Speaking English

I had been in Iceland several days when I stopped a woman on the street and asked where I could find a bus stop. I was not surprised when she gave me directions in perfect English. Most people in Iceland speak English as a second language.

Today people everywhere learn English in order to participate in the global community. I am lucky to be born in the U.S., a citizen of the greatest country in the World. One of the small advantages of this is traveling everywhere speaking only English.

At home we deal with a growing Hispanic population. I feel confident that in another generation they will all be speaking English. Just as the children of immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia did in the 19th Century

Becky tells me her husband’s parents came from Germany. They only spoke German at home when they didn’t want their son to understand what they were saying. He learned to speak German as an adult when stationed in Germany with the U.S. Air Force.

It was a similar situation in Wally’s family. His parents were from Denmark, but he only spoke a few words of Danish. Skol! He was totally American and obtained a master’s degree in American History.

On the other hand, my great-grandchildren may need to learn Chinese.

Change is constant. Read history. In the 15th Century Spain could have become the dominant country. It owned all of South America and most of North America. Ferdinand and Isabella’s grandson also inherited most of the rest of Europe and became Emperor Charles V, controlling Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, part of France, and several duchies in Italy. But the kings of Spain were very conservative. They tried to force conformity on all their possessions. By 1850 they lost it all.

Except Spain itself, which preserves its conservative values, and Spain is, after all, a small country (compared to Texas) with little international influence.

Iceland has always played a small part on the World stage. The island was uninhabited when the Vikings arrived in the 11th Century. Along with the Norse came some Scots; today Icelanders count their ancestry as 20% Scottish. They were mostly pagans, but literate pagans. Iceland is the only country in the World with a written history of its people from its beginning.

They also preserved their folk tales in lengthy sagas. In Norway my daughter Martha studied “Old Norse” and read the Icelandic sagas in the original language. Today’s Norwegians speak a language which is as similar to “Old Norse” as Modern English is similar to the language of Chaucer.

Cut off from the rest of the World for centuries by the Atlantic Ocean, Icelanders still speak the language of the Vikings. No one else does. So Icelanders also speak English as a second language.