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Managing several reading languages | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| flabbergasted Triglot Groupie Latvia Joined 6347 days ago 75 posts - 97 votes  Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Latvian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Persian | Message 1 of 7 25 December 2010 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi,
I've got a problem with my reading languages, and I hope to get some quality advice here. Besides English, I can read four foreign languages with different degrees of fluency, and I like reading literature in the original of course. I still cannot find the best way of reading four books in these four languages. I cannot swallow a book a day (even in English), so that strategy is out of the question. I've tried to read one language a week and then switch to another one. One the other hand, I spent more time with the given language, but on the other, I had to wait for 3 weeks to go back to it. I've tried to read two languages one day, then the other two another day, and so on. With this method, I was more often exposed to the languages, but I didn't manage to read as much as I wanted. Do you have a similar problem, and how do you deal with it? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 7 26 December 2010 at 1:57am | IP Logged | |||||
This is what I do. What do you mean that you didn't manage to read as much as you wanted? Is it just that your total time is cut in half, or are you saying your efficiency is also reduced? If it's the former, just read one per day. I don't know what to say if it's the latter, because I've never had that problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5438 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 3 of 7 26 December 2010 at 9:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think a big question is whether you're reading books to maintain languages or maintaining languages to read books. Learning and maintaining languages is hard, so you want to make sure it's worth your while. That means you need to make sure the books you're reading are worth it in their own right, not just as tools for maintaining the language.
If you've got four books that you think are good, I'd just set them out together with a pencil. Read whatever you want, however long you want. When you're done, note the date and the time spent reading to the nearest 15 minutes inside the front cover. Every so often, take a look at these notations. If there's a book you haven't been reading that much, better get a different one. (And if there isn't another book in the language that you'd like to have a go at, why are you using mental energy to maintain reading skills in that language?) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| flabbergasted Triglot Groupie Latvia Joined 6347 days ago 75 posts - 97 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Latvian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Persian | Message 4 of 7 26 December 2010 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
By 'as much as I wanted' I meant the total number of pages read. If I read one language per week, it is possible to read about 100 pages. If I read two languages every day, that number is smaller of course. If I'm too busy, I might read 5 pages of one language, and 5 of the other per day. Then I would have from 20 to 30 pages read in each language every week. As to the purpose of my reading, I read to maintain the language and to increase my vocabulary, but also to enjoy good literature. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5311 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 7 26 December 2010 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
If you read 20 to 30 pages per language per week you stll read 80 to 120 pages per week. Don't be too hard on yourself. You'll eventually be able to read more. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 6 of 7 26 December 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It sounds like what you need is more time, like the rest of us. If it were me, I'd stick to the 2 languages per day, and
not worry about it. Every other day, 10 min +, is enough to maintain a language. I don't think reading every day for one week per month will be nearly as good. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| flabbergasted Triglot Groupie Latvia Joined 6347 days ago 75 posts - 97 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Latvian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Persian | Message 7 of 7 26 December 2010 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the encouragement, guys! Another potential danger, if the book is too good, to
get carried away with one language and to start neglecting the others. But that's a matter of self-control. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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