TheStoryteller1 Posted July 19, 2014 Report Share Posted July 19, 2014 I'll admit right now, I haven't! I am hoping to one day soon read fiction in Serbian, Spanish, French and may be German. How about you guys? What have you read, or hope to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuparientemateo Posted July 25, 2014 Report Share Posted July 25, 2014 Yes, I used to have Spanish teacher in grade school who had a rack in the front of the room. He had us read them while we were waiting for other people to be done with tests and stuff. I really enjoy reading fiction and short stories in Spanish. It helps your reading and vocabulary a lot. The only real book I can remember is Don Quixote because I've read it so many times. I've read a bunch more though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trellum Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 My mother language isn't English, and I have read plenty of fiction in the language. My favorite comic is the walking dead comic, it wasn't the first fiction I read in my life (in English), but is the one I remember the best It didn't help me improve my English tho, the English used in that comic can actually confuse an English student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PashaR Posted July 30, 2014 Report Share Posted July 30, 2014 I have a book of famous Russian short stories in both English and Russian. The left-hand page is Russian and the right is English. I can read Russian fairly well, but it is difficult to read classic Russian literature because, in part, the language has changed immensely in the past 100 years or so. There are many words that are now considered archaic and obsolete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinp Posted August 4, 2014 Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 I haven't read much, but I have read a Spanish translation of Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown for an assignment in my fourth year of spanish class. I've also read a book of legends from latin America. I have a book of legends from Spain, but I haven't read it yet. I actually forgot I still had it! There have been a few books that I want to read in spanish but I haven't gotten my hands on them yet. I want to read Plata Quemada but it seems to be out of print. I also want to read La Virgen de Los Sicarios, which is on Amazon for only eight dollars, so I should probably buy that soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cielosur Posted August 4, 2014 Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 I read a lot of books in Spanish. Most recently, I read a translation to Spanish of Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac. I also love the work of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and I highly recommend his books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g2narat Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 Yes. I have read quite a few French books. I used to be better at reading in French though. When I try to read back the French fiction books I still have, I'm having a hard time reading them now. I guess I should re-learn the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Determined2014 Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 I'll admit right now, I haven't! I am hoping to one day soon read fiction in Serbian, Spanish, French and may be German. How about you guys? What have you read, or hope to? No I have not seems like it would be difficult, but I might give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kektheman Posted August 5, 2014 Report Share Posted August 5, 2014 No, I haven't. :cry:Even though I had Italian in my high school, I don't think I would be able to understand the book. Perhaps I should try with children's books, those don't have a rich vocabulary and have easy sentence structures, perfect for beginners. I'm not confident in my skill though, since I haven't spoken Italian in more than a year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gegegeno Posted August 10, 2014 Report Share Posted August 10, 2014 I've been slowly getting into Japanese novels. I first read one that was translated from English - one of my favourite Roald Dahl novels so that I was already familiar with the story. Since then I've been mainly sticking with novellas and short stories by Japanese authors. I have some novels but not enough time to really get into one when I'm studying full-time. I even have a couple of "hard" novels by the likes of Natsume Soseki so I have something to aim at in the future.I also have a couple of Swedish children's books - Pippi Långstrump and some of the Moomin series in my reading list. Whether I'd have better luck trying Japanese literature or Swedish children's stories is yet to be seen... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babyleans Posted August 10, 2014 Report Share Posted August 10, 2014 I'm not a big fan of fiction but i have read it in English. But i don't think it's fair to say that because even though English is not my native language, i've spoken it since i was a kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livvypoo Posted August 11, 2014 Report Share Posted August 11, 2014 Back when I was learning Spanish, when I was sixteen or so, one of the tasks we had to do was learn to read...sorry, I forget the name of the book. It was something to do with a Colonel and a chicken, that's all I remember. We were expected to read it without the use of a dictionary, or the English version, and honestly I ended up just not even getting that far into it because it was so hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidney Posted August 11, 2014 Report Share Posted August 11, 2014 Aside from reading the English-Spanish dictionary and Google Translate, then no. I think you have to be fluent enough in that language that you are trying to learn to be able to read any text in that language with