Other Languages

Modern Icelandic:

Modern Icelandic is offered irregularly at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course is taught three times a week over the course of two semesters. Besides giving the students insights into the Icelandic history and culture, the main goal of the course is to introduce students to Icelandic grammar and to help them acquire the necessary vocabulary to carry out basic conversations, express themselves in writing and to understand oral and written texts in Icelandic. All four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) are addressed and incorporated into the teaching process.

Sámi

The Scandinavian Department offers individualized instruction in Northern Sámi to qualified students who have already attained an advanced level in Finnish, Swedish, or Norwegian. We use the multi-volume textbook series Davvin, and pace the course according to each student’s aptitude and experience. Generally, we aim to complete one volume of Davvin per semester. After one semester, a student can usually speak competently in the present tense about a core set of topics and use and understand basic greetings, commands and questions in Northern Sámi. After two semesters, the student has usually mastered the past tense as well as the dual and plural forms of verbs. The Davvin series introduces vocabulary of relevance to life and travel in the Nordic north, and provides varied cultural information on Sámi life, customs, and society.

Students interesting in learning Northern Sámi should make an appointment with Prof. Tom DuBois (tadubois@wisc.edu) to discuss the possibilities.