Iceland: A Country With More Tourists Than Citizens
During my visit to Iceland during the summer of 2018, I learned several interesting facts about the country, the most startling of which was the fact that Iceland's population is slightly over 334,000 people. To put that a bit more into perspective, the United States has a population of over 328 million people (according to the United States Census Bureau). The United States's population is thus over 982x the size of Iceland's population (that's insane!!).
Another interesting fact I heard while I was in Iceland was the fact that over 2.1 million tourists visited Iceland in 2017. The fact that the number of tourists that visit Iceland each year far exceeds Iceland's population made me wonder what it would be like to live in a country where there are way more tourists than citizens. After learning these 2 facts about Iceland, I soon noticed the consequences of 1) Iceland having such a small resident population and 2) there being so many tourists visiting the country's cities, especially it's capital: Reykjavik.
First I noticed was that most of the signs were either written entirely in English or there was English somewhere on the sign. When I stepped off of the airplane and entered Keflavik (Iceland's largest airport), I noticed that all of the signs that directed passengers to the baggage claim/exit area had English in big bold letters first, with the Icelandic translation under them in a much smaller print or a much less noticeable color. Plus, after exploring the city of Reykjavik itself, I noticed that most store signs or advertisements for cafés, etc. were all in English.
The second main impact of Iceland's small citizen population and larger tourist population is the fact that the majority of the Icelandic people working in Reykjavik spoke English (and many of the other languages of nearby European countries like Denmark or Norway). This makes perfect sense considering the fact that such a small country needs to be able to interact with other countries in order to survive and coexist peacefully with its neighbors. However, since I live in the U.S., it's rare for me to walk into a shop and have the employees know 5-6 languages. Usually (and even this can be rare depending on the part of the U.S. you are in) the employees just know English and one other language (like Spanish or Chinese, etc.). I am going to expand more upon other countries' emphasis on learning foreign languages in a later blogpost, so I am going to end this post here.
Another interesting fact I heard while I was in Iceland was the fact that over 2.1 million tourists visited Iceland in 2017. The fact that the number of tourists that visit Iceland each year far exceeds Iceland's population made me wonder what it would be like to live in a country where there are way more tourists than citizens. After learning these 2 facts about Iceland, I soon noticed the consequences of 1) Iceland having such a small resident population and 2) there being so many tourists visiting the country's cities, especially it's capital: Reykjavik.
First I noticed was that most of the signs were either written entirely in English or there was English somewhere on the sign. When I stepped off of the airplane and entered Keflavik (Iceland's largest airport), I noticed that all of the signs that directed passengers to the baggage claim/exit area had English in big bold letters first, with the Icelandic translation under them in a much smaller print or a much less noticeable color. Plus, after exploring the city of Reykjavik itself, I noticed that most store signs or advertisements for cafés, etc. were all in English.
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| Advertisement for a Café in Reykjavik |
The second main impact of Iceland's small citizen population and larger tourist population is the fact that the majority of the Icelandic people working in Reykjavik spoke English (and many of the other languages of nearby European countries like Denmark or Norway). This makes perfect sense considering the fact that such a small country needs to be able to interact with other countries in order to survive and coexist peacefully with its neighbors. However, since I live in the U.S., it's rare for me to walk into a shop and have the employees know 5-6 languages. Usually (and even this can be rare depending on the part of the U.S. you are in) the employees just know English and one other language (like Spanish or Chinese, etc.). I am going to expand more upon other countries' emphasis on learning foreign languages in a later blogpost, so I am going to end this post here.
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