan ikke mye islandsk, men det hørtes bra ut ;-)
Great video man, just started icelandic too and i feel you 😂
Hebrew and Arabic has almost same content but the grammar is very different! Water in Arabic is maan and in hebrew is maim. Sun - Shams (Arabic) Shemesh (hebrew).
Amazing!!!!!
As someone who lives in Australia, but is half Icelandic I am finding it VERY HARD to learn, but I am trying, and I will get there. Hopefully.
This is great! It's so tantalizing how similar all the Germanic languages are. It makes me want to learn all of them at least a little.
You can do it!
Haha! Mange tak! Jeg begynde med dansk. That'll keep me busy for a couple of years. :-) Jeg ELSKER dine videoer der sammenligner svensk og dansk!
@@LisaHerger Then it's a good thing I'm from Skåne, it's like the best of both worlds :)
@@LisaHerger aaawww
Haha I'm also tempted to do the same thing. Once you learn one germanic language, it helps a lot in understanding the others. I feel at the very least learning to understand the entire Nordic branch is a sort of reasonable goal. 😂 Jeg studerer norsk nå, så jeg forstår også litt dansk i skrivingen og også svensk hvis jeg prøver mye..
Impressive.
Started learning Icelandic. There are also some similarities to (swiss)german.
Wow, you learned that much Icelandic in a week, in two months it would be a second language for you.
Can you make a video on how you did it? What resources did you use?
Good job!! I wish i could Talk to a swedish native speaker like that!
I'm trying to learn now.
As I was born and raised in the US and know little to nothing of the Scandinavian languages, Should I start with one first? I would like to learn most or all including Old Norse.
Nice video, I'm planning on learning Icelandic too. I can understand northern Norwegian dialects that are quite similar so I probably have an advantage
Great efforts!
Americans, in particular, should pay attention to this video's message.
It is OK to make mistakes when learning something new - the only thing that matters is that you try ... and keep trying.
[If you're about to post a Yoda-inspired response to this ... grow up ;p]
EDIT: There is a language class near me that has a number of tables, one person sat at each table, and a flag of the country they speak the language of. You pick a table, sit down and they will introduce themselves in their own language. That's it ... the rest of the conversation is then a series of back and forth where you try to understand what they are saying, and reply or ask them a question ... but they will ONLY speak in their own language. If you cannot converse, they will begin making statements, maybe about the weather outside, through the window; about their clothing, about the table or flag, about their body (hair, eyes, etc) or your body .. and you begin to pick up small bits of conversation/vocabulary.
The first visit is likely to cause anxiety, lol, but on subsequent visits you will begin to use the phrases they used, but use them first .. "how are you", "it's a nice day today", "i like your shirt", and you then learn what they say in response to that and to pick up on things they change ... e.g from "I am good" to "I am tired" etc.
After a few visits you will be sitting down and having a 5-10 minute conversation with them, in their own language, without even thinking. Of course, once you start to get the hang of the language, pronunciation, etc, you can spend time at home learning new words/phrases.
This is called "immersion learning" and it is the fastest way to learn a new language ... because you have no choice but to do so.
So it’s Swedish that is similar? I’ve been studying Norwegian thinking it’s similar but I guess I’ll study both now.
I'm impressed by how much you learned in a week
Same here. It was an intense week, for sure.
I am also deciding to learn Icelandic. Which way to study would you recommend tho?
jag är indonesisk. du kan lära dig språket från mig. det är mycket lätt. mycket möjligt ett av dem enklaste språken i världen. 😃
Next challenge: Try to learn Polish in one month. There are lockers in the Malmö Central station which you can use in Polish (and also in Swedish, English, German and French).
Oh, the travel restrictions (I mean recommendations, ha ha)
As a swede is it easy for you?
Hello, I am very interested in learning Icelandic, but I don't know how to go with it.
I would be grateful if a learner of Icelandic could tell me their study plan, the resources they are using... Thank you.
