… by the game of – spurningarleikurinn (quiz)! In any cafè, pub or restaurant near you.
Learning a language can be very tedious. To ease the training – do quiz games! We have successfully played ‘New Amigos’ and ‘Trivial Pursuit’ (TP) in various more or less unknown languages. It is important to do it with a smile. Sometimes you understand the question, and then the problem is only to find the answer. Other times it turns out to be impossible to understand the question – even with a dictionary. In that case, it often helps to check the answer, then you may understand the question afterwards. Sometimes you do not understand neither questions nor answers, not even with a dictionary! That’s when humor is needed. Geography and science issues are normally the easiest to understand. Entertainment can be completely impossible to answer (TV shows from the 80’s in a country where you haven’t lived …). No more to say about that, really.
When it came to Icelandic, we struggled terribly before we realized that TP in Icelandic was unavailable, it is sold out from the publisher (2021). We therefore ended up buying a second hand quiz book for children (!). And yes, that was hard enough for us. But fun! An alternative is of course comic books in Icelandic, Donald Duck for instance. We have bought the whole Valhalla series in Icelandic, and there’s still a lot remaining.
Then to the quiz – why not warm up with these 3 (From ‘Spurningaleikurinn’ ISBN 9979-1-0001-X):
Before asking all these questions, a swimming exercise is a good idea. You can do it in Ásvallalaug, Hafnarfjörður. This is a new and great facility, with an indoor 50 m basin, a phenomenal children’s pool and everything else you could possibly need, including a finnish sauna. In Ásvallalaug most things take place indoors, but they have dug a couple of hot pots into the ground outside. You’re welcome!
To exercise and relax in Ásvallalaug; both are just right. We at least enjoyed it there.