I’ve been reading “The Hobbit” on and off for months, coming back to it when I had more vocabulary, repeating certain chapters over and over.
Of course, I have read lots of lessons, graded readers and short comics like Asterix, but this feels like more of a milestone. It’s a book I can put on my “French” shelf and say I read it! When French people talk of Bilbo Bessac, La Colline and Fendeval I will know what they are talking about!
I still remember the first book I read in a foreign language -in English in my case. It was a great achievement to see that I was finally able to do it.
Congratulations,! I love “The Hobbit.”, it was one of the first books I read as a young adult in my native language. I plan to read it in German one of these days as I know the story inside and out. I must continue with more lessons here though first!! Good luck with adding more and more books to your French shelf!
Great! I am excited to finish reading “Master and Margarita” in the original Russian, which I have been reading outside of LingQ now. It’s wonderful to have such milestones.
It´s a milestone for sure. I read 活著 by 余華。I remember how it got easier and more enjoyable towards the end. Reading between the lines however is not easy with so many new words, and so a lot might be overlooked…
I read Master and Margarita on Lingq and loved it. It’s great to be able to access good literature in its original language.
I went to a bookstore to find an English translation of M&M for my wife so that we could talk about it, and I was amazed at how much the two available translations varied. I pulled up the original on the Lingq app, looked at a few parts in Russian and in the two English translations, and bought the one that I felt was truer to my perceptions of the original.
By the way, my wife thought the story was really, really strange, which, of course, it is.
I like to bring the book to the local bookstore/cafe, so often I get curious and go have a look at the two English translations. It is interesting to compare them. And you’re right about it being strange! That means that even if I don’t understand something that’s going on, I can imagine something equally crazy and still enjoy the story.
@gurkenwerfer worte:
I usually look for comprehensive synopses of challenging literature, films, TV series, …
I read parts of the synopsis after I’ve gone through the corresponding part in the original text. That way I make sure I don’t miss any significant detail of the story. I’m doing the same with “War and peace”, which is what I’m reading right now. It makes sure I don’t get lost, plus having character info handy is also a must in such an immense book.
Here’s one example:
@jynxmazefan Oh, well that’s not such a strange thing. There are many books in English I haven’t read. Since I’m learning foreign languages, I prefer to spend my reading time with them and so I don’t get around to reading in my native language much.
@ftornay Thanks for the good idea. I think it’d be good to do that and make sure I know what’s going on. I’m sure it’s quite motivating if I have indeed followed the story correctly.
Thanks for all your comments everybody! I’ve just read it straight through a second time - it didn’t take as long this time! I believe in Stephen Kreshen’s “narrow reading” theory so I’m going to read an alternate translation next and see how I like it.
I had not heard of Krashen’s “narrow reading” theory before, so I found an article by Krashen that explains it., and it sounds like a great idea! Thanks so much for mentioning “narrow reading”.