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  1. After four months I completed the Duolingo German tree!

    I have thoroughly enjoyed using Duolingo and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn a language it supports. Having said that, there are many things it will not teach, for which I recommend and am using these additional resources:

    • The Memrise Beginners German (A1) course — the vocab complements the Duolingo course, is more strict about umlauts, and has proper native speaker audio
    • The Your Daily German Online Course is a collection of articles which explain a lot of interesting grammar points you will have absorbed from the Duolingo course. They also do a “word/prefix of the day” blog series which is extremely helpful. Don’t be put off by the weird, long-winded writing style, it’s a lot of fun and contains a lot of excellent explanations.
    • Deutsch, Warum Nicht? from Deutsche Welle, is an old radio course which I’ve been using to improve hearing comprehension. As well as being a good course, it has nice classical music breaks and endlessly amusing details. Anyone who enjoys Look Around You will love Deutsch, Warum Nicht.

    Online Deutsche Welle CEFR placement tests put me at A2 right now. Good thing too, as I’m headed for Germany later this month…

  7. Iceland treated me to some of the best views I’ve ever had of Hvalfjörður and Reykjavík on the flight out this morning, before the UK tried to bake me. Nice to be home after a long day traveling.

  13. Spent this morning meeting a very interesting old hurdy gurdy owned by some very interesting people. Tomorrow we’re off to find a lathe with which to fix it.

  14. Video: Benjamin Bech playing Icelandic dance tunes at VAKA 2015:

    https://youtu.be/bBxX0JYgnq4

    These tunes are three of the pieces of music Benjamin has discovered whilst researching old dance music known to have been played in Iceland. All three feel to me like polkas, although the second (“ræll”) could probably be played as a schottish too.

  16. Back in Reykjavík after the thoroughly enjoyable Vaka festival! Many new friends made, tunes and dances learned. Thanks to everyone involved for putting on such a great event!

    Now to catch up on four days of no German practice…

  18. Last minute reminder: VAKA is in Akureyri from this Wednesday! Join us for four days of Northern European folk music, dancing, workshops and crafts.