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Books worth learning a language for | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5120 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 9 of 32 19 January 2011 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
I like good SciFi, too. What's the title of the book(s)? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6382 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 10 of 32 20 January 2011 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I recall my Swedish teacher telling us that some guy learned Swedish to read Dvärgen by Per Lagerkvist in the original. I haven't read it myself so I can't comment on whether or not it was a good decision.
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| eoinda Tetraglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5748 days ago 101 posts - 113 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Spanish, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 11 of 32 24 January 2011 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well I like it a lot but worth learning a language for? No I don't think so. Few books are translations are often good enough. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5181 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 12 of 32 24 January 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not a big reader, so there is no book that could potentially keep me interested in learning a language long enough that I'd actually be able to read the book in question.
I'm always suprised to find that most forum members -- at least that's the impression I get -- learn languages in order to read, or at least focus their attention on the written language. I'm interested in talking and understanding and that's always been my focus. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4930 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 13 of 32 24 January 2011 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
I get that impression too. And I agree with you about using the language by speaking. That's the reason I learn a language: to use it with other human beings. But later on when I'm at at advanced enough level, I'll gladly pick up some good reading. It's an excellent way to increase your vocabulary and overall comprehension, particularly if your reading choice gives a good glimpse into the culture and thinking of a people. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5026 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 14 of 32 24 January 2011 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Over time I've grown wary and bored of people in general. I immensely enjoy finding new interesting people to hang out with but, even so, I've found that interest also tends to slowly fade away over time.
I tend to move little and in rather limited environments, so because of the above chances are in the end I'll use any of my languages in fashions other than face-to-face, i.e. exchanging emails, or reading whatever of interest others left in written form, which amounts to a fantastic number of volumes anyway. For a while I considered moving abroad out of the wish to find more interesting people to talk to; but as I grew up I realized that when I do it, I'll only be switching languages, not really expanding my horizons in that regard: the interesting people I know of I can communicate with already, and new ones will likely appear only very rarely. When any of us move, it's email or oblivion since I don't like talking over the phone. Unless I seek a job as an interpreter I doubt I'll ever find myself actively speaking more than two languages at once. Anyway, since I never had a problem transferring my reading/written skills to the spoken realm this is not a big issue for me. Processing the written language is much more efficient for me in terms of actual learning (except for Kanji-like things, obviously); once I have a reasonable command of a language, switching to speaking it is more or less trivial. So, now that I come to think of it... Does anyone here _who is not an interpreter_ really _speak_ regularly more than two languages (the local one and his/her native tongue) face-to-face? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5181 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 15 of 32 24 January 2011 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
I hope you don't start conversations with that opener.
I speak 2 languages on a daily basis (yes, I'm a translator, but I would still speak 2 languages anyway with my family and friends) and I also speak Japanese every few days or at least once or twice a week. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5145 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 16 of 32 24 January 2011 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There being people with whom to speak is usually not a problem in big cities or even small villages; in fact it is the excess of people around you that often makes life unbearable in modern times. Spending five years studying a language in order to find someone to speak to seems an absurdity to me.
The classics of each culture though are something quite special and unique, entirely worth the effort to learn their languages and read in the original. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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