Do they speak English in the Faroe Islands?

Can I speak English when visiting the Faroe Islands? Will the locals understand English when speaking to them? How widely is English understood among the Faroe Islanders? Continue reading and learn everything about what to expect when speaking English in the Faroe Islands.

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The mere fact that Faroese is still spoken today is something of a miracle. This ancient language once spoken by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago is understood by only about 100,000 people in the world.

Faroese was the subject of a centuries-long campaign by colonizers to eradicate it entirely. And yet, unlike most small languages in the world, Faroese is thriving. 

But, like 7,999,900,000 other people on earth, you don’t speak Faroese, do you? Instead, you’re one of the billion-ish people who have some level of fluency in English, and you’ve found reasons to visit the Faroe Islands. That brings up the following inevitable question:

Is English widely spoken in Faroe Islands?

You’ll be happy to learn the answer to that question is an emphatic “yes.” English is taught in Faroese schools starting in the 4^th grade. This practice started in the mid-1970s. That means pretty much any Faroese person you encounter who is in their late 50s or younger will speak flawless English.

Even a lot of the old-timers in outlying villages will have some English proficiency. Back in the day, and even now, Faroese fishing boats can land their catches in places like Scotland and even Canada. That means the workers on those boats at least knew enough English to figure out where the closest pub was and how to acquire whisky. 

The past decade has also seen rapid growth in Faroese news and current events in English. The website local.fo gives your news entirely in English. The Faroe Islands is also the subject of an English-language Faroe Islands podcast that has been in production since 2009.

Villages popular with tourists now have signs in English that will help you with both navigation and history you might be unfamiliar with. In addition, most restaurants have menus in English, or at the very least will have servers who can easily help you navigate your options in English.

Flawless English Everywhere

In short: if you speak English and visit the Faroe Islands, you’ll be just fine. But that assurance should come with a pair of warnings, and a little bit of advice. Let’s start with the warnings. 

First, many Faroese people you come in contact with will apologize for their terrible English. Do not believe them. The first clue that the self-assessment of their English skills may not be accurate is that they’re apologizing for their poor English in flawless English.

Depending on how many people you talk to, you’re likely to hear this apology 2-4 times per day. Just smile and nod and say something like, “your English sounds great to me,” which will be easy to say because it’s actually the truth.

Second, be prepared to answer for some of your grammar choices, especially your bad ones. While the Faroese have fantastic language skills, most speak English as a third language (the second is usually Danish). As such, many Faroese view a conversation with someone who speaks English as a first language as an opportunity to fine tune their skills.

So when you get lazy and flub pronunciation of a word or mangle the grammar in a sentence, you may get an odd look from conversation partner. They may even ask you a question about how you spoke that last sentence, not by way of correction, but because they’re trying to learn from a “native speaker” of English.

Then you have to sheepishly admit that the way you were saying it was wrong and the way they pronounce it is correct. It can get embarrassing pretty quickly.

Learn Some Faroese Words

And now for the advice: learn a few Faroese words anyway. Yes, you can get by entirely in English in the Faroe Islands, and most Faroese people are perfectly happy to speak English to you. But learning even a few Faroese words can get you really far. And all it takes is a few words, and they’re mostly easy to learn if English is your starting point.

“Yes” and “no” in Faroese are “ja” and “nei,” which you could probably figure out even without this article. “Takk fyri” (thank you) is really handy to learn. And if you want to be a hit at the pub, just raise a pint and say “skál,” and it’s likely everyone around you will do the same.

So when you come to the Faroes, you can relax confident in the knowledge that English will allow you to accomplish most everything you need to. And if you come with a handful of Faroese words at your disposal, you might even make some new friends, too.

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