115 會考英文閱讀第 37 題詳解

Icelandic is a language that is spoken only in Iceland. It has a long history. But many Icelanders are worried that they’re losing Icelandic. The reason for their worry is the prevalence of English in Iceland. “I use English when I talk to my housework robot, use my phone, and watch movies,” said Helgi Atlason, an engineer. There is a reason for that. Most of these products use English, and few companies care to change the language into Icelandic because there are only a small number of Icelandic speakers (314,000 people). Actually, you see English everywhere in Iceland. Icelanders also speak and hear more English than Icelandic these days because many foreigners who come to live and work in Iceland speak only English. “We can’t use Icelandic abroad, and we’re not using it much in Iceland, either. How do you expect our kids will want to learn it?” said Eirikur Wilson, a teacher. Will Iceland one day give up Icelandic for English? It may happen soon. Our Future with Icelandic Scandinavian News, by Gunnar Eggertsson Many people think Icelandic is a language in its sickbed and that it needs to be saved. I understand their worries, but does the future of our language really look that bad? According to Dr. David Clingingsmith, a language needs at least 35,000 speakers to be “safe” from becoming a dying language. There are now 314,000 Icelandic speakers. Also, every year Iceland spends 51.3 million Icelandic crowns (3.7 million US dollars) teaching Icelandic to machines: phones, computers, and robots. Icelandic is appearing more often in products. Most importantly, schools still teach Icelandic to children. Clearly, we are not giving up our first language. However, I’m not saying that Iceland has done enough for Icelandic. Our country can do a better job at getting more people to speak this beautiful language. One way to do so is to give more language courses to foreigners. With much more work, I’m sure Icelandic can grow and even reach farther into the world.