Hard work it was, but well worth it. Compared to learning Finnish, Swedish was easy, being so close to Dutch. But not as useful for shaping the brain as Finnish was. It is expected that 2000 such small languages will become extinct during the coming century. Such extinction represents an irretrievable loss of part of the common heritage of mankind, a loss not unlike that of a biological species.
Extinction is forever.
Finnish, and Finnish-Swedish, the variety of Swedish spoken in Finland, are established national languages with a firm legal status, so one would think that they are not under threat. Well, think again. Too small a market. And all icelanders know English anyway. What makes this all the more painful is that Iceland is an exceptionally literate nation and Icelandic an established national language enjoying massive official support.