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Learning a language just to read? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| altito425 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5951 days ago 65 posts - 70 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 33 23 May 2010 at 5:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I have a feeling that someone has already posted something like this before but I can't find it anywhere.
I've really been wanting to learn to read Hesse, Grimm, Mann, etc. in the original German, but since I'm so wrapped up with Spanish and French and the rest of my school studies I don't really have the time or stamina to jump into a third foreign language just right now, but I was thinking I could probably spend a little time every day to develop a good passive understanding of the language, just to be able to read German classics... Has anyone on the forum learned a language just for passive reading before? I'd love it if someone could give me an estimation of how long it might take. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5642 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 33 23 May 2010 at 7:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Check out this thread, among others:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=20898&PN=1&TPN=2#236362 Last year I read through many novels by Hesse. Good choice of author for your reading project. I'd suggest starting with Siddhartha, and perhaps following that with Narcissus und Goldmund. How long it would take I couldn't say. That would depend on a lot of factors. But even if you were starting from scratch, assuming that you already have some pretty good language learning skills, then in a few months you could probably be reading slowly without being too burdened by looking up words. I'd recommend giving it 30-60 minutes every day. Try and approach it as a form of no-fail relaxation, something to enjoy as you gradually ramp up your knowledge. Don't TRY to learn; just let it happen. Your brain will do what it needs to do, and it will do it better if you just relax. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| altito425 Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5951 days ago 65 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 33 23 May 2010 at 8:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the advice, pahoka, but the link you posted only takes me to the forum's main menu.
And I was thinking 30-60 minutes, too, I just forgot to specify... Since that last post I've refined my goal a little bit. I think I'll set a goal of reading simple(ish) novels and maybe the Brothers Grimm by this time next year. I'll only have time for about thirty minutes a day for the first six months and then could move up to an hour a day the following six months. I'm still hoping to get some responses from people who have done something similar and could maybe give me advice as to how to go about this or recommend some books. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5642 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 33 23 May 2010 at 8:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry about that link. I don't know what the problem is. Here's my post from that thread:
"This is a complicated subject, but, yes, I am perfectly content with passive knowledge of various languages. I don't need to speak or write them, for one thing. The texts I read are literary and usually ancient, meaning that even if I did learn to actively produce that sort of language, it wouldn't necessarily help me go buy a bottle of wine at the corner market today, although if that situation came up, I think I could move pretty fast from passive to active. (Though it might come out at first as the equivalent in various languages of, "Toothsome wench, couldst thou, in the name of our benevolent maker, procure me a flagon of sack?") "Having said that, I do try my best to learn pronunciation and I learn at least to write--not compose, but certainly to write down the language in the proper script." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 33 23 May 2010 at 8:29am | IP Logged | ||
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The forum software inserts spaces; you need to remove them to get a working URL.
Here's a clickable version of the link. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5660 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 33 23 May 2010 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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If you can get hold of a used copy at a good price I recommend very highly Karl Sandberg's German for Reading. It is superb. Be careful, there are books by others that have copied the title, but a browse through them shows them to be poor imitations. I also have Sandberg's French for Reading and Spanish for Reading and they are equally excellent. Edited by Splog on 23 May 2010 at 11:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5293 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 7 of 33 24 May 2010 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
Hermann Hesse is one of my favorite author. I would suggest Steppenwolf (probably one of the book who has influenced me the most with Siddhartha) ,Damien and Siddhartha. In all case, enjoy your reading. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6430 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 8 of 33 24 May 2010 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know your aim is to be able to just read, but I would strongly advise that you learn pronunciation as well. That way, if you ever do need to speak German, you'll at least be able to pronounce it, even if you won't be able to fluidly put sentences together.
It seems to me, from what studying I've done of Latin, the most important things for learning to read a language are a good understanding of grammatical structures, in short, learning a reference grammar of German basically off by heart, and vocabulary. Especially since you intend to read German literature, it is vital that you know the imperfect form of the verb (which is often irregular), as well as relative pronouns, conjunctions etc. So what I would do is try to find a course that heavily focuses on grammar with some vocabulary. I just had a look at a Grimm Fairy tale to test my hypothesis (by the way, don't be fooled by thinking, children's literature = easy, that is not the case), and it seems to me that once you get a good grasp of the grammar (the articles, the cases, adjective endings, and most importantly, the past tenses of verbs), you could start working through the tales with a dictionary, building up vocabulary as you go. It will be tough at the start, but if you're interested, you'd probably build up vocabulary very fast that way, vocabulary that will be useful to you. BTW, a Google search turned up very quickly this book, I think something like that would be suitable. Edited by Declan1991 on 24 May 2010 at 6:31pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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