einzelne wrote:Definitely, not just you. I was reading a lot in my native Russian recently and was overjoyed to devour one book after another. And I mean books translated into Russian. You read way faster, can retain more information, can see more conceptual connections since you don't have to spare your valuable mental energy on deciphering the linguistic aspect of the text. No need to check your dictionary, less fatigue etc.
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Right now my 'fear' is at its highest. Sometimes I look back at the languages I've dabbled with and shudder. But who knows, may be in some distant future the life will be calm and stable again and I would venture into another language journey. But I'm definitely not as enthusiastic as I was 10 or 15 years ago.
I cut some bits out, but the entire post resonated with me. After a three month 'non-learning' period I've been able to see the exact same thing regarding how much pleasure there is in reading natively or in languages where I'm very comfortable. I just recently did the same in Spanish that you did with Italian and it was tiresome above all.
And indeed in reading for information where I want to do the minimum of work and get as much as possible with the best retention, I wonder how much I should farm out to other languages really.