Hello, World!

Today is a special day not only because I am publishing my first blog post, but also because it is Dagur íslenskrar tungu (Icelandic Language Day)!  November 16th was chosen for Dagur íslenskrar tungu because it coincides with the birthday of the popular Icelandic poet Jónas Hallgrímsson.  As a new blogger on the topic of becoming a polyglot, I feel fortunate to kick off the chronicle of my journey on a day that celebrates the language that I am currently immersing myself in. In honor of my inaugural post on this special day, I would like to introduce myself and explain the purpose for starting this blog.

The Back Story

From as long as I can remember, I have expressed a love and appreciation for languages.  As a child growing up in New York City, I was exposed to a multitude of languages, dialects, cultural culinary delights and diverse people from around the world.  Living in such a diverse city can be a rich and rewarding experience, but it can also be overwhelming.  I literally wanted to learn about all of the languages that I heard on the train, at school or in local shops, but the thought of taking on such a task was daunting, so I shied away from it. Like many of my peers in High school, I took the required language courses (Spanish in my case) for a couple of years and walked away knowing only basic phrases or simple rules to conjugate verbs.  My Spanish speaking neighbors, who I have known my entire life, didn’t sound as foreign after I took my required language classes, but I still couldn’t have a basic conversation with them in their native tongue.  This frustrated me, but instead of trying to delve into studying languages on a deeper level or exploring different learning methods, I put my dream of becoming a polyglot on hold.

Purpose?

The purpose of this blog is to rekindle that dream and chronicle my journey from a newly planted monolingual seedling to a fully blossomed polyglot. Even though, I have basic knowledge of Spanish, have dabbled in Arabic and Swedish, and now have delved head first into Icelandic, I feel that I am a complete novice in the polyglot world.  What I currently lack in knowledge and experience, I make up for in enthusiasm and dedication to achieving my goals. This has and will continue to be a journey full of surprises, mistakes, frustrations, triumphs, language acquisition and striving to be completely open to the learning process. My hope is that in sharing my journey that it will inspire, enlighten, engage and entertain those that are interested in following along.

Who will find this useful?

Ultimately, this blog is about knowledge exchange, sharing resources and enjoying the journey.  All are welcome to read and comment on the posts, but I think that the people who will get the most value out of the blog are described below:

• A monolingual speaker that is considering becoming a polyglot or a person who is curious about the process of becoming one, might find it interesting to read about someone that has begun their language learning adventure
• A newly planted language learning seedling, like myself, might be able to relate to the experiences that are chronicled here and feel comfort in knowing that they are not the only ones on this journey
• Fully blossomed polyglots might enjoy reminiscing about the beginning of their journey and might even pick up some new resources or fun facts to share.

The “Start”

Within the last year I have been fortunate enough to visit Iceland twice – once in the winter (December 2013 to January 2014) and once in the summer (a couple of weeks in June of 2014). Before my first visit, I put a bit of effort into learning some basic phrases and that effort was rewarded with praise from my Icelandic hosts.  Pronouncing words correctly made me feel quite accomplished, and when I returned to New York City I said to myself that I would expand upon my knowledge by sticking to a strict learning schedule.  Well, that didn’t happen and as the months passed by most of what I had learned slipped away from my memory.  To my dismay, by the end of May 2014 I felt like I was back at square one in the language learning process.

My trip in June of 2014 ended up being the turning point. During the couple of weeks that I stayed in the country I attended several parties with my partner.  Everyone, except me, spoke in Icelandic for the majority of the time and I realized how left out I felt.  I didn’t mind that they were speaking in their native tongue, but I was upset at myself for not putting more effort into learning the language so I could understand what was being said.  It was like an internal fire had been lit and I returned home with a voracious hunger to learn Icelandic.

For the last 4 months, I have been diligently studying Icelandic without following a set course or curriculum.  After reading blogs about learning Icelandic and searching the internet, I found that Icelandic doesn’t have as many online or in print resources as more widely spoken languages (e.g. Spanish, French, Arabic and German), but useful resources do exist!  So far, I have been able to gather links, books and videos online that have assisted me in becoming familiar with the language. Click here to check out some of the resources that I have found for the current language that I am studying (suggestions are welcome!).

I feel fortunate that my partner is a native Icelandic speaker because I can ask him questions, practice pronunciation and improve my colloquial conversation skills. Having a speaking partner is an invaluable resource when trying to gain fluency, and I encourage all budding polyglots to find a native speaker of the language they are trying to learn and communicate with that person on a fairly regular basis. I’m not implying that your life partner needs to  be a native speaker of the language that you want to learn but it certainly does help a lot. 🙂

Let the Blogging Begin

Every week this blog will be updated with posts that touch upon my learning experience, share fun facts about the language I am currently learning, feature reviews of language learning resources, and include any other language related topics that come up.  I look forward to sharing this journey with you and I hope you find it useful.  Thanks for reading!

Gleðilegan Dag íslenskrar tungu og sjáumst fljótlega!