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Ever tried reading a religious text in a foreign language?


SpringBreeze

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Have you ever tried to read a religious text (ex. the bible, quran, talmud, or the tripitaka) in a foreign language? I tried reading the bible in french. That was the hardest thing ever - a total challenge. I was really proud of myself when I got to the 5th page.  ;D

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Oh wow I've never tried, but I think I'm going to have now.  Especially if it really is as hard as you are making it sound.  This will also be a great way to get some new words in my vocabulary I bet.  The bible uses words we don't generally use in every day conversation!

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No, I've skimmed through a Bible in Chinese and maybe recognized a few words here and there, but just thinking about it is giving me a headache.  :speechless: So I definitely do get how proud you must have been when you reached page 5.  :laugh: I have a difficult enough time reading modern books with colloquial texts of a foreign language, I don't think I'd have the patience to go through multiple pages of ancient text in a foreign language.

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  • 2 months later...

Since the Heberw script is much different from what we use, for me, reading the bible in it's original language is still something I'll have to do in the future. But I've tried reading some bible verses in French. It wasn't easy. . .

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Have you ever tried to read a religious text (ex. the bible, quran, talmud, or the tripitaka) in a foreign language? I tried reading the bible in french. That was the hardest thing ever - a total challenge. I was really proud of myself when I got to the 5th page.  ;D

You're doing well. What could really help is if you have one side of your text being in your native language and the other side of the text being in the foreign language. That is what I have. I read the bible in Spanish sometimes.
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I once tried to read Arabic when I was in high school. Reading a text backwards when everything looks like a doodle drawing is not very easy. I think I even know some Muslims who still find Arabic difficult even after attending 'madarasa'-these are religious classes for the young Muslims.

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  • 1 month later...

I have never tried this, but wish I could learn to read in Hebrew and Chinese.  The characters used in these languages are beautiful to look at, if only I knew what each one represented.  Chinese seems really complex as a single symbol can have many strokes.

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Religious texts are really hard to read, especially if they aren't in your native language. It's a good language exercise, we will surely learn a lot of new words and structures.

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I have yet to try that but that sounds like a really good idea and something I will try soon.  I am in the process of learning Spanish, so once I become more fluent I will pick up a copy of the Spanish Bible and try to give it a read, sound tough!

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