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Eastern language for reading? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6398 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 9 of 20 01 May 2013 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
What I was saying is that people who aren't sure which language to study, especially when they speak one or two and want to learn "one more", usually ask this because they don't like any of the options all that much. They choose one based on input like "French has a difficult pronunciation" or "German has a difficult grammar", but then they don't feel sad when they give up. They think learning more than one language isn't for them (they still aim to improve their first foreign language eg Spanish), while in reality just this particular language isn't for them. Of course it's just as common to ask this question when you want to study Japanese, but German is more useful (for example). In this case one who goes for what they really want to learn has every chance to succeed. edit: I suppose the key question to ask yourself is "will i be sad if I give up learning this language?" Sad the way Medulin described it, not just disappointed in yourself or guilty or in general feeling like a failure, a bad language learner, without enough "will power". If MAINTAINING CONTACT with the language requires will power, you're doing it wrong. Of course there might be some activities that require it (like practising speaking), but this should be the minority. Will you feel bad for the language and not for yourself if you give up? Edited by Serpent on 01 May 2013 at 3:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4690 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 10 of 20 01 May 2013 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My impression also is that Japan has the richest literary tradition in east Asia, at
least in the modern era. It's definitely the only one that has many modern authors who have been translated into English, and you also have lots of manga. If you go for it, you'll have to tell us if Haruki Murakami makes any more sense in Japanese than he does in English! Edited by kanewai on 02 May 2013 at 12:15am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| bystander87 Diglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4027 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Russian*, English | Message 11 of 20 01 May 2013 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
I a way, translation hinders your learning, because it makes you label words of foreign language with ideas of your native language. For instance shortly after I started to learn English, I found that it's useless to build a vocabulary by matching pairs. English words don't have single specific meaning, but they don't have many specific meanings either (though Russian dictionaries and textbooks treat them that way). They represent some abstract idea or concept, that takes specific meaning and shape in the context. To avoid this tendency to stick Russian labels on English words, at first I learned new words by trying to memorise at least 70% of their listed meanings(building the idea of each word, so to speak), and shortly afterwards I bought compact Oxford dictionary/thesaurus and started to learn more English using English. Now after few years of reading and listening, English and Russian for me are equally viable systems in some ways, and I arbitrarily think in English from time to time. I apologize for home-grown philology. Just trying to describe the experience I had with English. I don't know about few languages, but I want to try at least one more. I don't expect the same level of success with other language and with these three more so, but I can be industrious, if I really want something. Thanks everybody, I appreciate advices and web-links. I would like to hear more about reading in these languages, and what it's like. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5761 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 12 of 20 01 May 2013 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
I haven't read him in English, but he makes good sense to me in Japanese. It kind of depends on what you think of surrealism. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| taqseem Newbie Switzerland Joined 5495 days ago 34 posts - 47 votes Studies: English | Message 13 of 20 02 May 2013 at 10:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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If I were you, I would definitely go for Japanese.
First and foremost, I second Kanewai’s view point regarding the Japanese literary tradition -imho it is richer than that of Chinese or Korean; at least as far as the 20st century is concerned. Second, even if your primary goal is reading, it’s important to know how the words you’re reading are pronounced. As a native Russian speaker, I find Japanese way much easier to pronounce that the other two. Wish you best of luck in your quest! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4669 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 14 of 20 05 May 2013 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, this could also be an argument against Japanese... Korean has a lot of literature, including many interesting young authors, which I am enjoying a lot so far. I'm currently reading a novel which has not been translated into English and I'm glad I can appreciate it through Korean. I don't think the amount of translations available is a convincing argument for a literature's quality (it seems more about trendiness), but I'm not going to say that Korean literature is rich compared to Chinese and Japanese literature since I simply don't know those two well enough. I suspect that everyone who has commented so far only knows one of them fairly well. Reading in Korean has been difficult at the beginning and is still challenging but also satisfying now (after a year of reading practice). Sentences can be long and complex, but Korean complexity seems much less overwhelming to me than, for example, German complexity. The grammatical system is extremely efficient, logical and nuanced. Korean vocabulary might be similar to Japanese as there are basically two types of words - either of native Korean or Chinese origin. This gives the language a rich choice of words, similarly to English, which also gets its words mainly from two sources (Anglo-Saxon and Latin/French). Culture-wise Koreans are said to be the Italians of Asia, they have a reputation to be a little more straight-forward and emotional/affectionate than the Japanese. The notion that you have to learn Hanja characters to get beyond intermediate Korean is, in my opinion, nonsense. I've hardly looked at Hanja and I'm still going to get there. The only thing you need to be aware of are the meanings of certain syllables which you will acquire naturally while expanding your vocabulary. Yes, these meanings are based on Hanja, but you don't actually have to learn Hanja to learn their meaning. Whichever language you choose, have fun! It will be hard work, but is extremely satisfying to study an Asian language and I'm sure it will open a whole new world to you. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| bystander87 Diglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4027 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Russian*, English | Message 15 of 20 05 May 2013 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you for an extensive comment. What's your impression, as a western reader? In terms of themes and context, can you relate to Korean literature? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4669 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 16 of 20 05 May 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is something of a difficult question for me to answer. Throughout the 3 years I've been studying Korean my understanding and appreciation for the context of Korean culture has grown with my language skills - I suppose this will always be the case when learning a new language. I'm sure you'll have a similar experience with your language of choice. I do remember that I found some of the first Korean movies I watched (before knowing the language) quite foreign and sometimes bewildering and incomprehensible in terms of humour and cultural context, but also intriguing. As for themes, I've been told that the first novel I've read was "not typical for Korean literature" - it was about a guy who helps people commit suicide and the author seemed inspired by Western culture. The novel I'm currently reading was recommended based on the first novel I read, so I suppose it's similarly atypical - so far it's almost stream of consciousness, the narrator talks about a trip to the USA, what he experiences there (not much so far) and all kinds of memories and thoughts he has. Seems to go in a nihilist direction. Maybe you'd be interested in looking at my blog where I write reviews of the books I read and movies/series I watch and also try to add some thoughts on how they relate to Korean culture. EDIT: I thought of something to add... There is a sort of genre (for the lack of a better word) in Korean, which I adore. It's a sort of heartwarming, slightly poetic, reflection on relating to the world, especially to other people. I assume this is a "typical" Korean subject. I've encountered it in children's books, comics, a collection of essays/poetry, short stories, podcasts and radio shows. Edited by druckfehler on 05 May 2013 at 11:48pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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