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Have any books ever disheartened you? | ||
Tags: Motivation | Book | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5454 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 9 of 23 18 September 2011 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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This is a really interesting topic. I remember being very disheartened at university by The Brothers
Karamazov in Russian, despite being able to plough through Anna Karenina with very few problems. I also remember being made to read Lalka by Boleslaw Prus, the so-called "Polish War and Peace" ("except better", according to my Polish professor, who was possibly a little biased) after only a year of study. This was such a disheartening experience for me that it was one of the factors that led me to quit my Polish course at the end of the second year, a decision I have always regretted. Also at university we read both Tod in Venedig and some short stories by Christa Wolf, and although I don't remember much about the language itself, I know I was quite overwhelmed by the brilliance of the former while being distinctly underwhelmed by the latter. Right now I'm trying to advance my Georgian by reading some modern literature. There is a lot of great stuff being published in Georgia right now, all of which is, sadly but unsurprisingly, being completely ignored everywhere else. I have found one writer, called David Kartvelishili, whose writing I seem to be able to understand no problem at all. To be able to race through Georgian literature, understanding almost everything, after only a year and a bit of study gives me a huge boost. However, every time I think I will spread my wings and try another author, I am completely lost by page three. It's so frustrating and disheartening. I guess Mr. Kartvelishvili must just write in really simple Georgian. Anyway, I have a huge pile of books I bought in Tbilisi so I won't throw in the towel just yet. Edited by TixhiiDon on 18 September 2011 at 2:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Haukilahti Triglot Groupie Finland Joined 4954 days ago 94 posts - 126 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Polish | Message 10 of 23 18 September 2011 at 10:57am | IP Logged | ||
Wish me luck, as I am starting reading and listening to Lalka in a few days. Though we have different tastes, Cichy Don being my favourite novel of all times. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4818 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 11 of 23 18 September 2011 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||
I hope this doesn't make you give up on E.M.Forster, because he was one of our best writers. Perhaps in time, you can return to him. And there are some excellent film versions of a lot of his books, which might also help. I used to find Fontane too difficult, and now don't, although I still have to work at it, and I hope I will be able to tackle Mann when I get around to him again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5912 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 12 of 23 11 November 2011 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Believe it or not, Harry Potter in Russian has been a very disheartening experience for
me. For one, there are simply way too many words I do not understand. The dialogue, easy! The descriptions... another story entirely. Secondly, the translation simply failed to capture the appropriate sense of whimsy that was present in the original book. A lot of the fun with dialects was lost and the translator took no care to use the same special fonts used by Rowling (simply used italics for everything!). I am 3/4s of the way through the book, and when I finish reading it I will dance and sing. Oddly enough, I find non-fiction easier to read. I am reading a book about the historiography of the US, and I find myself understanding quite a bit for what should be an advanced book. Not everything, but enough to be able to appreciate and learn from the book. Alas, the book gets quite boring at times and I find myself not wanting to finish it. But I must! In English, I once read part of a book called <Haiti: Predatory State> or something like that. I have quite an impressive vocabulary in English, but this book used more strange words than a pseudo-post-modern author trying to sound cool. Probably the first time I gave up reading an English book due to vocabulary! Even your native language can surprise you... And Don Quixote in Spanish. Yikes. Not a good choice for a first book. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6693 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 23 12 November 2011 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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There will always be things I can't read because I don't have the necessary knowledge (or because it is so boring that I fall asleep), but in general I wouldn't say it is disheartening - I just find something else to read. Sometimes or I carry on in slower tempo or I read doggedly on in the belief that even native readers would have trouble (actually I did 'read' Finnegan's Wake during my study years, and NOBODY speaks the language in that book), but the world doesn't go under because I have chosen the wrong book.
The thing that really would be disheartening if I couldn't find anything that was within my reach. Edited by Iversen on 28 November 2011 at 1:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5837 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 23 12 November 2011 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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The first thing I have to do is to look up the verb "to dishearten" (AmE) =
to make sb lose hope or confidence OK, now I am ready to answer the original question! If I find a certain book in a foreign language too difficult to understand then I accept this stage of language knowledge and choose something more easy to read without being frustrated. The Danish book we read in my Danish course is above my language level of Danish, so I accept the fact that after having looked up the vocabs I still don't understand everything. But I know that the more I will read the more I will understand, so there is no reason for me to be disheartened! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 12 November 2011 at 8:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5324 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 15 of 23 12 November 2011 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have one book in each of the languages I studied at the University which I was unable to get through. I have always assumed that it was the content more than the language that put me off though. In English: Yonnondio, in French: Mme. Bovary, and in Spanish Fortunata y Jacinta. I have tried repeatedly to read them. I can't. Life is too short.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5120 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 16 of 23 12 November 2011 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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How about a lack of reading/literature?
I would love to delve deeper into Ojibwe, but it's largely an oral culture and there just isn't much available for it. Very close to me there's an Ojibwe band with elder speakers, but as an outsider, I'm looked upon with suspicion if I even ask about any sort of material. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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