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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5405 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 1 of 18 15 March 2010 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everyone!
I'm learning foreign languages other than English for the first time and I'm confronted to a problem: there's not really any incentive for me to read in my target languages (Spanish and Russian). They both have amazing, rich literature, but I'm just not yet at the required level to read with pleasure, say, Gracia Marquez or Solyenitsin (forgive, I'm not sure how to write in in English). And I love reading, I don't want to sweat through a book with an eye on the dictionary and never, ever want to read it again. And wikipedia is amazing but limited. Taking part in the team TAC and talking to other members, I realized that a lot of people have that problem and settle for reading Harry Potter or other translations from English up to five times in five different languages. So I thought of creating this thread for native speakers to try to think of one or two books from their childhood or teens that can help motivate learners to read for pleasure. And of course books for grown-ups that aren't too hard to understand (linear stories, grammatical sentences...) are even better! ____________________________________________________________ _ GENERAL By Quabazaa: -If people haven't seen it, definitely have a look at the International Children's Digital Library there are a lot of different languages on there and you can read them for free :) (intermediate level) ____________________________________________________________ ENGLISH (it doesn't hurt) - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon(recommended by abr as a Russian translation, but the point of this thread is: native literature for language learners)( high intermediate level) - All the Harry Potter series (high intermediate level Comics: - Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. (basic fluency) ____________________________________________________________ FRENCH Novels: Books by Marc Levy for instance (best-sellers but in my opinion terribly written although the stories can be interesting. ) (low basic fluency) - Books by Bernard Werber (Les Fourmis...). I really liked both of those I read and they're still popular literature although much better written and therefore probably harder to read than Marc Levy. Excerpts here: www.bernardwerber.com/ (basic fluency) - Books by Amelie Nothomb. Amazing and usually pretty short. Some titles: Metaphysique des Tubes, Stupeur et Tremblements. Very well known and probably not hard to find as it is literary and therefore can probably be found in university libraries. Because I know that finding a foreign language book elsewhere than at a university library can be difficult. And it's probably not too very hard to understand. (high basic fluency? B2+?) By Julien71: -"Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de St Exupéry. Thanks guys, I hadn't even thought of it even though I re-read it every other month!(high intermediate level) By Quabazaa: - I really enjoyed "Le matin du crocodile"by Christian Louis, a book about a girl travelling to East Timor with her father. It's part of "Les Petits rebelles" a collection of books about children having adventures around the theme of rebellions and in many countries of the world. So it's good because they're not too difficult but are about some topics that will still interest us as adults! - Marie-Hélène Delval - an author who writes about magical topics, I liked her book "Les Chats" By Patriciaa: - And I think L'écume des jours by Boris Vian would be an easy read in French too… (Joan's note: I'm taking all suggestions but I think you'd need a pretty damned advanced level of French to tackle "L'Ecume des jours". Reasons: the context might not help you much as a lot of what is or happens in there isn't very predictable. 2) Lots of neologisms which you might be frustrated trying to look up in a dictionary. Although if you don't have that habit, it might not seem more difficult to you than to a native speaker.. Still, I wouldn't recommend it for intermediate levels. I love it too, though, Vian is my idol! (try his songs too) (Advanced fluency: C1) By TheBiscuit: - Albert Camus. (Basic-advanced fluency) Comics: - Asterix (intermediate for the story, but better when fluent) - Tintin (intermediate) - Lanfeust de Troye (low basic)( in the spirit of Discworld by Terry Pratchett: fantasy parody) www.bande-dessinee.org/ for a more (too?) extensive list http://www.foolstrip.com (didn't look much but they have some free such and a whole lot of cheap unlimited reading material) ____________________________________________________________ _ GERMAN By Quabazaa: - "Well Cornelia Funke is a must! especially Tintenwelt-Trilogie - Michael Ende (Die unendliche Geschichte). Thanks for this, Quabazaa, I thought it was originally in English (Sprachjunge seconds her) - Walter Moers - Die drei ??? - Oh almost forgot - Karl May is quite a classic, he wrote wild west kind of stories" By Sprachjunge: - Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha (basic fluency I think) - not very useful German, but a poem that every aspiring German learner should be familiar with for cultural literacy: Max und Moritz by Wilhelm Busch (it is also quite funny) ____________________________________________________________ NORWEGIAN "Naiv. Super." , by Erlend Loe (recommended by abr) ____________________________________________________________ _ PORTUGUESE By Patriciaa: - I didn't read it in original language so I guess someone would have to confirm this but I suppose O Alquimista by Paulo Coelho must be an easy read in portuguese? ____________________________________________________________ RUSSIAN abr recommends Alexandr Volkov: "As i recall the best one was: Александр Волков - Волшебник Изумрудного города [Alexandr Volkov - Volshebnik Izumrudnogo goroda] At first glance it seems like loosely translated "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", but in fact, appears to be standalone writing. There is a fully independent sequel, which i like even more: Александр Волков - Урфин Джюс и его деревянные солдаты [Alexandr Volkov - Urfin Djus i ego derevyanniye soldati] And in addition, according to wiki there are four more sequel books. Do not sure if i read them: Семь подземных королей [Sem' podzemnih koroley] Огненный бог Марранов [Ognenniy bog Marranov] Жёлтый туман [Jeltiy tuman] Тайна заброшенного замка [Tayna zabroshenogo zamka] " William Camden recommends: "I studied Russian from scratch at university, and as works of literature they started us off on Pushkin's Kapitanskaya dochka." ____________________________________________________________ SPANISH - “La ciudad de las bestias”, “El reino del Dragón del Oro”, and “El Bosque de los Pigmeos”. (all by Isabel Allende) FamusBluRaincot says: "The books are easy to read and wonderfully entertaining-for children of all ages. Isabel Allende is a major Spanish writer"; "warm, entertaining, and easy to read without being dumb-perfect for language learners." By Quabazaa: - María Elena Walsh from Argentina has some classic and funny children's stories, and also many of them are very catchy songs which helps for learning vocab.. Try "El reino del Revés" - Horacio Quiroga from Uruguay is also awesome. I