Icelandic board games
When I was learning Hungarian, one great idea our teacher had was to bring a Hungarian Scrabble set to class, give us a bunch of tiles at random, and have a contest to see who could make the most words. It was a great and fun way of exercising our vocabulary. With this in mind, last week I placed a mail order for Scrabble in Icelandic. The store, Eymundsson, also had Icelandic Monopoly, so I ordered that too! Scrabble was 4012 kr., Monopoly was 7225 kr., and airmail shipping to Britain was 3310 kr. The package arrived just three days after being mailed.
My classmates and I will have a go at playing both games, making sure to speak in Icelandic only. Of course, for Monopoly we'll have to learn some new vocabulary (mortgage, rent, dice, tax, etc.), but playing should give us lots of practice with conversations relating to buying and selling, and with numbers.
I think the board spaces are named after streets in Reykjavik, and the currency is, of course, the Icelandic króna. As there are no railways in Iceland, the four spaces with railroads in the original edition are replaced with three airports and a bus station. The airport spaces have airplane symbols instead of locomotive symbols, but curiously the bus station space retains the locomotive symbol. Unfortunately, the Chance and Community Chest cards lack the Rich Uncle Pennybags illustrations of the American edition.
Here's the board layout, which I've submitted to Wikipedia's article on localized editions of Monopoly.
Frítt stæði
Ármúli
22.000 kr. Áhætta Síðumúli
22.000 kr. Suðurlandsbraut
24.000 kr. Akureyrar-
flugvöllur
20.000 kr. Bankastræti
26.000 kr. Austurstræti
26.000 kr. Orkuveita
Reykjavíkur
15.000 kr. Laugavegur
28.000 kr. Farðu í fangelsi
Krókháls
20.000 kr. MONOPOLY Mávanes
30.000 kr. Fossháls
18.000 kr. Haukanes
30.000 kr. Samfélagssjóður Samfélagssjóður Lyngháls
18.000 kr. Blikanes
32.000 kr. Egilsstaða-
flugvöllur
20.000 kr. Leifsstöð
20.000 kr. Bíldshöfði
16.000 kr. Áhætta Höfðabakki
14.000 kr. Smáralind
35.000 kr. Rarik
15.000 kr. Fjármagns-
tekjuskattur
borgaðu
(10.000 kr.) Stórhöfði
14.000 kr. Kringlan
40.000 kr. Fangelsi/Bara í heimsókn Haukalind
12.000 kr. Jöklalind
10.000 kr. Áhætta Kaldalind
10.000 kr. BSÍ Umferðar-
miðstöðin
20.000 kr. Tekjuskattur-
borgaðu
(20.000 kr.) Brávallagata
6.000 kr. Samfélagssjóður Bárugata
6.000 kr. BYRJUN
Þú færð 20.000 kr. í hvert skipti sem þú ferð hér framhjá
In case anyone else is interested in ordering games, you can check out what's available at Eymundsson, but the website currently doesn't take online orders for customers outside Iceland. If you call them, though, they speak English and are happy to take international orders by phone or fax. You'll need a credit card. The salesperson in charge of international orders is Renate Steingrímsdóttir Ólafsson, tel. +354 540 2000 / fax +354 511 1151.
Oh, and be sure to check out my own LiveJournal as I occasionally post Icelandic language-related stuff there that doesn't end up on this community board. :)