Pimsleur Icelandic Level 1 Lessons 1-5

By: Pimsleur

Narrated by: Pimsleur

Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Pimsleur® Method: the easiest, fastest way to learn a new language. Completely portable, easily downloadable, and lots of fun. You'll be speaking and understanding in no time flat!

This course includes lessons 1 through 5 from the Icelandic Level 1 program, featuring 2.5 hours of language instruction. Each lesson provides 30 minutes of spoken language practice, with an introductory conversation and new vocabulary and structures. Detailed instructions enable you to understand and participate in the conversation. Practice for vocabulary introduced in previous lessons is included in each lesson. The emphasis is on pronunciation and comprehension and on learning to speak Icelandic. A user's guide is included.

Icelandic, the official language of Iceland, is spoken by the island nation's entire population of just over 330,000. In addition, approximately 8,000 speakers live in Denmark and 6,500 in North America. Descended from Old Norse, Icelandic is one of the Nordic languages belonging to a subgroup of Northern Germanic languages that also includes Norwegian and Faroese (spoken in the remote Faroe Islands off the coast of Denmark). The insular Icelandic language has not changed significantly since the Middle Ages and is considered a part of the country's national identity. The government's Icelandic Language Committee, charged with maintaining linguistic purism, keeps foreign words from influencing the language by coining new terms (usually constructed by combining old words) to describe modern concepts. For example, the word computer did not exist in Icelandic, so a new word, tölva, was created. Tölva is a combination of two existing words, tala (number) and völva (a prophetess or magical seer), so it means, literally, "number prophet".

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2016 Simon & Schuster (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

Critic Reviews

"Pimsleur programs provide plenty of positive reinforcement that will keep learners on track, and we found that Pimsleur gave us more proficiency and confidence in speaking the new language than any of the other language programs we reviewed." ( AudioFile magazine)

Islandic is pretty difficult!!!

This is soo difficult and soooo much fun! I am thoroughly enamored with Pimsleur language learning programs. The changes in Japanese and French words were more easily deciphered. Icelandic not so easily distinguished. We'll see when I get there.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Icelandic Course!

I have tried many CDs and apps to learn Icelandic. The Pimsleur is by far the best! I have family members who speak Icelandic and I have picked up a little over the years, but I want to learn more. Other courses I have tried just offered disjointed vocabulary, or basic phrases. I never felt like I was learning to have a conversation or learning the grammar. However, with this program I feel I am learning both and I am thrilled!

This is the best way to learn

I've had plenty of of language tutorials, and this is the best I've had by far for audio. Even though I didn't listen to the instructions and was a little distracted each time (whether I'm driving or doing housework), I had good recall after listening to the lessons the second or third time.

Good content but pronunciation guidance needs work

Like most Pimsleur courses, this is pretty good. But a lot of words get clipped in Icelandic. Either the speakers should enunciate or the narration should provide a clearer guide where words run together.

Excellent

I’m really enjoying this. I can feel it working my brain out and I cannot wait to progress. I’m definitely sticking with this. The repetition is a great way to get this stuck in the brain but also not in a monotonous way — I like that it focuses solely on listening and speaking at this stage.