My name is Svava K. Skúladóttir and I am a native speaker of Icelandic and a qualified teacher with several years’ experience of teaching languages in a variety of contexts. Born and raised in South West Iceland, I am now based in London, UK, where – in addition to running my online Icelandic courses – I teach Icelandic at University College London’s Centre for Languages & International Education and other institutions.
Learning Icelandic Online
More and more people are showing an interest in learning Icelandic and this is something to celebrate! It is a beautiful (alright, I’m biased), sometimes complex, often quirky language, full of challenges and delights. Like all languages!
Those who are interested in learning Icelandic are not all lucky enough to live in a place where attending Icelandic courses is a possibility so, in 2012, I decided to start up my Online Icelandic Lessons as a way to connect with more people. I now conduct lessons via Skype, Teams and Zoom and am delighted to have students in many different corners of the world!
“Svava is one of those rare teachers with both passion for the subject matter and dedication to the success of her students. Learning Icelandic with Svava was rewarding and fun; she has a knack for making even the most challenging concepts seem simple and memorable.”
“Svava is a thoughtful and inspiring teacher. She is extremely attentive to the individual needs of the student and tailors her curriculum to meet the students’ learning style. Svava captures what could be an otherwise intimidating and transforms it into a fun and engaging experience. Her knowledge and passion for language comes through in each lesson. Each time I visit Iceland I feel better equipped to communicate in a more articulate and expressive manner. During my original pursuit to find an Icelandic teacher, I researched language facilities in the New York City metro-area. I am glad that I found her services, working with Svava was the best choice by far!”
“I chose to study Icelandic 1-on-1 because I wanted to progress more quickly and thoroughly than in a class, and the results have been exactly what I wanted. Being able to ask the questions that are most important to me personally has been a huge help in learning Icelandic the way I want to use it, and it is great that Svava is able to tailor-make the lesson to subjects that I find interesting or important. I can’t recommend Svava enough for anyone taking on Icelandic!”
“I’ve been learning Icelandic with Svava for more than a year now. She makes learning Icelandic a very enjoyable and gratifying experience. Icelandic is my fourth language and probably the most difficult language that I’ve learnt so far. Thanks to Svava’s knowledge, teaching skills and charming personality, Icelandic or rather learning Icelandic with her has been and will remain the most enjoyable and somehow the easiest language to learn. Because of this reason I would happily recommend learning Icelandic with Svava.”
“I fell in love with Iceland on my third morning there, the landscape, the literature and the language. My ambition is to read Independent People in the original. I have been studying with Svava for two years and she teaches with an infectious blend of clarity and enthusiasm. I can’t recommend her highly enough.”
“I have had great fun learning Icelandic with Svava. She is always well prepared and tries to introduce new methods of learning to make grammar activities more fun. If she cannot find an answer to a more complex issue she always does research to make sure we find the correct explanation for exceptions and oddities that can be difficult to grasp.”