ICELAND I

Unfortunately, I did not have much exposure to the Icelandic language. Since the local people tend to keep to themselves and the population is fluent in English from a very young age, I hardly came into contact with the very complex language Icelandic. Already on our introduction day at the university we were advised not to learn the national language. It was too complicated and time-consuming to deal with it for only one or two semesters. For example, just the word "green" in the local language has about 40 different spellings, depending on the context. Accordingly, I and my new fellow students, who also did a semester abroad, did not bother with it. Only the conventional things that you always bought in the supermarket or the announcement on the bus has remained with in Icelandic.

However, I came much closer to the English language, which is one of the goals of a semester abroad. I didn't have much trouble dealing with English. My two of three roommates did not speak German, so English was our language of communication. Funny enough, in the beginning we had a hard time communicating with everyday words. And because they come from France and I also had some years of French in school, in addition with the sign language, we very quickly found our way to figure out, what we wanted to say. What was difficult is that I had a little trouble expressing myself with technical terms in class. However, this concern has also passed very quickly. The more work I did and the more material I read, the faster I got the vocabulary back. With the help of other students, I was able to finish and hand in my work without any problems. Of course, nowadays there are also very good online tools that helped me grammatically and in the area of vocabulary.

By having to speak English with my fellow friends on a daily basis, I feel much more confident in expressing myself in the foreign language. I also had this one special moment, after my first presentation in Iceland, which I mastered very confidently, I was aware that it was not difficult for me to express myself in a foreign language and that even under a "pressure to perform" (to get a good grade). After this semester, I feel much more confident in expressing myself in English in front of strangers. I see this as a big advantage, which I can use as a strength for my future.

Arani Jeyakumar