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Russian through literature

  Tags: Literature | Russian
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148 messages over 19 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 18 19 Next >>
tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6706 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 1 of 148
22 June 2008 at 12:28pm | IP Logged 
Having studied Russian for a while now, I finally feel that I can read literature relatively easy. "Relatively" being the key word here, and "easy" being a very optimistic choice of word.

I have quite a lot of material on my hands. I despise reading on a screen, so the material I have is in book form (although there are really good literature sites out there).

I have:

* 1 easy reader with audio
* 4 dual language books
* 2 full novels (both with audio), 1 novel without audio
* 1 book of poetry

+ some more that I have surely forgotten about, one ELLE magazine, one National Geographic kind of magazine and one Culinary magazine.

I have almost read all of my easy reader and I am currently reading one of my dual books, and I will focus on my progress in that first, and then finish the easy reader before moving on. I will record all the things I do in connection with my books (vocab cramming and such) and what I think about the books.

I write about these things on my blog too, but not in that much detail.

---

First out: Pushkin's Пиковая Дама/La Dame de Pique -- French dual language book.

I have so far read until page 44, (the actual book starts on page 28). I have noticed that the translation is very very literate, so it often deviates quite a bit from the original. The main idea is always there, but sometimes details are left out. Example:

И графия в сотый раз рассказала внуку свой анекдот = Et la comtesse raconta pour la centième fois son anecdote/And the countess told her anecdote for the hundredth time

Those kinds of things are everywhere, but they don't bother me since I can identify them. I guess it's all about how Russian expresses things in such simple ways, while you need lots and lots of words to say the same thing in French.

I'm not big on the plot yet, gambling and such isn't really my thing, but we'll see what happens :) I haven't written down any word lists yet, but I may do that later.
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tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6706 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 3 of 148
23 June 2008 at 11:08am | IP Logged 
I got it sent to me from Russia, and a Russian girl from this forum found me the right audio, so it's waiting. First I'm going to tackle the dual language books though :)
1 person has voted this message useful



tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6706 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 4 of 148
25 June 2008 at 2:34pm | IP Logged 
I haven't read much, evenings tend to get swallowed up in lethargy. It's a shame one of the main characters is a horrible bitch, but perhaps the focus will shift from the Countess soon ;)

Just an extract that I liked.

Графиня ***, конечно, не имела злой души; но была своенравна, как женщина, избалованная светом, скупа и погружена в холодный эгоизм, как и все старые люди, отлюбившие в свой век и чуждые настоящему.

I think I maaaaaay start using Pauker for words from this one. Perhaps.

--> Going on page 50.
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tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6706 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 5 of 148
18 August 2008 at 3:38am | IP Logged 
Oh I hate summer, it always messes up my self discipline D:

Well, not very very much going on here. I'm on page 70 of Пиковая Дама, and since I got all my books shipped from Sweden, I now have my little book Снежность as well, so I'm reading an emo mini novella in it, with quite a lot of success ;) It's called Дождь в ладонах, and I'm learning lots of poetic words that I won't need for a while when I write, but which sure are indispensable for reading love stories!

Пиковая Дама isn't really all that, but I like it. It's finally gotten to the point where the poor girl is being used by the greedy young man. Can't help but like that sort of turn.
1 person has voted this message useful



tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
Joined 6706 days ago

745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 6 of 148
25 August 2008 at 3:57pm | IP Logged 
I finished Пиковая Дама! It was cute, and I think I have learnt a couple of new words ;) I started reading my second dual language book, Герой нашего времени, and the foreword was amazingly easy to read, so I think this book has improved my reading capacities. Instead of reading the same page veeery slowly three times, I can read two and a half rather fast (all things being relative) and just once.
-- Then in the first chapter, page two, I stumbled upon some massive descriptions of nature, so that didn't go as smoothly, but that is to be expected.

I have NO idea what this book is about, except for what I read in the foreword about a horrible, immoral main character. I prefer not to know anything about a book I am going to read, so it's just perfect. This one is more than twice as long as Пиковая Дама, so I figure it will take me a while.
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reineke
Senior Member
United States
https://learnalangua
Joined 6475 days ago

851 posts - 1008 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 7 of 148
25 August 2008 at 4:40pm | IP Logged 
Congratulations and good luck with your second book!
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Zenit
Newbie
Russian Federation
Joined 6027 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes

 
 Message 8 of 148
28 August 2008 at 5:29am | IP Logged 
Привет всем!
У меня к вам вопрос, для чего вы учите русский?
Как вам всем удается говорить на 4х языках, у меня запара с английским,
может советом поделитесь как его улучшить? Буду очень признателен!


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