[Vancouver, Canada] — LingQ, the powerful language learning app developed by polyglot Steve Kaufmann, marks Icelandic Language Day by making Icelandic free to learners worldwide.
Icelandic is one of the smallest nation-state languages in the world with around 340,000 speakers within Iceland and 350,000 speakers worldwide. The history of Icelandic can be traced back to the 9th century and the language is the root of modern Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.
Due to the prevalence of English in the digital world, Icelandic youth are no longer building a strong foundation in Icelandic and English is gaining dominance in Icelandic culture. Non-natives in Iceland who want to learn the language have also faced a daunting lack of learning materials. Icelandic tour guide and standup comedian Rökkvi Vésteinsson decided to take action and translated the LingQ Mini Stories, a course that will take learners from beginner to intermediate in the language, into Icelandic so that the language could be made available to learn on LingQ. In addition, Vésteinsson has been working with other Icelandic content producers who have agreed to provide content covering a broad range of topics to the Icelandic Library. The ability for learners to create their own lessons from any content they find online including YouTube videos and Netflix shows using the LingQ Importer browser extension, makes the content available even greater.
"Having learned three new languages through LingQ well enough to have later been able to guide tours in them, I know what an incredible tool it is on the way to becoming a fluent speaker," said Vésteinsson. "Before, there was a painful lack of learning materials in Icelandic, but this will be revolutionary for any non-native resident here who wants to learn our language. Obviously, if we want our language to survive, one key element is making it easy for people who move here to learn it."
With Icelandic now free to learn and the addition of engaging and effective learning material, the hope is that more people will learn this unique and ancient language.
The Icelandic language course is available for free on all of LingQ's web and mobile apps starting today.
For more information, visit https://www.lingq.com/.
About LingQ
Since 2002, LingQ has helped millions learn languages. Ranked the most effective language app by an independent team of researchers at Compare Language Apps, LingQ’s content-based system offers 49 languages to learners around the globe. With one of the largest language libraries of authentic and interesting content and thousands of hours of lesson audio, there is something for everyone on LingQ. Learners can also customize their learning by turning any content they find online into lessons.
LingQ users have access to online tutors, a global language community forum, community writing exchange, and integrated SRS vocabulary review tools. To ensure success and keep learners accountable and motivated, LingQ measures everything on the comprehensive statistics page.
Contact
For more information, please contact Elizabeth at elizabeth@lingq.com.
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