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What’s everyone reading?

 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading Post Reply
177 messages over 23 pages: 1 2 3 4 57 ... 6 ... 22 23 Next >>
Levi
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 Message 41 of 177
22 November 2009 at 1:12am | IP Logged 
I am reading the French translation of Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, called Il était une fois nos ancêtres. It's a delightful book about the history of evolution, told as a story going backwards from modern humans to the origin of life, taking note of all the times we diverged from the evolutionary paths of the other organisms we share the planet with. I also have the English version which I can consult if I don't understand something, but so far I've been doing pretty well just sticking to the French. I started reading the book a while ago, in English, but never finished it (it's a long book). I wanted to return to it, but I didn't want to take time away from my language study, so I decided to tackle it in French. Two birds with one stone!

Birds, incidentally, being the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs. I love science. :)

Edited by Levi on 22 November 2009 at 1:20am

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Fasulye
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 Message 42 of 177
22 November 2009 at 12:00pm | IP Logged 
Levi wrote:
I am reading the French translation of Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, called Il était une fois nos ancêtres. It's a delightful book about the history of evolution, told as a story going backwards from modern humans to the origin of life, taking note of all the times we diverged from the evolutionary paths of the other organisms we share the planet with. I also have the English version which I can consult if I don't understand something, but so far I've been doing pretty well just sticking to the French. I started reading the book a while ago, in English, but never finished it (it's a long book). I wanted to return to it, but I didn't want to take time away from my language study, so I decided to tackle it in French. Two birds with one stone!

Birds, incidentally, being the only surviving descendants of the dinosaurs. I love science. :)


Me too, I am very interested in natural science. I would like to read such a book, but my French reading ability isn't good enough to read thick books in this language. Reading a science magazine in French with short articles is more adequate for me.

Fasulye
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Juan M.
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Colombia
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 Message 43 of 177
22 November 2009 at 3:32pm | IP Logged 
I don't understand why people read books translated from languages they know into languages they're studying. There are many great books on physics and biology originally written in French. The brief but excellent introduction to quantum mechanics by Scarani is one I wish to read as soon as linguistically possible.
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Volte
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Switzerland
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 Message 44 of 177
22 November 2009 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
Juan M. wrote:
I don't understand why people read books translated from languages they know into languages they're studying. There are many great books on physics and biology originally written in French. The brief but excellent introduction to quantum mechanics by Scarani is one I wish to read as soon as linguistically possible.


- Availability.
- Reading a familiar book is a great boost when you're able to sort of read, but not comfortably.

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Juan M.
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Colombia
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460 posts - 597 votes 

 
 Message 45 of 177
22 November 2009 at 4:18pm | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:

- Availability.
- Reading a familiar book is a great boost when you're able to sort of read, but not comfortably.


I personally would prefer reading simple material originally written in the language I'm studying, like children or adolescent books. Translations from other languages would expose one to forms and styles which are unnatural or alien to the language one is studying.
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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 Message 46 of 177
22 November 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged 
Juan M. wrote:
Volte wrote:

- Availability.
- Reading a familiar book is a great boost when you're able to sort of read, but not comfortably.


I personally would prefer reading simple material originally written in the language I'm studying, like children or adolescent books. Translations from other languages would expose one to forms and styles which are unnatural or alien to the language one is studying.


I have to agree with those that say books for children and adolescents tend not to really be all that much simpler. There are some very simple books for adults (in terms of writing style), while many books by authors like Asimov are considered to be for children. Even one-sentence-per-page picture books for very young children can be surprisingly difficult, because they use so much vocabulary you rarely encounter elsewhere.

Translations vary a lot in how unnatural they are.

That said, I do agree that the benefits of reading a book translated into your language and then reading it in the original are better than those of reading a book in your language, and then in translation, usually.

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Juan M.
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5658 days ago

460 posts - 597 votes 

 
 Message 47 of 177
22 November 2009 at 4:44pm | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:
I have to agree with those that say books for children and adolescents tend not to really be all that much simpler. There are some very simple books for adults (in terms of writing style), while many books by authors like Asimov are considered to be for children. Even one-sentence-per-page picture books for very young children can be surprisingly difficult, because they use so much vocabulary you rarely encounter elsewhere.

Translations vary a lot in how unnatural they are.

That said, I do agree that the benefits of reading a book translated into your language and then reading it in the original are better than those of reading a book in your language, and then in translation, usually.


I would hope that after a period of conscientious study, reading a couple of bilingual books of short stories, excerpts from novels or essays originally written in your target language with translation on facing pages should be enough to prepare oneself to engage most original material with a dictionary. This kind of books are also readily available in all the major Western languages, being particularly plentiful in the case of French.

In my personal opinion, reading things like Harry Potter translated into the language one is studying is not a very profitable exercise, since a big part of learning a language is also becoming accustomed to how ideas are presented, prose is constructed and vocabulary employed, something one may miss to one degree or another in works translated from foreign authors.
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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 Message 48 of 177
22 November 2009 at 4:51pm | IP Logged 
Juan M. wrote:
Volte wrote:
I have to agree with those that say books for children and adolescents tend not to really be all that much simpler. There are some very simple books for adults (in terms of writing style), while many books by authors like Asimov are considered to be for children. Even one-sentence-per-page picture books for very young children can be surprisingly difficult, because they use so much vocabulary you rarely encounter elsewhere.

Translations vary a lot in how unnatural they are.

That said, I do agree that the benefits of reading a book translated into your language and then reading it in the original are better than those of reading a book in your language, and then in translation, usually.


I would hope that after a period of conscientious study, reading a couple of bilingual books of short stories, excerpts from novels or essays originally written in your target language with translation on facing pages should be enough to prepare oneself to engage most original material with a dictionary. This kind of books are also readily available in all the major Western languages, being particularly plentiful in the case of French.

In my personal opinion, reading things like Harry Potter translated into the language one is studying is not a very profitable exercise, since a big part of learning a language is also becoming accustomed to how ideas are presented, prose is constructed and vocabulary employed, something one may miss to one degree or another in works translated from foreign authors.


It's about as profitable as reading a bilingual book; the bilingual book is usable at a slightly earlier stage of study for similar use (and at any stage of study for closer reading, as opposed to extensive reading).

I fully agree that it would be downright stupid to make the majority of ones' language study be through books translated into the target language, when one is at the level to read books. I see reading translations into the target language as a bridge, and as something to do when something one wants to read is most readily available in that form.

I don't particularly like using dictionaries more than absolutely necessary, and prefer to acquire vocabulary from context, bilingual texts, or reading the same thing in more than one language - but in the latter case, preferring works originally in the target language provides the advantages without the disadvantages you very correctly point out.

Edit: I'm intermittently reading Harry Potter in Latin, to solidify/internalize my knowledge of the grammar and core vocabulary. It's full of neologisms and the style certainly isn't very classical - but it's useful to me at this stage. I do find a few translations are an excellent way of bridging into my target language - after that, watching how excellent writers of the target language branch off from what I know is a pleasant way to see how the target language is written well and differs from similar ones I can read.


Edited by Volte on 22 November 2009 at 4:55pm



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