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 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 26 30 August 2006 at 6:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
They key thing is the level of the resource which you are attempting to read. You start with the most basic of readers where you are capable of getting the general idea and you're not *needing* to look up vast reams of words because you either know them or can take a guess and you move on from there. Andy. EDIT: I meant to say in my previous post that I haven't stopped using flashcards because they don't work since they do. It's just that I find them tedious - both the preparation and the utilisation. Edited by Andy E on 30 August 2006 at 6:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 10 of 26 30 August 2006 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thanks Andy...
I guess I'll keep trying at these (and also talk to the lady who sold me the last lot of books and get some others that are maybe a little simpler) and continue working FSI & Assimil and just see how it goes.... I'll try to make up a flash card of some description, although I mostly drill these days with Assimil & FSI, so maybe I should add a list to those to drill! Do you think that would work? These books aren't difficult - but maybe the use of grammar is still a little too high and I just need very basic grammar or something.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Ishikawa Minoru Diglot Newbie Portugal Joined 6752 days ago 31 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 26 30 August 2006 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I agree that looking up every word you don't know is tedious,but my OCD just forces me to do that...not once but several times,untill I've convinced myself I do know what a word means and what it represents in the context of the book I am reading.
This is tremendously tiring...even when I am reading a book/article in Portuguese or English.I'm reading the english version of the Japanese novel by Murakami Haruki "Kafka on the Shore" and it's taking a long time.I can read fast,understand what I read and remember it,but because of my disease I keep coming back and read once,twice,many times, the same sentence to reassure myself I did indeed understand it. That's why I can't handle lots of books at the same time.This one is 615 pages long and,since June 9,I've only read 405 pages...maybe I should go with audio books. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 12 of 26 30 August 2006 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Absolutely. For example, El Corte Ingles charges (or at least used to charge) 14 euros for shipping one book or DVD to the United States. However, they charge about 25 euros for two to five items, so it makes sense to order five at a time, with shipping then averaging 5 euros per item. (Just for Spanish DVD's one can do even better ordering several at a time at www.dvdgo.com.) The resultant procedure is to order 5 books and/or DVD's and after a while proceed to order the next five, regardless of whether one has had the time to read or see at least one from the last batch. After several iterations, one ends up with a decent-size collection one can live off for some time.
I would draw a distinction between not knowing what a given paragraph, or a page, or even a good chunk of a chapter says, and having truly and fully lost any sense whatsoever of what's going on in the novel. If it's the latter, it may be a problem, but if it's only the former, you just don't worry about the part you didn't get and keep moving. In my dark moments I find it helpful to compare this approach to reading to the situation one is in when listening to the radio the first few times. With the radio one is told to expect to get at most an odd word or a phrase here and there and be happy with it. Yet, one can get a lot more from a book and still feel like a total loser. This is purely psychological and is not justified. Edited by frenkeld on 30 August 2006 at 4:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 13 of 26 30 August 2006 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I know what you mean. It drives me crazy not knowing a word on a page, but I guess I'll just have to get over that! I aso have this annoying habit of counting how many words I knew on a page and marking a percentage on it. I guess it's me trying to guage my progress. It doesn't stop me from reading - I love books and desperately want to be able to read in Hungarian - but it possibly hinders me a little. Oh in my post about my friends' suggestions for learning to read, I meant to add that they also told me that I have to talk to them in Hungarian a lot more than I do - even if I think I'm wrong. Basically they said that if I don't do that, I'm never going to be able to speak Hungarian. She also promised that they wouldn't laugh at me - much to my comfort;) I guess a lot of times I do tend to hold off until I am certain that I have something right. I didn't think I would do that, but I do and I can see it now.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 14 of 26 30 August 2006 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You are totally right! At the moment I am reading children's books, so I guess if I'm lost I should be using the pictures to help with the translation and understanding aswell?? I guess in the scope of things, being able to understand even 30-50% of words is progress. I've been studying for about 3 months, but have had weeks off, been unmotivated at times and haven't always devoted a lot of time. Yet again, I'm expecting a lot given the circumstances. I've challenged myself to be speaking Hungarian fairly well on a regular basis by Christmas time - so I need to think about that goal and start making sure that I'm consistently working towards it... Thanks for the wake-up call Frenkeld. That probably wasn't your intention but it certainly got me thinking! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 15 of 26 30 August 2006 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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According to a book by Kató Lomb, a Hungarian polyglot, one should read a book once or twice without a dictionary, trying to figure out the words from context, and then read it again with a dictionary, recording not all the words, but the ones that are of interest to the learner.
In fact, she warns of the dangers of turning a dictionary into a "crutch", since she feels that for an adult the words one figures out on one's own are more likely to stick in one's memory. Edited by frenkeld on 30 August 2006 at 5:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6669 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 16 of 26 22 September 2006 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I also have to agree about how lovely it is to receive new books. I picked up a big package yesterday, and even though the majority of the books were for my boyfriend, I was still thrilled :)
When I read a book, like a children's book, in my target language, I surely look up too many words, and I can impossibly remember them all. Thus, I am now forcing myself to: 1) only write down words I actually think I'll USE, so no obscure words 2) write down the words in a sentence, so as to remember them more easily Then the next step is a flashcard with a silly sound association in my own language, that really works for me :) When I read more advanced books in a language I am more comfortable in, I read bilingual editions or simply get two copies of the book, one in the target language and another in a language I can read fluently in. Then I read phrase by phrase or page by page. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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