Iceland Monitor - Iceland Monitor

Charles Gittins

Charles has worked as a journalist since February 2015, writing English-language news items for mbl.is. He has a Master’s degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University (UK) and a BA degree in Icelandic from the University of Iceland. @CharlesGittins

Þetta reddast! Oh. Great. Thanks.

9 Jun 2015 Þetta reddast, the quintessentially Icelandic phrase that every expat and most visitors to the country will have come across, is often translated as ‘don’t worry, everything will be fine’. At its best, it does indeed mean that – it is a cheery, optimistic invitation to throw off the worries of life.

The ice-cream wars

9 Jun 2015 A month ago, a colleague of mine celebrated their birthday and brought some ice-cream into work for us all to enjoy. And jolly nice ice-cream it was too.

Disorientated by Iceland

17 Mar 2015 Icelandic is a relatively easy language for native speakers of English (like me) to learn. No, really, it is. Save for a few special characters, there is no new alphabet to learn.