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Why is Tin Tin so hard?

 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading Post Reply
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yantai_scot
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 Message 1 of 9
02 February 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged 
When I was out in China, and a beginner of Mandarin, I mistakenly bought some Tin Tin
books thinking they'd make great reading material. However, it was far too hard and I
had to put them aside in favour of a much easier Manga graphic novel.

I now have a German copy (Der Fall Bienlein) and again, being only at A1 standard, I'm
again finding it very hard to read at the moment- certainly in comparison to the Kleine
Baer und Kleine Tiger books my friend got for me (and I'm sadly enjoying...).

I read elsewhere in this subtopic that someone else had found Tin Tin too advanced.

What reading age/ language ability is Tin Tin?


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patrickwilken
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 Message 2 of 9
02 February 2014 at 7:40pm | IP Logged 
It's hard, because Tintin is bad-ass. :)



Edited by patrickwilken on 02 February 2014 at 7:41pm

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yantai_scot
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 Message 3 of 9
02 February 2014 at 7:43pm | IP Logged 
Blimey! Or should I say, 'einhunderttausend höllenhunden!'?
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emk
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 Message 4 of 9
02 February 2014 at 11:32pm | IP Logged 
Tintin tends to be very slightly formal and old-fashioned, and it uses some vocabulary that doesn't come up in day-to-day conversation. It's one of those books that seems a bit challenging early on. But later on, it's really not bad at all. Another book like that is Le Petit Prince: hard early on, an easy read later.

Oh, and in the spirit of patrick's photo, for those of you who read French, Topito recently had a pair of articles on the relative merits of Tintin and Astrix:

Top 15 des raisons de croire que Tintin défonce Asterix
Top 15 (au moins) des raisons de croire qu’Astérix défonce Tintin

Be advised that this is Topito, and their sense of humor is a little on the low side.
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oziohume
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 Message 5 of 9
03 February 2014 at 4:50pm | IP Logged 
Well this comes across as surprising to me! Last week I bought here in The Hague some
Tintins in Dutch with my very basic level of Dutch, although with good knowledge of both
English and German, and I'm finding them quite easy to read.
More specifically, Vlucht 714 is the one I'm reading.
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patrickwilken
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 Message 6 of 9
03 February 2014 at 4:59pm | IP Logged 
oziohume wrote:
Well this comes across as surprising to me! Last week I bought here in The Hague some
Tintins in Dutch with my very basic level of Dutch, although with good knowledge of both
English and German, and I'm finding them quite easy to read.
More specifically, Vlucht 714 is the one I'm reading.


But if you have good English and German you can probably read (or at least guess) simple Dutch - at least at the level of Tintin. At least that's my impression when I've walked around in Holland with bad German and good English.

Edited by patrickwilken on 03 February 2014 at 5:04pm

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lorinth
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 Message 7 of 9
03 February 2014 at 5:41pm | IP Logged 
To the "Top 15 des raisons de croire que Tintin défonce Asterix", I would add this:

16. Dear intermediate-level language learners, you should prefer Tintin over Asterix because the latter is full to the brim of puns that even native French-speakers sometimes only understand *years* after they have read them for the first time, when they were kids. Tintin's language is more standard and useful.

On the other hand, if you are an advanced level learner and, say, 30-50 years old, using an Asterix quote adequately will win you general acclaim. It's a reliable sign that you have reached true Mastery in the French language.


Edited by lorinth on 03 February 2014 at 5:46pm

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oziohume
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 Message 8 of 9
03 February 2014 at 6:07pm | IP Logged 
Precisely, but my point is that even though I understand perfectly most things, it
doesn't seem to me that Tintin is too difficult even without too much knowledge of a
language. I actually find it perfect, since it lets you get oriented through images.


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