Learn Icelandic on distance!

We have noticed, that there are quite a number of people in Northern America and in Europe, who are interested in learning Icelandic.Miles of land and ocean keep these students apart from each other and fromIceland. There are very few places where students can be gathered in suficientnumbers for taking classes in Icelandic.

The Internet has opened a possibility to organize distantlearning courses for people living practically anywhere. The LangförullNetschool is now organizing this course in Icelandic to meet the needsand wishes of students in various countries, who want to learn Icelandic.This course is mainly directed to students on the K12, seconary, collegeand university levels. We have no particular conditions of admission, butit will help if you have some prior experience of learning other languages,or some connection with Iceland.

To follow this course, you will need to have an accessto a computer with a connection to the Internet.

This distant learning course is different from ordinaryclassroom learning. You are studying when it suits you, and in your ownpace. We have no deadlines for finishing the steps of this course, it isup to you when you finish them. You will never meet the teacher personally.Your results depend only on your interest, your ability and your self discipline.You may never meet your classmates personally, but you may have many contactswith them on the Internet. We will evaluate the results of your studieswhen you feel ready to submit them for evaluation. When you have paid forone step of this course, we will not charge any more fees from you, untilyou have achieved the goals set up for that particular step, no matterhow long it takes. We will, however, charge you a fee for the next stepof the course, when you choose to take it.

You may choose to learn Icelandic for a variety of reasons:

• You may be interested in volcanoes, hot springs, glaciersand other wonders of Iceland.
• You may be interested in the viking sagas and Nordic mythology.
• You may have taken interest in the Icelandic horse and itsqualities.
• You may be interested in angling for salmon.
• You may have a general interest of studying languages.
• You may be interested in adventure and outdoor life.
• You may be interested in mythology, magic, elves, ghosts,dwarfs and trolls.
• You may be of Icelandic origin, and be looking for your roots.
• You may want to emigrate to Iceland.
• You may have once have met someone from Iceland you wantto meet again.
• You may be looking for something absolutely unexpected tohappen.

Goals:
After finishing this step

• you will know the Icelandic alphabet and the pronounciationof its letters
• you will understand and be able to use basic phrases of interpersonalcommunication
• you will be able to form simple sentences in Icelandic
• you will be able to use the basic grammatical stuctures ofIcelandic
• you will know some basic facts about Iceland.

Contents:
Basic phrases of interpersonal communication. Greetingsand presentations. Yes/no questions.
Basic vocabulary with the most common nouns, verbs andadjectives. Icelandic names.
The Icelandic alphabet and pronounciation of Icelandicletters, words and sentences.
Basic grammatical structures of Icelandic. Introductionto Iceland and to the Icelandic culture.

Methods:
We will set up for you a personal interactive World WideWeb homepage, where you will have acess to exercises with greeting phrases,common dialogues, yes/no questions and simple texts. On your homepage youcan also read and hear your own texts and letters in Icelandic. You willhave access to a chat channel, where we will answer your questions aboutIceland and its language.

You will write e-mail letters to us in English on varioussubjets, based on everyday life, common subjects and your interests. We will translate these letters to Icelandic. We will also record readingsof these letters in Icelandic on an audiotape or on audiofiles, so thatyou can hear your own texts read aloud in Icelandic. You will then yourselfread the letters in Icelandic to improve your pronounciation. You willgradually learn to express yourself with your own words in Icelandic. Yourletters and your final readings will be added to your website as textswith audiofiles.

We will provide you with short, simple, prepared textsin Icelandic. You will use e- mail letters to ask questions about the contents.We will e- mail back our answers, questions and comments, until you haveunderstood the texts.

We will give you a short introduction to Iceland and itswonders.

We will give short comments on grammar, spelling and vocabularyvia e-mail letters.

Goals:
After finishing this step:

• you will be able to take part in a common conversation inIcelandic
• you will be able to read plain texts in Icelandic
• you will be able to write messages and letters in Icelandic
• you will be able to use the common grammatical structuresof Icelandic
• you will be able to travel around on your own in Iceland,and learn to understand more about it than an ordinary tourist can.

