Do you read in languages besides English?
Do you read in languages besides English?
Although I am a Londoner I have lived in Sweden for so long that I now read in Swedish (writing is much harder). But I imagine that must be quite common.
I read a little bit of Latin, and a little bit of German. I'm trying to learn Anglo-Saxon (getting better) and learn the Norse runes (just started)
'So - this is where we stand. Win all, lose all,
we have come to this: the crisis of our lives'
I have read several books in French. I read a French translation of The Hobbit, La Gloire de mon Père and La Maison de ma Mère by Marcel Pagnol. I read a German translation of Alice in Wonderland. I had a go at Das Boot, but that was too hard. It was full of German dialects, 2nd world war slang and submarine terminology.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
Despite polish, I have read many books in English and Spanish. I have read all Tolkien in English and in polish translation. I am going to try "Hobbit" in German.
German, Japanese, and recently I read my first book in Chinese.
Which book？
I read fluently in English, Chinese and classical Chinese, and less fluently in Hebrew and French. I'm working now on improving my French, learning Japanese and doing some basic training in Sanskrit.
中国梦 by Mingfu Liu. It's basically a Chinese military researcher's view of why and how China should end America's global hegemony. Parts of it weren't very convincing, but he did poke some pretty big holes through America's self-justifications for maintaining hegemony over the world.Originally Posted by JBI
Next up is 三体 by Cixin Liu.
Gaelic. Bits of Spanish thanks to a South Uist priest. German is ok but the old brain struggles now. They tried to teach me Russian in the army ( THEY were frightened of THEM in those days)
Hungarian is another language I can read a little in. Learned it in London where I was born and my family all spoke Hungarian. These languages remain in the memory even when old, as I am now.
Romanian, French and German, plus, occasionally, a little Italian and Spanish -- only fragments.
Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.
I'm Dutch and I'm actually practicing my English by taking an English course at NHA studies to improve my English so I can read more English books. They are so much betterPlus it takes ages before a new book is translated into Dutch...
Shakespeare in English and Cervantes in Spanish- translations cannot quite match the originals I'm afraid. I love the old Spanish picaresque novels. How I would love to read Dostoyevsky in the original... my favorite author would become even more great in my mind I'm sure. Someday, when life isn't so busy, I'll tackle Russian just for that one reason.
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