I will just start with my personal preferences and reasons for them. For me, having the material in both Icelandic and English is just very important. Not only because I am not Icelandic and have only been here for 6 years, almost 3 of which studying Computer Science in HR. Most of the time I do not have any issues, unless it is writing in Icelandic when I, for any possible reasons, cannot get any help. I am therefore very glad that this has not been a problem so far and am glad to have had this opportunity. However, I think it is important due to the other fact: here we are talking about Computer Science - something that is worldwide. Computer Science is just so international that I think English is just an inseparable part of it. The most of the reading material is coming from abroad, we code in English, and there is a very big chance that in the future we, as computer scientists, are going to be working in collaboration with other countries where the communication and work done is going to be in English.

I personally more than agree that it simplifies the task when the person is able to do things in the language he/she is most confident using. However, as I mentioned before, English nowadays is just a part of what we do here.

 

Nonetheless, if I think of this from the side of being a native Icelandic speaker, I believe I would obviously prefer to have everything in my native language. If I had a chance to do everything in Russian, it would of course be the most convenient way. The advantage of having everything in Icelandic (if I was one) would be that it would strengthen the reading and writing (since we are so used to it), it would not cause any doubts, no issues regarding our confidence, everything would be clear and with no misunderstandings.

 

I can however just tell from my personal experience that there is, for example, way too little usage of English in Russia and people simply do not speak it. This in fact does not lead to anything but discomfort: discomfort when going abroad, whether it's work or travel; discomfort when meeting people from abroad; discomfort when not understanding enough on the media and so on.

 

Therefore, what I am trying to say is that if everything we study was in Icelandic, it would be comfortable for a moment, but it would lead to the lack of practice and, probably, discomfort in the future (profession wise). So I think it is better to grab the opportunity whenever there is one, because first of all, it is only for our own good.

 

Author: Albina Guseynova, student at Reykjavik University