Liz Dornan, a young woman in her twenties, living in the South of England, whose insights and wit are delightful, opens up about her thoughts on Iceland, the country once she planned to move to but didn’t.
“I imagine this is what it feels like when you love your boyfriend/girlfriend but you know that in order to have the best experience you have to break up with them, but you haven't told them yet and every time you're about to, they unwittingly remind you why you're with them in the first place and you're back to square one. That's what leaving my Iceland dreams behind feels like. I'm grieving!”
Liz Dornan opens up about her thoughts on Iceland, the country once she planned to move to but didn’t, during her fourth time being here in Reykjavik. Photo by Yanshu Li
1. How did Iceland start to appear on your radar of interesting places in the world?
I suppose the financial crash in 2008 was the first time I knew anything specific, and then in 2010 when Eyjafjallajökull erupted I tried and failed to pronounce its name. My thoughts were wow they can't handle money. Wow they actually imprisoned their bankers! Why are they all banging pots and pans outside Alþingi? How the hell do you pronounce this volcano?
I've always been a big Tolkien fan and of course he was heavily influenced by the sagas and the Norse culture so my current interest grew from there! I also prefer being cold to hot and the concept of The North appeals to me.
What cemented my interest in the Icelandic language was my language history lectures during my Linguistics degree. Always '(except Icelandic)' so I googled this language which apparently doesn't change! Plot twist - actually it does just not in its grammar.
2. What do you think about Iceland after you visited and studied in the country?
I've visited Iceland four times, twice on short holiday breaks and twice to study. I preferred studying there than visiting on holiday.
I think you only understand Reykjavik after having been there for a while, because it's scenes are lower key and more cozy than in larger cities so a holidaymaker misses them. It's also useful to have things to do during the day! I got bored as a holidaymaker. I think the feel of Iceland is very different between holidaymakers and locals, highlighted by the language barrier.
There's a lot that I only found out about when my Icelandic got better, and when I'd got into the culture. I shan't ask what kind of things other people say until I've said what I want to so it doesn't affect what I say.
Downtown Reykjavik feels really fake even though there are Icelanders hanging out there all the time. Like the locals and the tourists are moving in two separate worlds. I don't know if you've read The City And The City by Gina Miéville but it felt like that: two populations moving in the same or similar places by carefully ignoring each other.
3. You planned to eventually come to Iceland and work here for a while. Has that plan changed?
I'd love to but the reality is that I would feel stifled in the job market. It feels like every industry is run by one or two families so if you don't like how one company operates then it's difficult to find alternative employment in the same sector. Yeah, I love Iceland but the small scale of the job market doesn't appeal. Working for RÚV is still at the back of my mind though! But I don't think I'll ever be proficient enough in Icelandic for the market to really open up for me. I think having Icelandic as a second language would be quite limiting.
I would be very daunted working in an environment where everyone was speaking Icelandic, but it would be the best way to improve my language skills! The realisation that because of my English v.s. my Icelandic skills I would probably end up in the tourism industry was a big part of putting me off. I have no desire to work in tourism. But I also meant it in another sense; that career development is probably harder in Iceland due to its small size. I think if I did start a career there I'd have to move after a few years for career progression. I think not being native would hamper my development.
4. What do you do currently in England?
I work as an administrative assistant in a commercial supply chain role for an online retailer.
5. About learning Icelandic, what are the biggest hurdles for you to master this language? What turned out to be easier than you thought in learning?
“The difference between Icelandic and English.” Photo courtesy to Liz Dornan.
I understand far more than I can say but the morphology got me in the end! I loved learning the language and as a native English speaker with a fair exposure to Welsh, the phonology didn't bother me, but yes, the morphology is a beast! It's redundant, too because the word order is fixed now rather than flexible as it was in Old Norse. Which is why other Nordic languages like Norwegian and Danish have lost so much morphology.
Also whilst I love the logic of combining nouns to make new nouns like ljós and mynd = ljósmynd, this was also very confusing because they end up sounding similar. Bíómynd, ljósmynd, hugmynd; if you're feeling tired you have to split them apart and backwards engineer to get to the meaning rather than film, photo and idea which sound very different to each other. But I do love the logic there! What's also frustrating is that you have to learn all these case endings and then Icelanders swallow them anyway!
Wait, is it bíómynd or kvikmynd... oh it's both!
6. There are a lot of information about Iceland that are actually stemmed from marketing or public relations. What are your thoughts on that?
PR is like the fantasy that could never be real, with the perfect lighting and filters and other photoshooting. But I prefer the real Iceland full of real people, concrete buildings, too much sun or too little sun, rain, humidity, dull colours. Because it's more interesting. And then sometimes you really do get that Instagram shot and its rarity makes it mean something and makes you pay attention to it.
Icelandic countryside does look like a painting though because there are so few trees. You can see to the horizon from one spot so I was happy to stand and stare rather than wanting to walk into the landscape as I do in the forested parts of Wales or Scotland say. I suppose that's good because you shouldn't walk on the moss anyway!
I think that really you can get as good a feel of the dramatic icelandic wilderness from photos, it's the people that matter. Which is funny because so many guides say GET OUT OF REYKJAVIK ASAP.
I haven't seen Iceland in the dark so I sadly can't comment on the Northern Lights. And I did enjoy my excursions into the countryside but it was the company and the comments on the wilderness which made it rather than this magical connection to the raw power of nature or anything like that. Mind you twisting my ankle demonstrated the 'raw power' of the rocks on Mt. Esja.
The healthcare system is very good. Happily I didn't have to go to hospital, especially as they're digging up the main road atm! That construction site made the walk to university much more interesting. Also the Reykjavik cats are as cute as promised. And finally taking a swimming costume last time was the best decision.
Dinning at Hlemmur Food Court in Reykjavik after her Icelandic class at University of Iceland, July, 2019. - Photo by Yanshu Li
7. If you were to describe Iceland only with three words, what would they be?
My three words are different from Reykjavik and for the countryside.
For Reykjavik: self-assured, swamped smalltown.
For the countryside: eerie, half-dressed filmset.