When Icelanders head abroad for either work or pleasure, they often find themselves at the mercy of foreign curiosity when it comes to their country and language. Asked to entertain with funny words and repeated rolls of Rs (try to roll that three times faster), Icelanders often oblige, wondering if there is anything other countries are interested in when it comes to Iceland, other than how to correctly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull.
When Icelandic comedian Ari Eldjárn appeared on national Australian television, he found out that no—no matter where you go, the questions is always the same: can you say Eyjafjallajökull for us one more time? Because mind you, that’s not easily googlable by now.
Ari, who is now in Melbourne for an International Comedy Festival, very graciously accepted, while the foreign contingent challenged him with hilarious, barely decipherable Australian accents in return, and poked fun at the Icelandic language—all in good fun, of course. The joke, apparently never gets old, so a team of experts is now considering changing the name of volcano Katla into something unpronounceable in order to further challenge television hosts when its long overdue eruption finally hits the International radars. After all, we can’t go on saying Eyjafjallajökull forever, no?
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