Hacker News Reader

Comment by jpseawell | Hacker News Reader

The latter. I’m attracted to the Icelandic culture as well as the landscape. I mentioned Reykjavík specifically because I assumed most dev jobs would be there, but I really just want to move to Iceland, haha.

Learning new languages is fun though! I think it changes the way your brain thinks.

View on HN

If you're interested in learning the language, you may want to look at HÍ's Icelandic as a Second Language programs. As a side benefit, they're officially full-time university study, which makes you eligible for a student resident permit(1).

This is the route I took last year, for similiar reasons as yourself. I'm now pursuing my Master's in CS there and having a great time.

(1) Assuming you also meet all of ÚTL's general requirements.

This is really interesting. Does the program require an actual full-time amount of study, or does it just meet the legal classification?

For the practical diploma (1-year course) 10 of the 30 credits each semester are an online self-study course. Classroom time is 4 100-minute sessions per week, and the overall study load was definitely lower in that program than I have now with a 30-credit engineering program. The actual amount of study time you’ll need will be highly variable depending on your own language learning aptitude.

There’s also a full Bachelor’s program for people who have gotten the basics already. Because the baseline admission requirements are higher, I imagine it entails comparably higher amount of effort.

Best of luck. We moved here this summer and it's lovely. It's quite easy with an EEA passport and remote work. If you make it over, look me up and I'll buy you a kaffi.

Takk fyrir!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com