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Russian Audio-books, etc... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6385 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes  Speaks: Latin* | Message 1 of 24 27 July 2007 at 5:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Staying out of the heated 'Listening-Reading' thread as a matter of policy... But if I may be allowed to interject one concept at this junction: why are so many people here keen on using 'War and Peace' or 'Anna Karenina' as learning tools? Or Natsume Souseki?! Or even 'Master and Margarita'? I have no idea if any present-day Russian or Japanese literature is available in audiobooks (and generally prefer my literature read, not listened to) but do you really want to end up sounding somewhat... archaic? Edited by furyou_gaijin on 27 July 2007 at 5:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7102 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 2 of 24 27 July 2007 at 5:56am | IP Logged | |||||
ditto
I recently read a reprint of an old English translation of Pinocchio to my son. I found myself constantly having to translate the English used into something more appropriate. I have to ask myself whether using an audiobook version of the original to learn Italian would be somewhat pointless. Andy Edited by Andy E on 27 July 2007 at 5:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6456 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 3 of 24 27 July 2007 at 6:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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furyou gaijin, do not be that sceptical about that old literature. I've been reading a lot of russian books for teenagers lately, mostly of the comic fantasy kind, and they are stuffed full of latest slang. And latest russian slang is a thing i find hard on keeping up with, it changes so often. So the beneffit of using anna karenina is, that you will find all the words in any dictionary.
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| sheetz Senior Member United States Joined 6376 days ago 270 posts - 356 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 24 27 July 2007 at 6:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Unfortunately, for the case of Japanese, it's been almost impossible to find contemporary literature of decent length in audio format. I get the impression that audio books are somewhat frowned upon by Japanese society. Maybe it's because people believe they discourage literacy and are for "lazy" people? Who knows, but after spending considerable amounts of time doing searches online for Japanese audio books, time and again I would only come across the same works written by the same dead writers. The lone exceptions are the first two Harry Potter books, which cost an arm and a leg to have shipped to the US. But if I get desperate I may end up doing just that.
As far as sounding archaic, I wonder if listening to works which have been translated from foreign languages into Japanese would be somewhat better, since the translations are typically written quite a bit more recently than the original works themselves. Edited by sheetz on 27 July 2007 at 6:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| siomotteikiru Senior Member Zaire Joined 6360 days ago 102 posts - 242 votes | Message 5 of 24 27 July 2007 at 6:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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As far as Russion audiobooks are concerned almost anything is available in mp3 format, both Russian and foreign literature. Contemporary and classical.
Polish translations are available too. Translations into English are not so easy to get or are just sh*t. You won't sound archaic because the readers were not born in the 19th centuary. You can use contemporary sources later to learn how to speak or write. As to audiobooks in Japanese, there are plenty of so called CD Drama. Literature proper is rather hard to get. Harry Potter is recorded in Japanese. www.stultorum.pochta.ru\aaaa\samp.mp3 I do not mind classical literature at all, on the contrary, it is the only one I am really interested in. Anna Karenina is popular because it's beautiful and easily available and it's long. "Listening-reading" was devised as a means of learning a language or parallel learning of a few languages in an enjoyable and efficient way in a short time. Once you've learned enough, you can read anything you want, even your posts here. You might translate your posts into contemporary Latin, Japanese, Russian, Polish etc, and record them in mp3 and upload them somewhere decent for everybody to enjoy them. Edited by siomotteikiru on 27 July 2007 at 9:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6385 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 6 of 24 27 July 2007 at 8:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I love classical literature to bits. I just want to warn people against dangers of picking up archaic usage at a very early stage in their studies.
I'll use the example of 'Anna Karenina', as most people keep referring to it and I happen to know how to find it online, but could do the same on Natsume Souseki or any other author of the period... Let's start from the beginning... Мне отмщение, и аз воздам I hope beginning learners don't waste too much time deciphering this first line... But let's carry on... I'll mark in bold everything I believe to be archaic or unlikely to be encountered in present-day communication. * ЧАСТЬ ПЕРВАЯ * Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему. Все смешалось в доме Облонских. Жена узнала, что муж был в связи с бывшею [FG: archaic form] в их доме француженкою[FG: archaic form]-гувернанткой, и объявила мужу, что не может жить с ним в одном доме. Положение это продолжалось уже третий день и мучительно чувствовалось и самими супругами, и всеми членами семьи, и домочадцами. Все члены семьи и домочадцы чувствовали, что нет смысла в их сожительстве и что на каждом постоялом дворе случайно сошедшиеся люди более связаны между собой, чем они, члены семьи и домочадцы Облонских. Жена не выходила из своих комнат, мужа третий день не было дома. Дети бегали по всему дому, как потерянные; англичанка поссорилась с экономкой и написала записку приятельнице, прося приискать ей новое место; повар ушел еще вчера со двора, во время обеда; черная кухарка и кучер просили расчета. Now, the above undoubtedly is the Russian language at its best. But is it useful for a beginning learner to deal with the marked elements of the language at such an early stage?.. I'm not so sure. From that perspective, a contemporary Russian crime story or - in the case of Japanese - a manga book would probably do more to acquiant the reader with the present-day usage while providing exactly the same amount of exposure to grammar, etc... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| siomotteikiru Senior Member Zaire Joined 6360 days ago 102 posts - 242 votes | Message 7 of 24 27 July 2007 at 8:59am | IP Logged | |||||
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To gaijin
Manga? Are you really being serious? Do you know how many mangas you'd have to read to match one page of a novel? What about e-texts? What about the recordings? Are they available? And the translations? Older literature in any language is bound to be old-fashioned and archaic in some ways. Мне отмщение, и Аз воздам Vengeance is mine; I will repay And you don't have to use Tolstoy or Soseki. Some prefer HP: www.stultorum.pochta.ru\aaaa\samp.mp3 Edited by siomotteikiru on 27 July 2007 at 9:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lemus Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6380 days ago 232 posts - 266 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Russian, German | Message 8 of 24 27 July 2007 at 9:25am | IP Logged | |||||
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Classic literature is often public domain, so is naturally more poplular than paying for a book, audio, and translation.
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