Colloquial Icelandic: The Complete Course for Beginners

by Daisy Neijmann

These two 60-minute CDs feature dialogues and exercises from the Colloquial Icelandic book. Recorded by native speakers, they will help perfect your pronunciation and listening skills.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Linguistics

304 pages, Audio Cassette

First published July 12, 2001

Reviews

[Jessica Jasmine lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this book is not a very good starting point for beginners if I am honest. I think it will come in useful to go back to once I have actually mastered some basic Icelandic and will give me a better understanding of the language but for a complete novice, it just throws you in with out really teaching you anything to begin with and I found it very complex and confusing.

I will read this again once I have learned some more Icelandic and things may make more sense afterwards.

[Furio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Useless

This is one of the worst language handbooks I have come accross in my rather long life of learner of foreign languages.

I am not sure which language-tuition theory the author was following when compiling it, but the assets of this handbook begin and end with its nice cover.
- Dialogues are overlong with heaps of non essential vocabulary (every language has a vocabulary core that should be used and given priority to in teaching beginners).
- Explanations are long and unclear; many relevant ones are omitted.
- Exercises are few and useless.

The accompanying CDs are even worse.
- There are no good exercises to master the basic sounds of the language.
- The speakers use a normal rate of speech from the beginning, making it very difficult for the untrained ear to catch the sounds that are different from English.
- There is no repetition drill (with pauses to allow the learner to speak in turn): this is not a problem with cassettes which can be stopped and rewound quickly but it is a problem with CDs.
A rather rude commentator implied I must be very old to still talk about cassettes and that CDs can be paused. Curiously enough, despite my age, I know how CDs work and I know that, if you pause them as often as it is required for language drills, you are bound to break your CD reader. Copying the tracks on a sturdy MP3 reader might be a solution.
- CD tracks do not allow the user to skip the introductions which obviously grow old after the first few listenings.

There are not many tools to learn Modern Icelandic but, if you cannot found any other than this, just type "icelandiconline" on your browser:
an Icelandic public body has prepared an online course for beginners which may not be perfect as it is short on grammar explanations but it is very user-friendly and is available entirely for FREE (it requires the usual mail/password registration but you will not receive any spam).

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, without doubt, the best course for learning modern Icelandic for someone who eager to begin speaking with confidence. It has a clear structure, excellent pacing and a wide variety of audio exercises to help with pronunciation and everyday phrases. There are ample diagrams and charts to make the grammar easy to cope with and practical expressions that really help get to grips with speaking right away.

I was assured when I found out the author has been teaching Icelandic at University-level for decades and has a complete command of the material. I'm not sure what the other reviewer is talking about when he complains about the method of this course (non-essential vocabulary?, overlong dialogues?) but he seems rather a pedant I don't think his lack of success had anything to do with this book.

I have progressed through it's several chapters with ease and I have some basic French and German as a background in language learning. I feel I am perhaps not an expert but I can speak conversationally thanks to this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to get a head-start and the fact that it comes with some really good audio is the icing on the cake. 5 stars!

[Aziraphale · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best language books I ever had the pleasure to work with.
To be honest, the very first pages are a bit daunting. The book is very fast paced and requires a lot of personal work: looking up extra vocabulary, getting the grammar quickly and being very focused while listening as the dialogues are spoken at native or near-native pace right from the beginning. Nevertheless, I gained confidence very early in the learning stage and was able to recognize bits and pieces of dialogues spoken around me in Icelandic half-way through Unit 2.

I found the book's description of grammar clear, I would have loved however to have the vocabulary organized a bit better according to genres and themes.

I would recommend it particularly to those who are planning to stay in Iceland for a while, or those who have a deep personal interest in the language. Otherwise, the extra-work to put in and the intensity of the learning process could be a bit of an overkill.

[Franz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't go through this entire book, but it held my interest off and on for about two years, and succeeded in its purpose - teaching me a bit of Icelandic. The method that the entire "Colloquial" series uses is rooted in the pedagogy of yesteryear, but that's not to say that it's /bad/, just outdated. It's a rather dry text, but that's to be expected.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very user friendly, quite thorough.

[Claire Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough to learn Icelandic but this offers a good way to learn.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best book on the Icelandic language I've seen. I recommend getting the tapes and CDs that accompany the text.

[David Rutland · Rating 3 out of 5]

worth the money