A world map (in Faroese) hanging in the corridor at the University.
Weather: sunny and beautiful!
Walked km: 5
On Wednesday we had our first real language lesson. We tuned our ears to hear and understand Faroese. We went through some basic sentences ("Hi how are you, what's your name" etc.) and got some home work.
It seems to me that Faroese is a very vowel based language. It has very distinctive diphthongs (combinations of vowels, for those who are not linguists;). The teacher said that Finns should have no problems learning the vowels, because Finnish also has these vowel combinations (diphthongs).
Also, most definitely is the Faroese language not pronounced as it is written! There are a lot of rules about pronunciation. In pronunciation they have fricatives and other sorts of aspired consonants: hopefully I'll learn the rules for those in three weeks... In some instances knowledge of Icelandic helps me, but in some cases it only makes me more confused.. Here is a link, if you are interested in reading more about the language.
In the afternoon we had a lesson about Faroese traditional ballads: singing and dancing also known as kvæði . I think that it must have something to do with my upbringing and my fathers side of the family, but I find traditional music and (Scandinavian) folk/world music very appealing. There is something in the music, the rhythm, the melody played in minor keys.
Eivind, our guest lecturer, was a hearty old man. He looked like a captain of the old days with his white beard:) We sat and listened to the cd when the electricity shut down. We were glad to have Eivind sing the lead and we tried our best to fill out the chorus of Regin smidur. Check out the version made by the Faroese heavy metal band Tyr. Will try to capture our dancing on video the next time.
After the lessons I went and bought the 1.000DKK (140€) grammar books:/ And bought some more food. I blame it on the fresh weather and being outside walking: I'm constantly hungry as a Norse Wolf!:)
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