Autobiographies/books in the 1st person? (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Autobiographies/books in the 1st person?
Tags: Natural method \| Comprehensive input \| Morphology \| Verbs/Conjugation \| Reading
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

reineke
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United States
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Studies: German

Message 9 of 11

18 November 2012 at 8:18pm | IP Logged

I've god Clinton's "Mi Vida" in my shelf, and its German counterpart ready and waiting :)
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DaraghM
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Ireland
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Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian

Message 10 of 11

19 November 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged

emk wrote:

It's almost impossible to find books where the narration is in the passé composé

I asked the same question a couple of years ago, and was pointed to L'Etranger by Camus. I think it's famous as the first French literary work not to use the passé simple.

Edited by DaraghM on 19 November 2012 at 9:53am
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Serpent
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Russian Federation
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Message 11 of 11

29 July 2017 at 5:08am | IP Logged

Arekkusu wrote:

Instinctively, I can't imagine it being true. You don't intrinsically learn more from a sentence (if there is anything to learn from it) because it is written with one person's perspective rather than another's.

What is not entirely impossible though, is that you personally are more fascinated by one type of story than another, but then that would simply be a question of motivation.

Thought I'd clarify btw. I'm not necessarily more fascinated by the kind of stories that happen to be written in the first person. What I meant is mostly that first-person stories tend to use a more simple language. After all, it's mostly supposed to reflect the main character's thoughts, and normally the language is not very flowery or excessively descriptive. Of course this also applies to specific authors, like Oscar Wilde or Hemingway; first-person books are a subset of this so to say "easy literature".
Besides, the 1st person is often more likely to be irregular, so it's helpful to see more instances of it. This also reminds me on Katò Lomb's tip to learn idioms in the first person, e.g. "I'm pulling your leg" (rather than "to pull someone's leg"). First-person stories contain more chunks that you can incorporate directly into your speech.

Edited by Serpent on 29 July 2017 at 5:11am

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