recommend "Cuentos de la selva" - Laura Esquivel - Como Agua Para Chocolate not a kids book and does have quite a lot of specific Mexican vocabulary, but also short and a fun read! - Ernesto Sábato from Argentina and - Laura Restrepo from Colombia are also two authors I think are good but not too difficult to read. By TheBiscuit: - Try Jaime Sabines and - Pablo Neruda - both poets. - I'm reading a Vargas Llosa novel called El Hablador at the moment which I'm really enjoying. The language is above my level but not so much so that I can't enjoy it and have to look words up every 5 seconds - I think that's the key to finding a good book to read. In fact, if I have to use a dictionary at all I probably won't finish a book. Comics: - "Tiras" by Quino, like Mafalda. Adult humour in a short, relatively easy format. Quabazaa seconds this and suggests: (high intermediate/ low basic) - Fontanarrosa. An Argentine who often writes comics, he's famous for Boogie el Aceitoso and Inodoro Pereyra as well as some great stuff he did about football. ____________________________________________________________ (I'm adding your suggestions to this list as I go, so if we get many answers they'll be easier to find language by language) Edited by joanthemaid on 25 March 2010 at 6:41pm 16 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5370 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 2 of 18 15 March 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been thinking about this as well lately. It's unlikely that I will have a go at Harry Potter. There is nothing like reading the best of what was written in any language. My love for French multiplied when I got to the point that I could read all the French classics. With Russian I intend to take the leap to genuine literature once I've outgrown the text books. I expect it to be hard, but bilingual texts plus voice recordings should do the trick. My collection of Gogol, Chekhov, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky is growing. I'll make sure to be familiar with all types of participles and with short adjectives forms, because they may occur quite often.
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| FamusBluRaincot Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 5496 days ago 50 posts - 114 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 3 of 18 15 March 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have recommended the juvenile fantasy novels of Isabel Allende before on this forum. At the risk of sounding like
a broken record, I will do it once more. The novels are : “La ciudad de las bestias”, “El reino del Dragón del Oro”, and “El Bosque de los Pigmeos”. The books are easy to read and wonderfully entertaining-for children of all ages. Isabel Allende is a major Spanish writer. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julien71 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 5307 days ago 42 posts - 52 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Hungarian | Message 4 of 18 16 March 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
Would one of these books be closed to reaching the same status as The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in the French speaking world, basically a kind of must read during childhood? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FamusBluRaincot Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 5496 days ago 50 posts - 114 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 5 of 18 16 March 2010 at 1:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Julien71
I doubt that any of those three books will ever reach the status of “Le Petit Prince”. They are just warm, entertaining, and easy to read without being dumb-perfect for language learners. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| abr Groupie Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5415 days ago 40 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English, Spanish | Message 6 of 18 16 March 2010 at 8:20am | IP Logged | ||
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As i recall the best one was:
Александр Волков - Волшебник Изумрудного города [Alexandr Volkov - Volshebnik Izumrudnogo goroda] At first glance it seems like loosely translated "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", but in fact, appears to be standalone writing. There is a fully independent sequel, which i like even more: Александр Волков - Урфин Джюс и его деревянные солдаты [Alexandr Volkov - Urfin Djus i ego derevyanniye soldati] And in addition, according to wiki there are four more sequel books. Do not sure if i read them: Семь подземных королей [Sem' podzemnih koroley] Огненный бог Марранов [Ognenniy bog Marranov] Жёлтый туман [Jeltiy tuman] Тайна заброшенного замка [Tayna zabroshenogo zamka] But if the simplicity of the language is first priority i would recommend to find the translations of these two: Naive. Super by Erlend Loe - originally in Norwegian The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - originally in English Edited by abr on 16 March 2010 at 8:21am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5544 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 18 19 March 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ooh great thread Joan!! Umm here's what I can think of at the moment! If people haven't seen it, definitely have a look at the International Children's Digital Library there are a lot of different languages on there and you can read them for free :)
Spanish María Elena Walsh from Argentina has some classic and funny children's stories, and also many of them are very catchy songs which helps for learning vocab.. Try "El reino del Revés" Horacio Quiroga from Uruguay is also awesome. I recommend "Cuentos de la selva" Laura Esquivel - Como Agua Para Chocolate not a kids book and does have quite a lot of specific Mexican vocabulary, but also short and a fun read! Ernesto Sábato from Argentina and Laura Restrepo from Colombia are also two authors I think are good but not too difficult to read. French I really enjoyed "Le matin du crocodile"by Christian Louis, a book about a girl travelling to East Timor with her father. It's part of "Les Petits rebelles" a collection of books about children having adventures around the theme of rebellions and in many countries of the world. So it's good because they're not too difficult but are about some topics that will still interest us as adults! Marie-Hélène Delval - an author who writes about magical topics, I liked her book "Les Chats" German Well Cornelia Funke is a must! especially Tintenwelt-Trilogie Michael Ende (Die unendliche Geschichte) Walter Moers Die drei ??? Oh almost forgot - Karl May is quite a classic, he wrote wild west kind of stories Edited by Quabazaa on 20 March 2010 at 12:04am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7100 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 8 of 18 20 March 2010 at 2:04am | IP Logged | ||
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German
-I second Michael Ende's Die unendliche Geschichte -Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha -not very useful German, but a poem that every aspiring German learner should be familiar with for cultural literacy: Max und Moritz by Wilhelm Busch (it is also quite funny) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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