Soon our Icelandic Language courses will come to an end as the final days of the Intermediate course are upon us. The courses began on July 31 with the three-week Beginners A1-A2 course, followed by a one week Crash Course A1 and finally the ongoing Intermediate course. This year we have had over 60 students in the courses, including a Crash Course taught in May. The students come from all over the world, most of them from Europe and North-America, but a few students live in the Westfjords or are about to live in the Westfjords such as our Coastal Studies students that attended the course. A few students come far away and this year we had two students all the way from Australia.

The town of Ísafjörður offers an exceptional learning environment because during the courses the town becomes a real life classroom. The University Centre and its teachers encourage students to use their stay as much as possible by using the language in their daily life in town. The University Centre also encourages locals and companies in town to take part in this informal teaching as is expressed in an article by teacher Ólafur Guðsteinn Kristjánsson in the local news website BB. Using these unique situations is an important part of the courses. It is possible to learn the language from books and website anywhere in the world, but here students also have the opportunity to use their knowledge in real life situations.

When the courses come to an end we will immediately start working on preparations for next year. The goal is to publish dates for the courses in 2019 in the beginning of October.