On saturday he straight up discovers the icelandic matrix
It was very challenging but u did good a good job
Mate, you're beginning to look like Tom Hanks in the film "Cast Away" 🤣 #lockdownlife 🤣
You know it! 😂
Interesting why Icelandic language is going on other way away from the scandinavian languages, norwegian, danish and Swedish are most closing but Finnish is another family language.
Try to learn and speak Dutch in a week, it's also a little bit similar to Swedish.
Goed!!
@@TheSwedishLad Leuk, veel succes!
Já!!! Mjög gott maður!
Hey, great video! Very impressive!
I want to learn Icelandic, I understand a little bit of Norwegian(bokmål).
As a Swedish speaker, do you think I should learn more Norwegien first to help me to learn Icelandic? Or does it not help me?
I am an English speaker
I don't have the best insight for you as I'm also an English speaker learning Norwegian, but I can say that when I've dabbled in Icelandic, my Norwegian knowledge greatly helped in understanding it. Especially if you know a bit about the various dialects spoken in Norway, and not just bokmål. Norwegian is definitely a more approachable language for English speakers than Icelandic. I kind of wonder if you weren't already learning it, if there would be anything to the strategy of choosing to learn an easier language from a family before tackling the one you really want to study, or if that just causes more confusion.
Kinda like learning the fundamentals of music on a recorder or a piano before trying to tackle getting good sound out of a bassoon.
It won´t help you!
I'm Indian. I have no connection to the nordic region. But I wanna learn icelandic. I find it fascinating . Can I do it?
I applied to an icelandic course in University back in February and I still have problems even with the basic sentences 😂 by the way I saw your story on instagram and "Eg a Lif" is the reason why I decided to give icelandic a try😁
Great song!!
I have been trying to learn Icelandic myself for the past two months, but stuck with where to start. How did you start tackling this language? was just a a lot of vocabulary and grammar throughout the whole process? Any suggestions would be helpful! thank you!!
I felt starting with the basic verbs, the pronouns and then vocabulary (nouns) was a good way to go. Then you have the bone structure to add tissue to. Being Swedish there are a few smaller similarities which obviously helped me, as opposed to have gone in froma. totally different language tree.
Well now i know there is still hope for me.
I lived in Iceland for a couple of years before it became hip (late 90s). I worked hard on a couple of major sounds with my office translator. You got the ö way better than I can. but you aren't so good on the various "L" (and LL - includes a click out of the side of your mouth sounds). I remember one time with Icelandic friends and they said Icelandic is pronounced exactly as it is spelled and I got a good laugh exactly pronouncing Icelandic phrases exactly as they are spelled - like goðan dagin (Go' die). Hvað er Þessi (Qwa airh (even the Þessi is dropped).
Archaic form of the West Scandinavian is the modern Icelandic! An Icelandic from Iceland knows best to get fluency in years of everyday studies.
Wow, man, you did it and did it well. Now try !Xóõ, haha. Just kidding.
I have to say I didn't knew that Icelandic was so close to Swedish. Comparing with Romance languages, I would say that Portuguese, Spanish and French are like Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, respectively. Icelandic is Romanian, that distant cousin with a kind of idiolect.
No way. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are WAY closer than Portuguese, Spanish and French.
@@Neophema Yes, they are. But, as I said, "it's like", not "the same". So I did a comparison, not a statement. Of course the three North Germanic languages cited above are much closer than the Romance ones. As a matter of fact, for a native Portuguese speaker, Spanish is easy-peasy; for a native Spanish Speaker, a lot more troubled time understanding Portuguese. On the other hand, both of them has problems when it comes to French, just like -- as far as I know -- it's a little bit more difficult for Norwegians and Swedes to understand Danish because of the lots of vowel sounds, throaty pronunciation etc. That's what I meant...
@@ivomoreira42 finnish too..
@@adamirfan6986 Finnish is a totally different language, isn't it?
@@ivomoreira42 Norway, Denmark, Sweden , Icelandic and Finland are scandinavian countries...
Vel gert og kveðja frá Íslandi ... haltu áfram!
How did you learn all that in one week? Can you do tutorial where did you learn or just some links or anything that will help me?