Methods:
We  will give you copies of selected appropriatetexts in Icelandic for reading. You will e- mail to us comments on thesetexts and answer our questions on them. You will also be provided withaudiotapes with readings of these texts. You will record your own readingsof prepared texts in Icelandic on audiotapes, and we will give commentson your pronounciation.

We expect you to write your own texts in Icelandic onsubjects we assign to you, and on subjects of your own free choice. Youmay illustrate the texts as you wish. We will correct and comment thesetexts via e- mail and add them to your weppage, along with audio fileswith the pronounciation.

You will write your own e- mail  letters in Icelandicto us. You will take part in correspondence via e-mail and in conversationson chat channels in Icelandic..

You will be provided with audiotapes of Icelandic popularmusic and songs, with printouts of the lyrics. We will provide you withleaflets and prospect on Icelandic subjects, and explain their contentsto you.

You will have access to interactive grammar exerciseson the Internet.
We will give comments on grammar, spelling and vocabularyvia e-mail letters.

Goals:
After finishing this step:

• you will be able to speak Icelandic in common situations
• you will understand spoken Icelandic, in conversation, inperformance and in public address
• you will be able to read common literature, newspapers andmagazines in Icelandic
• you will be able to write your own texts in Icelandic forIcelandic readers
• you will be fluent enough in Icelandic to be able to workand live in Iceland, and to study Icelandic on a more theoretical level.

Methods:
 

We will provide you with suitable Icelandic texts frombooks, magazines, newspapers and letters.
You will comment these texts and ask questions aboutthem via e- mail.
You will write papers to us on subject we assign to you,and on subjects of your own interest, via e- mail.
You will write your own essays or articles, prose orpoetry, about Icelandic subjects.You will record your reading of some ofthese texts on audiotapes and send to us for comments on pronounciation.
You will be able to establish your own contacts in Icelandthrough e- mail correspondence and chat conversations in Icelandic.

You will write your own comments on Icelandic films, ifavailable to you in videoshops or in the cinema.

Finally you will develop and design your own webpage inIcelandic with your own texts, pictures and audiofiles, in line with atheme of your own choice.

Each of these three steps will be finished with a teston the Internet.

• We will test your competence in writing Icelandic by yourtranslation of a prepared text from English to Icelandic.
• Your competence in understanding Icelandic will be testedby your translation of a prepared text from Icelandic to English.
• Your competence in speaking Icelandic will be tested by yourreading of a prepared text on an audiotape.
• Besides, you will answer some questions about Icelandic subjectsin Icelandic.

We will give you a grade, A-E on your performanceon the course as a whole, with a written comment on the various aspectsof your communicative competence in Icelandic
After finishing each step, you will receive a diploma,stating what you have learned, your level of fluency in Icelandic, andthe results of your studies.

We will be grateful if you send us an e- mail with yourviewpoints, your criticism and hints for improvements, after you finishthis course

The teacher on this course, Grettir Engilbertsson, has a vocational training from the Teachers College in Stockholm as a teacherof Icelandic for Icelandic immigrant children in Sweden. He also has 17years of experience as a mother tongue teacher for Icelandic immigrant children in Uppsala and Stockholm, on the K12 and college levels. He alsohas taken university courses for teachers in Swedish as a second language(to Limited Swedish Proficiency students) and has some experience of workingin that field. Before emigrating to Sweden, however, he worked as a teacherof social sciences on the college level at the Menntaskólinn áÍsafirði.

You can take this distant learning course in Communicative Icelandic if you pay a fee of  £ 7,75, $ 11,20, 17,9 Canadian dollars, 12,55 Euro, 27 NLG  or 507 BEF for each step. This fee goes to Skrudda, The Association of Teachers of Icelandic as a Mother Tongue abroad. It covers the services we provide you with on the Internet, plus exercises, corrigation and processing of your work, tutoring and explanations according to your need via e-mail. It does however not cover textbooks and materials. These are available from netstores in Iceland. Eventual surplus income will be used to develop our courses.

You can get more information and register here.You will get your first assignments and exercises soon after you have paid the first fee.

Good luck!

Skrudda