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From the world of Icelandic volleyball comes a story about a coach’s inspirational talk which apparently woke her team up and motivated them enough that they went on to win. Elsa Sæný Valgeirsdóttir, coach of the men’s volleyball team for HK (Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs), took a timeout in the third set to basically tell her boys how disgusting it was to watch them play after they were losing 2-1. It must have worked, because they went on to win the next two sets and finally the game. For us, we get some new words to learn 🙂
“Viðbjóður að sjá ykkur spila…” – “It’s disgusting to see you play…”
“Elsa Sæný Valgeirsdóttir, þjálfari karlaliðs HK í blaki, stal algjörlega senunni þegar lið hennar varð bikarmeistari í blaki eftir 3-2 sigur á Stjörnunni.”
“Elsa Sæný Valgeirsdóttir, coach of the HK men’s volleyball team, completely stole the show when her team won the cup after a 3-2 victory over Stjarnan.”
The expression “steal the show” uses the word for scene – sena – and of course the verb for steal:
| að stela v (dat) – to steal | ||
|---|---|---|
| present | past | |
| ég | stel | stal |
| þú | stelur | stalst |
| það | stelur | stal |
| við | stelum | stálum |
| þið | stelið | stáluð |
| þau | stela | stálu |
Since stela takes the dative, we see sena in the form senunni – dative singular with definite article.
Elsa let’s her team have it during the timeout, starting with:
“Hvað í andskotanum eru þið að gera. Eruð þið virkilega svona hræddir við að vera hérna og ætla að vinna…”
“What the hell are you you doing? Are you really so afraid of being here and having to win?”
There are several emphatic adverbs in the story, which makes sense given the intensity:
virki·lega adv really gjör·samlega adv completely greini·lega adv clearly
HK woke up after their pep talk; we see the verb twice in the last paragraph:
“HK-menn vöknuðu eftir þrumuræðu frá Elsu en liðið var nánast búið að tapa hrinunni þegar hér var komið við sögu. Staðan eftir þriðju hrinu var 1-2 fyrir Stjörnunni en ræða Elsu hefur greinilega vakið Kópavogsmenn til lífisins því þeir unnu næstu tvær hrinur og urðu bikarmeistarar.”
“HK woke up after the thunderous speech from Elsa, but the team was on the verge of losing the set when we come to our story. The score after the third set was 1-2 in favor of Stjarnan, but Elsa’s speech had clearly brought the men from Kópavogur back to life, as they won the next two sets and became the champions.”
| að vakna – to wake up | ||
|---|---|---|
| present | past | |
| ég | vakna | vaknaði |
| þú | vaknar | vaknaðir |
| það | vaknar | vaknaði |
| við | vöknum | vöknuðum |
| þið | vaknið | vöknuðuð |
| þau | vakna | vöknuðu |
Vocabulary:
við·bjóð/ur m (-s) disgust, loathing þjálfar/i m ( -a, -ar) trainer, coach blak n (-s) volleyball bikar m (-s, -ar) cup (prize) leikhlé n (-s, -) timeout hrin/a f (-u, -ur) set (tennis, volleyball) vor·kenn/a v (dat) (-di, -t) pity þrum/a f (-u, -ur) thunder tap/a v (dat) (-aði) lose ræð/a f (-u, -ur) speech
You can watch the video of Elsa at RÚV as well 🙂