On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:21:06 -0400, you wrote: >And considering there are only about 300,000 Icelanders, even if you go to >Iceland, you >won't have many people to talk to there.
I think part of the reason I learned Icelandic (apart from a desire to communicate with people in Iceland and to read books about Icelandic horses back in the days when they were not available in English at all) is because I like various parts of Scandinavian culture, and I find having a knowledge of Icelandic lets me "get by" in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Faroese as well. Even Old Norse! ; ) I also wanted to be able to pronounce the horse names properly and understand their meanings without having to resort to a dictionary or a computer every time (which isn't at all important in the grand scheme of things, but makes me happy). Learning Welsh was/is more of a chore, but also quite satisfying. Here people work very hard to keep the language alive in the face of great opposition. It's hard when almost all the TV and radio services are in English (or American), but we do have a dedicated Welsh-language TV station, and several radio stations now. All public signs are bi-lingual, and Welsh-speaking schools are becoming more and more popular as parents want their children to grow up with both languages. Mic Mic (Michelle) Rushen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solva Icelandic Horses and DeMeulenkamp Sweet Itch Rugs: www.solva-icelandics.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