Tnx
I watched Icelandic shows and short films with subtitles, used a language app and studied some of the basic verbs and nouns and built it out with vocabulary. A few words here and there are quite like Swedish but it's a treacherous path to fill in the gaps. I also spent many hours of every day with this during that week and the pressure of having to speak to an unknown native was a good motivating factor. Good fun and I am surprised how well the conversation went..
Väldigt imponerande.
wow, I didn't do it in a week but I did it in 15 years, well... more like 3 years but I've been doing it since.
Hi am from Iceland
Hi Hrefna. How are things with you?
Hæ! Also learning Íslensku... completely complicated. Good luck.
OMG you can always play on your charms!! :D
Oh, stop it you 🥰
First we say (hello=hæ ) and next is (how are you =hvernig hefurðu það )next is (bye=bæ )next (stop=stoppaðu
👌 wow
Martin when nervous starts singing like a swedish bird. 😅
Martin, if you're going to continue learning Icelandic there's one word I can help you with : já is pronounced like yow to rhyme with cow . Nei eða já was the Icelandic entry in Eurovision 1992 ua-cam.com/video/ELSuY9riUUY/v-deo.html . Have a good day . :)
if this man can speak icelandic in a week who says I can´t, I don´t know if being a spanish native speaker will have any advantage or disadvantge
Im german and im just learning some islandic :) there are also many words that are or sound like in German. Some words we don’t say every day and some words we only use in a “slang” way. And yea it’s very hard if the spelled word sound completely different than it’s written. That drives me insane 😂
Gott kvöld frá Kanada! Ég er að læra íslensku. Þú gerðir gott starf. Til hamingju!
Takk fyrir :)
Frekar nálægt talhætti okkar, þú vannst þetta verk vel passar samt betur en þú gerðir gott starf, bein þýðing úr "you did a good job" passar ekki alveg en þetta er samt helvíti fín þýðing annars. Tók eftir því að þú lést stórann staf í Kanada og lítinn staf í íslensku sem er hárrétt! 8.5/10
I'm Icelandic and this is the funniest thing ever
The "Þ , þ" letter has a sound very similar to the "TH" in the word "Thought" (a hard sounding "TH")
The "Ð , ð" letter has a sound very similar to the "TH" in the word "This" (a soft sounding "TH")
You weren't far off with the F or PH sounds you made but the other two are more accurate in pronounciation, and the name "Svíþjóð" is actually a VERY good word to practice those sounds as it incorporates them both.
@Əbu Zörğhanürr At-Türkməni same sounds yes but they have a different harshness to them. Icelandic is my native language and I have helped many people get those sounds right.
The harder to teach pronounciations are the different ways we use LL and GG sounds depending on what other letters are around them.
The distinction between þ and ð is linguistically called "unvoiced" and "voiced". They're nearly the same sound, but have a single difference between them: one is said with the vocal chords "turned off" and the other is said with the vocal cords on.
'p' & 'b'; 't' & 'd'; 'k' & 'g'; 'f' & 'v'; 'þ' & 'ð'; 's' & 'z' - they're all unvoiced/voiced pairs.
@Əbu Zörğhanürr At-Türkməni Irish still has them. T is often pronounced as "th"
Maybe I will to make youtube video about top facts about the languages BUT dont know exact. Do you have someone idea for me so dont hesistate write to me in comment!
So i'm a swede. I was wondering how many hours of studying does it take to be able to hold conversations in icelandic because i am trying to learn it
In my very short experience, it really comes down to the basic necessary verbs and then building a vocabulary. I understood basically everything he said because of context. Like "lengi laera islensku", which I could figure out from just those three words in an otherwise much longer sentence. Sure, I've lived in Norway and I grew up close to Denmark, so that might have given me a little edge.
Þ is not pronounced like f it’s pronounced like if it was þig it would be thig
Being from Western Norway myself (it is even closer on paper, as both are old West Norse variants of Norse), it is really strange to listen to icelandic, basically what you said, it is in a way like listening to your own language, but at the same time, so very different. But I felt I could always understand what the guy you were talking to said.
But you did great though. You could easily learn icelandic pretty well if you kept it up for a few years!
Life goal!! But I really should go and visit the island. It would help immensely.