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rokkvi

Iceland

Faroe Islands - Faroese experiment

September 29 at 21:59

I am happy to announce I will soon be taking a week long vacation in the Faroe Islands, with the goal of learning more Faroese and recruiting people to help me get Faroese into LingQ.

For those who don't know me, I'm the one who got Icelandic added into LingQ. I'm also a polyglot and one of the more active LingQ users.

Since I am Icelandic and Faroese is the one language that is most related to Icelandic, there is a lot of common or similar vocabulary and grammar, but the pronunciation is very different. I have not had a great deal of time to study the language so far, having invested most of my language learning in French, Dutch, Norwegian and even some Spanish/Italian. So far I have read one whole novel in Faroese and listened quite a bit to their national news.

If there is anything difficult in Faroese for Icelanders it's two things 1) The different pronunciation, but for me this is not a difficult step, since it just requires listening and I am very much a mimic 2) The closeness of the languages actually makes it hard to remember the exact words, ironically. That is because they are so much like Icelandic words, you understand them, but it's like having to remember wrong spellings of you own words, if that makes sense.

My aim is to try to get everyone to speak Faroese to me and see if I can start to talk back (otherwise answer in Icelandic or Danish which should work).

My other aim is to get more Faroese people to help me both get Faroese into LingQ and subsequently add more material. I already have some people working on it, just need more of them. The Faroese are actually super friendly to Icelanders and I will even get to visit a couple of Faroese classes to introduce them to the program and the project.

I hope this all goes well and I will post an update to how much I learned and how it all went. I really hope I will succeed in getting Faroese into LingQ within a year or so if not sooner.

Le_Jr

United States

October 02 at 22:02

I would LOVE for this to be added to the site. I have a good friend who lives in the Faroe Islands and we alternate between English, Icelandic, and Danish to talk to each other. He has challenged me to learn Faroese but there aren't many resources

noxialisrex

United States

September 30 at 20:10

Good luck in understanding!

I have not listened to much Faroese, but written it is very intelligible. The sources I have seen imply that Faroese orthography is etymological which would explain how the spoken language has drifted quite far away from the phonological spelling.

I do wonder what content is available in Faroese that could be imported into LingQ. Is there a Faroese Forlagið?

Mofibo/Danish Storytel does include Faroese as a search option, but they will not take my money to allow me try it out.

rokkvi

Iceland

September 30 at 21:25

There would not be a great amount of material in Faroese to import into LingQ for public sharing, but there is some and obviously that is where we'd begin. They do have news sites that could be used for the news feed. All small languages are a challenge in getting enough material. Norwegian was seriously lacking when I started learning it here in June of 2020 or so for example, so Icelandic and Faroese offer bigger challenges as that goes.

JulianiTOgo

Germany

September 30 at 13:25

Very interesting! I wish you a lot of fun and hope you can practise a lot of Faroese. I don't know much about the Faroe islands but I remember a documentary about women from the Philippines on the Faroes. Maybe for the immigrant community, Faroese on LingQ is a really interesting project, because I imagine it's difficult to learn a language with few resources. Also, you could draw attention to Tagalog on LingQ for curious Faroese. ;)

Looking for love ❤️ on the Faroe Islands | DW Documentary

Around 50 thousand people live on the Faroe Islands. But too many of them are men. Faroese women go abroad to study. Many don’t return. Men stay behind to live off the sea. Now the islands are enjoying a growing influx of women from the Philippines. Antonette gets her folk dress out of the closet. Like a native Faroese woman, she’s getting ready for the Ólavsøka, the national holiday of the Faroe Islands. The 36-year-old actually comes from the metropolis of Manila. But life in the Philippines was too loud, stressful and uncertain for her. Antonette sought security and safety and married Regin Egholm a year ago. Her first daughter was born nine months later. Her new happiness on the other side of the world is complete. Antonette is one of about 200 Filipinas who now live on the islands in the North Atlantic. Rain instead of sun, dried fish instead of tropical fruits - at first, their new life on the edge of Europe was a culture shock for many of them. And yet Filipinas and Faroe Islanders often share the same values. Family, faith and tradition are important in both cultures. These values are often reason enough for young, liberated Faroese women to leave. The only university is too small and most men too old-fashioned. As a result, there are about 15 percent more men than women living on the islands today. The government is trying to make the Faroes more attractive. New courses of study and more jobs are supposed to draw Faroese women back to the islands. But in the meantime, women from the Philippines are settling in their new home, where they form the largest ethnic minority on the islands, closely followed by women from Thailand. ------------------------------------------------------------------ DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch high-class documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary. Also subscribe to: DW Documental (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumental DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو: (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocarabia For more visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dw.stories DW netiquette policy: https://p.dw.com/p/MF1G

rokkvi

Iceland

September 30 at 13:46

Very interesting. We have quite a lot of Philippino and Thai women who have moved to Iceland too. Many men in Iceland and the Faroes who have a hard time finding wives for various reasons and many women in SE-Asia who are simply trying to get out of poverty and even wishing to send money to support their families or bring some family members into more well to do countries. Thus there have been lots of marriages like that. Often the men are quite a lot older than the women. Some times it goes well, sometimes not. Sometimes the men are abusive and the women then don't always know their rights, which is sad. Sometimes the women are just trying to get as much out of it financially as possible and take advantage of the man, even leave them bankrupt and divorce them as soon as they can. But many of these marriages also work out well.

rokkvi

Iceland

September 30 at 10:07

LOL I guess nobody gives 2 cents about Faroese, since it's a microlanguage. Got lots of responses when I was doing a similar experiment with Spanish, but zero on Faroese. Well since most people don't even know this country exists, I probably shouldn't be too surprised. Actually a very beautiful and peaceful place if you want to visit.

nicholasjones1992

United Kingdom

October 03 at 13:50

Even if people aren't as interested in learning it, I am sure you are doing the language a great service by preserving it in some way and will be much appreciated by the people there. I'd say its a worthwhile endeavour. Will be interesting to read how you get on with speaking it!

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Looking for love ❤️ on the Faroe Islands | DW Documentary

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