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America Reads Spanish- Essential Guide | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5346 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 9 of 15 19 October 2012 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
A great author with which to begin your journey into the vast domains of Spanish-language literature is Mario Vargas Llosa. His prose is clear even if not soaring, and his language is colloquial. At the other end of the literary spectrum you can find Jorge Luis Borges. You will learn from him what the written word may accomplish, anytime, anywhere and in any tongue. Effortless, seemingly weightless language will lift your mind like a feather into the unexplored. Regarding the differences between Latin American and Peninsular Spanish - don't make a factor of it. They are not great enough to hinder comprehension, and all they comprise together must be learnt in order to claim true and useful knowledge of the language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 10 of 15 19 October 2012 at 1:40am | IP Logged | ||
We're all going to have different opinions of things - and please don't think I was criticizing you for making the suggestion. If it's generating good discussion (and it is) then it's a good post. And there's good content in the link, I just found it frustrating that the editors hadn't edited their list down! (and I get an error code whenever I try to open the site's articles, but am intrigued by the one that starts with: Susan Sarandon speaks five languages ... " Who knew?) Edited by kanewai on 19 October 2012 at 1:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5263 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 11 of 15 19 October 2012 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||
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No offense taken, kanewai. Just trying to help.
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 12 of 15 08 November 2012 at 7:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm surprised at how few Mario Vargas Llosa stories I'm finding for ebooks. I've read
him in English, I like him, and I'm ready to start reading some Spanish. Like iguanamon, I dove into the deep end with French. It was hard, it worked for me, but my Spanish is not at the same level. I want a good vacation read! I downloaded Los Jefes, a collection of six short stories. I'm open for any other recommendations! (And there is such a lack of parallel text / dual language books for kindle. I love starting with these. I found more than I could read in French. I would've thought that there'd be even more in Spanish) Edited by kanewai on 08 November 2012 at 6:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 13 of 15 08 November 2012 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Jorge Luis Borges is probably my favourite author. I think nevertheless he isn't the most difficult author in Spanish to read at all. Other very valuable writers, namely Julio Cortázar and Alejo Carpentier, are more complicated in my opinion, let alone many others.
As for easy books to read by writers of books in Spanish, I am not sure since I'm Spanish. However, I think these (good) titles could be rather than easier if they're compared with the others aforementioned. And they're short as well! - "Crónica de una muerte anunciada", by Gabriel García Márquez. - "El coronel no tiene quien le escriba", by Gabriel García Márquez. - "Territorio Comanche", by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. - "Todos mis cuentos", by Ana María Matute. Look out! Regarding her short tales, mostly for children, they are easy to read, but it's different as for her adult novels. EDIT Although I already said I desagree with the 'huge' differences in vocabulary between Spain and Latin America, I want to say a little more. I read books in English from a number of countries, namely UK, USA, Nygeria and Canada so far. As far as I can see, it serves as a way to build a strong vocab. Moreover and regardless the regional differences within the countries, most of the books are written in a 'cult style' which doesn't varies from country to country. And yet the books which 'speak' with regional voices can be difficult within regions and generations. For example, it was a bit hard for me to read "Si te dicen que caí", a mid-XX century book written by the Catalan writer Juan Marsé. Edited by Dagane on 08 November 2012 at 3:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 14 of 15 01 May 2013 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is strange: I can read French much better than I can speak it, but I can speak
Spanish much better than I can read it. I still struggle with Spanish literature ... but that hasn't stopped me from keeping a wish-list of books I want to read! These are the authors I've seen mentioned most often Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spain) Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) Carlos Fuentes (Mexico) Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia) Manuel Puig (Argentina) Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina) Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Spain) Arturo Pérez Reverte (Spain) Roberto Bolaño (Chile) Javier Marías (Spain) Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain) Diamela Eltit (Chile, US) Federico García Lorca (Spain) Pablo Neruda (Chile) Octavio Paz (Mexico) Isabel Allende (Chile & US) Ana María Matute (Spain) Julio Cortázar (Argentina) Alejo Carpentier (Cuba) I've only managed to finish a few short stories and poems since this thread was started (sad, eh?), but my initial impressions are that Allende and Fuentes are manageable for a beginner, that Neruda and Márquez's writing is much more beautiful in Spanish than in English, and that Cortázar is frikkin impossible to understand. Edited by kanewai on 01 May 2013 at 11:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4263 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 15 of 15 02 May 2013 at 9:19am | IP Logged | ||
The differences in vocabulary between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish are TINY. The biggest difference I note is just the pronunciation, which just marks the person as being from a certain country or region. And the vosotros, of course, used in Spain. For such a widely extended language, Spanish is extremely uniform. Edit: Source of information: lived in Spain and Latin America plus many thousands of hours with the language. Edited by casamata on 02 May 2013 at 9:20am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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