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How many books are enough? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 14 26 July 2011 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As it turns out reading is my favorite way to learn. To date I have 66 books in Italian
and 29 in Dutch. The former is now in pretty good shape, I can read just about anything quite comfortably. The latter is just starting to get to a level where reading is beginning to lose the sense that it takes effort to do it. Do you read to learn? Do you read more than just a few books in the new language? Suppose it's your strategy that beyond the basics, once you get to be about intermediate, you will use reading to take you all the way "there", there to a level at which you are satisfied with your skills. How many books do you think it will take? Can we get a consensus on a ball park number do you think? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5132 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 14 26 July 2011 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
I still buy books in both Spanish and Italian, after having learned the languages decades ago. I don't do it to learn, I do it for the enjoyment. To me it's no different than buying books in my native language - if I see something that I think I'd like, I buy it to read, simple as that. I don't know that I could put a number to exactly when I reached whatever defined level. I do know, however, that once I reached an intermediate level in both languages, that's when my reading took off, because I could finally see it more as enjoyment. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 27 July 2011 at 2:49am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iwwersetzerin Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Luxembourg Joined 5671 days ago 259 posts - 513 votes Speaks: French*, Luxembourgish*, GermanC2, EnglishC2, SpanishC2, DutchC1, ItalianC1 Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 14 26 July 2011 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I also love reading, in any language, and I believe that reading a lot in a foreign language is extremely beneficial to making progress, it helps a lot to increase vocabulary and interiorize the structures of the language. Reading books also helps to learn the "real" language, not the simplified one used in textbooks.
I start to devour books in a foreign language as soon as I reach an intermediate level where I can read more or less comfortably without having to turn to a dictionary for every sentence. I read because I want to improve my knowledge of the language, but mostly I read simply because I enjoy reading. Reading in a language I am still learning is an added bonus and actually a great motivation for me. Reading never feels like studying or hard work to me. If you love to read, reading in a foreign language is studying and pleasure at the same time! I really don't think it's possible to give a number of books or words you would need to read to get to a certain level. You can't calculate this sort of thing and it would certainly take different numbers for different people. And why would you only read a certain number of books and then stop? Once you get to a good level continuing to read books is a perfect way to maintain the language and progress further. Out of curiosity: what are you reading in Dutch? I'm starting to read in that language and could use some recommendations. I bought some books by Cees Nooteboom because I love travel literature, but I really don't know much about Dutch and Belgian literature. Edited by Iwwersetzerin on 26 July 2011 at 7:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 14 26 July 2011 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
Because it gives you an idea of what to expect. If I can think to myself "about 50" then I know that if I start French I should read about that number. That's going to influence my choice of books too. Obviously once you reach your goal you can just keep reading, but it's a different kind of thing, because you're not really "studying" anymore. Thus it's maybe higher priority to read in a language that still needs more work.
I was not very clever in my choice of books with Dutch, I've read a lot of random things most of which was pretty poor. Recently I thought to myself that my progress is too slow and I need to challenge myself. So now I'm on a Slavoj Žižek diet, I'm on his 4th (out of 5 published in Dutch). It's philosophy and it's a challenge to read even in English. But surprisingly I got past the hump pretty quickly and now I read him not with easy but relatively comfortably. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6785 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 14 26 July 2011 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh and just to throw something else into the mix. Do you guys read aloud? I've started
doing that more recently, I think it's good practice. You obviously need to learn to read in a new language and I also think it gives you more confidence in speaking, hearing yourself read it. Edited by numerodix on 27 July 2011 at 5:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| KimG Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 4979 days ago 88 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Portuguese, Swahili | Message 6 of 14 27 July 2011 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My experience with English, is I'm STILL learning things when I read books, and I have read really many books now too. I think it's an good idea to remember you also should practice in your other languages too, not just the one you learn now. I'm reading to learn Portuguese, but tries to remember I still should go find interesting Norwegian books to read too, not just alternating between Portuguese and English Scifi/Fantasy :p
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5601 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 7 of 14 28 July 2011 at 4:27am | IP Logged | |||||
I have read almost exclusively Bommelsaga writen by Marten Tonder; these 177 strips should last a long time. PS.I am used to read my foreign books aloud; it adds to the experience, but slows you down noticeably. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 14 28 July 2011 at 11:35am | IP Logged | |||||
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Since I in all earnest began relearning old languages and adding new ones the percentage of my reading that is represented by books has paradoxically fallen! I have always read a lot (a book a day or so), but now the bulk of my reading is based on other media than books.
The problem is that books in Italien, French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian etc. at my local library mostly are fictional, and I prefer non fiction: i.e. materials about history, science and things like that. I could in principle order books about those themes home from other libraries, but it is easier just to sit down for some hours and read stuff on the internet. There I can also find interesting texts in 'lesser' languages like Romanian and Catalan which it would be hard to find in any Danish library. For intensive studies I prefer paperbased media, but these studies proceed so slowly that it is enough to use magazines or printouts from the internet instead of books. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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