Did any of you get interested in Icelandic because of the band Sigur Rós? I know that's what interested me...I think it's so cool that they were able to have such success while staying true to their "obscure" language. The U.S. is a tough country to get through to in that way, so it's really striking when someone accomplishes it.

If not Sigur Rós, what else interested you? The similarity to Old English/Old Norse? Like the Germanic language family in general? Something else?


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Native: English
Proficient: Spanish
Relearning: German
Early Beginner: Koine Greek, Classical Hebrew
Interested in: Dutch, Arabic, Icelandic

I had already been learning Norwegian a while, and decided to have a go with Icelandic and Old Norse to get a better knowledge of the North Germanic group and its history. I didn't find out about Sigur Rós until later.


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-Stefan-

I had to learn some Icelandic before getting to Reykjavík but it was rather impossible to find native speakers in Germany.


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Native:German
Fluent:Norwegian, English
Basics: French, Czech, Hungarian, Italian

Oh, the usual reason... I'm interested because my girlfriend is 8)

I was interested in Icelandic long before I heard of Sigur Rós. Fortunately, being into Icelandic runs you into Sigur Rós more often than you like, so the band (which I hated originally) caught on and now is one of my favorites. ^_^

I've always liked how it looks, also it sounds interesting -- rather soft actually I think, at least the bits from RÚV I heard (and didn't understand of course, except that Fréttir are the News) so far gave that impression. Also, of course, Sigur Rós, yeah... You can't find translations of all texts unfortunately, if the text is in plain Icelandic at all. And knowing only German and English doesn't get you too far. But then, I'm occupied with more important things (i.e. work, school, life) than teaching myself some Icelandic. Also, it's quite an obscure language, so that adds to the geekiness score


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German · English · French