Icelandic to be taught at Berkeley

Icelandic is to be added the foreign language curriculum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA from this autumn.

The addition of Icelandic – together with Mongolian – for the upcoming academic year takes the number of languages taught at the American university up to 59.

The University’s Department of Scandinavian and Institute of European Studies are the driving force behind Icelandic tuition at Berkeley.

According to the University’s website, the course will be a full-year course and “the emphasis will be on the acquisition of multiple skills (speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing) in a communicative setting.”

The course will be taught by Dr Jackson Crawford and will cover Icelandic language, literature and culture. The aim is to equip students with the linguistic knowledge they need for their studies and future travel to Iceland.

Icelandic, "the language of the land of fire and ice". Photo: University of California, Berkeley