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Is this even true about Icelanders consuming cultural products almost exclusively in English? I highly doubt this. They have domestic TV shows that get 90% of viewers sometimes. And their book publishing industry, relative to population, is huge. There are books that during the prime book sale season (around Christmas?) that sell 10s of 1000s of copies in a country of only 350,000 people.
Icelanders can be proud to have such a fine collection of books available in Icelandic, still Americans have 300 000 more books to choose from and a larger number of Icelanders will revert to imported English books, just like Anglo-Canadians massively import from the US since the US got 280 000 titles more to choose from...
So Catalan is 5,6x times as often used as Icelandic,
Portuguese is 131x times as often used as Icelandic,
French is 186x times as often used as Icelandic.
I even find that there is not that much content available in French compared to English, despited French objectively having a great choice of content available, so when Icelandic people are online, guess which language they will use online...
The difference between Spanish and Catalan is 40x times,
the difference between Icelandic and English is 2431x (!!!) times. On the internet!
So yes, the cultural consumption is strongly English !!
Abundant material does not necessarily mean that people will automatically gravitate to that material. Or even less that they will *only* gravitate to that material.
Bollywood produces twice as many movies as Hollywood but the impact of Bollywood movies in the U.S. is almost zero and quite marginal in most of the western world.
There are a gazillion Hollywood movies available in Quebec every year and yet in 2017 the #1 and #2 movies of the year here were both Quebec films.
I am not saying that Icelanders don't consume music, movies, books and TV in English. Of course they do. What I am arguing is that there is also room for homegrown stuff there.
I speak French and I read books in English and (sometimes) in Italian but when it comes to reading it's an entirely different matter than watching movies or listening to music.
I am currently reading a book in English and while it is something I can do, I'd read it faster if it was in my native language. Even someone with a great reading level in english will have a harder time reading it than a native speaker.
Even if Icelanders are not too many, I guess it's the same for them even if there will probably be a higher percentage of Icelanders to be fluent in English compared to most european countries.
My conclusion is that Icelanders will continue to read and write in their native tongue.
I went to Iceland last year and to me, it was effectively a bilingual society in Icelandic/English. The English fluency rate appeared to be over 90%. Even in out of the way places, you can communicate with pretty much anyone in English and expect to be understood. I suspect Icelandic will always be there to some degree or another in the future because it is a deeply engrained part of what it means to be an Icelander and there is no stigma associated with speaking the language. I just think it will continue to coexist with English.
It largely depends on the people as well: most books I read, most websites I visit, even most movies and games I use are in English because they are easier to find than in Italian. Yet, this doesn't mean I am switching to English or that I'll ever did.
When I was in Canada for a year as a student I basically never spoke Italian bar a few times (sounds unlikely but I almost never found other Italians, besides occasionally hearing Italian tourists here and there and a few restaurants): I was constantly and continuously exposed and immersed in English, yet I remained fully functional in Italian without much problem.
Are Icelanders like the Irish who have basically renounced to their language (not entirely their fault though)? I much doubt so.
It largely depends on the people as well: most books I read, most websites I visit, even most movies and games I use are in English because they are easier to find than in Italian. Yet, this doesn't mean I am switching to English or that I'll ever did.
When I was in Canada for a year as a student I basically never spoke Italian bar a few times (sounds unlikely but I almost never found other Italians, besides occasionally hearing Italian tourists here and there and a few restaurants): I was constantly and continuously exposed and immersed in English, yet I remained fully functional in Italian without much problem.
Are Icelanders like the Irish who have basically renounced to their language (not entirely their fault though)? I much doubt so.
If you would have remained 5 or 10 years you would have noticed a significant difference. Initially there would be hesitations and your sentences would be less fluid and over time you would struggle to remember vocabulary and eventually your sentences would get much less fluid.
If you would have remained 5 or 10 years you would have noticed a significant difference. Initially there would be hesitations and your sentences would be less fluid and over time you would struggle to remember vocabulary and eventually your sentences would get much less fluid.
That's often the case but the level of lapsing seems to really depend on the person. Some people can live abroad and rarely speak their native language and still retain pretty good skills in it. *Almost* as if they've never left home. Others are more like you describe. I think it also depends on the age you leave home.
If you would have remained 5 or 10 years you would have noticed a significant difference. Initially there would be hesitations and your sentences would be less fluid and over time you would struggle to remember vocabulary and eventually your sentences would get much less fluid.
Possibly, but considering I am quite well educated, interested in languages and quite fond of my native one also doubtful.
As I said, it also largely depends on the people involved: now it is even easier somewhat to maintain one's language when there much less emphasis on assimilation of immigrants than in the past.
If you would have remained 5 or 10 years you would have noticed a significant difference. Initially there would be hesitations and your sentences would be less fluid and over time you would struggle to remember vocabulary and eventually your sentences would get much less fluid.
Nowadays it is fairly easy to find resources of any language online, including videos. So it is hard to "forget" a language you already know.
I have been in the US for quite a few years and do not speak Chinese every day, but when I speak Chinese I do not have any noticeable difficulty.
However, Chinese is VERY different from English, so Italian may be another story.
Last edited by Bettafish; 10-19-2018 at 08:06 PM..
It all depends on what kind of situation you're in, but globally Portuguese is more useful since it has more speakers. Even in Francophone Africa the fluency in french is highly variable since it is a lingua franca rather than the first language. Many in those countries do not speak french at all. So it's france, Wallonia, Romand Switzerland and Quebec essentially
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