ease. Reading also doesn't do much to help you with your self-studying, unless they are subtitles of a foreign film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anna3101 Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 I like reading, and fiction in foreign languages is really enjoyable for me, even if at times it's quite difficult. The trick is to make myself start, then I get engrossed in the book and read it with pleasure. But beginnings are difficult. It's quite tempting to read something in Russian/Polish/English instead, where you don't have to strain your brain that much and try to guess the meanings of certain words. However, I'm convinced reading is beneficial for me, even if my knowledge of language X is still very basic. There's a lot to learn, and for as long as the vocabulary is not too difficult, it's also fun. I've just started reading my favourite chick lit series translated to Italian. I've read those books in English many times, so I know what it's all about, and I'm learning a lot of new Italian words and phrases. Plus, it's so interesting to read the same book but in a different language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pesic87 Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 Apart from reading fiction in my native language and English, I must admit I tried reading in Russian, but I struggled. Even though I could understand something, literary language is a bit different than ordinary, common, spoken language, and no matter whether I have already encountered Russian throughout my life, it was quite hard to understand. I have tried to read not fiction but literary realism Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. anna3101 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anna3101 Posted November 29, 2015 Report Share Posted November 29, 2015 I'm no fan of Tolstoy but I did like Anna Karenina a lot. However, that's not something I'd recommend to someone who's not fully fluent in Russian yet. Actually, a lot of classics are not so easy for native speakers as well - there are words and expressions that no longer exist. I remember when we were studying Tolstoy at school at lot of people from my class were really struggling with reading those long, overly complicated sentences. pesic87 and Arzy_ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miya Posted November 30, 2015 Report Share Posted November 30, 2015 I've read some short stories in Japanese, but they were hard. It took me A LONG TIME to read and understand everything. I had to use dictionaries and ask people I knew for help. I'm hoping that one day I can read a whole book in Japanese without needing translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catincamden Posted December 1, 2015 Report Share Posted December 1, 2015 I learned French up to O levels a few years ago, and though I borrowed Maigret books from the library I always struggled to finish them. To this day I don't think I'm catching the correct nuances from the stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_A Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 I surely did. I had to read a ton in German, back in High School. I also read a lot in Romanian as well. Funny thing is, even though Hungarian is my native tongue, I hardly read anything in Hungarian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NATASHA Posted December 2, 2015 Report Share Posted December 2, 2015 I have read Italian and Afrikaans books but only because I understand the languages. I can imagine it might be rather difficult to read another language if you don't understand it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delete Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innovativecat Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 I read Diary of a wimpy kid in Greek. I'll probably find something more appropriate for my age as I don't enjoy books like this anymore. I used to love books for middle grade but I get bored with this book. Is it because the book is boring or because I read it in a foreign language? I also go to this site to read. They have children's book translated into foreign languages. childrensbooksforever.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arzy_ Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Yeah i remember i read an Italian novel that my mother brought me since at that time i was starting to learn Italian, It was called 'Nebbia e Fuoco' i think (i don't remember who is the author). Sadly i had to left my learning of Italian apart so it was the only one novel that i read in another language aside from English and Spanish (my native language). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arzy_ Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 On 29/11/2015 22:03:46, anna3101 said: I'm no fan of Tolstoy but I did like Anna Karenina a lot. However, that's not something I'd recommend to someone who's not fully fluent in Russian yet. Actually, a lot of classics are not so easy for native speakers as well - there are words and expressions that no longer exist. I remember when we were studying Tolstoy at school at lot of people from my class were really struggling with reading those long, overly complicated sentences. i finished a translation from English of Anna Karenina almost a year ago, it was the first book in English that i read so i will always remember that story altough as you say i wouldn't recommend it to someone who is not fluent. It was really hard to understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronMike Posted May 17, 2016 Report Share Posted May 17, 2016 I read a novel in Esperanto (Viktimoj) as well as many short stories. Lots of short stories in Russian and BCS. In the non-fiction realm, I've read a couple linguistics books in Russian and plenty of periodicals in Russian, Esperanto and BCS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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