Watch Your Language Blog

Don't lose sight of the forest for the trees

Even in a place where there aren't many trees, like Iceland.

My boyfriend and I were visiting Reykjavik, and since I was studying Icelandic at the time, I made a point of asking people to speak to me in Icelandic, even though it would have been much simpler for everyone if I'd just let them speak English. But no, I was determined.

We wanted to bring home some of those Icelandic lopapeysur, or wool sweaters. We'd gone to a particular shop one day and purchased two of them, and I guess we might have been somewhat memorable since I was the annoying American who insisted on speaking less-than-perfect Icelandic to everyone.

We went back the next day to pick up a few more items, and while we were paying, the woman at the counter (who knew the Icelandic-only rule) asked me something involving a verb I hadn't encountered. I froze, because I could only focus on that one verb, and as a result I couldn't make sense of anything. The woman repeated her question, and I continued to stare like a deer caught in headlights. She then held up a customs form and repeated the question, but I was still caught in an incomprehension loop and couldn't escape.

Finally, my boyfriend, who doesn't speak a word of Icelandic, said, "She wants to know if we still have the customs form, and if she should just add what we're buying today onto the one from yesterday." (The verb was to add onto.) Everyone started laughing, and the woman asked, Og hann talar enga íslensku? (And he doesn't speak any Icelandic?)

So I guess the moral of the story is to not become so obsessed with parts of a language that you forget that language is really about communicating. And there are other ways of communicating that can help language comprehension. Like simple logical deduction. - (New York, NY)

Tags: Iceland, Icelandic, language, newsletter
May 21, 2008