Learning by reading

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Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:12 am

Week 15:
Another week with too much work. :(

French:
Nothing. Waiting for the library to get some more books by Jean-Claude Mourlevat, this year's ALMA-laureate (Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award). I have read two of his books and really liked them, but unfortunately the library didn't have more of his books in French. Now they are buying some more :) .

Yiddish:
Finished יעל סטראָם/עמיל זינגער-פֿוער - שלמהל-בױמל מיטן מזלדיקן דרײדל / Yale Strom/Emil Singer-Fuer - Shloyml Boyml and His Lucky Dreydl.
Reading אפֿרים קישון אױף ייִדיש: אױסגעקליבענע סאַטירעס / Efroim Kishon af yidish: Oysgeklibene Satires. Kishon was (maybe still is?) really popular in Germany when I was young, so I read quite a few of his satires in my teens. It's fun to return to his work and read it in another language. The edition I'm reading contains the text twice: Once in Yiddish written in Hebrew letters and once in transscription.

Afrikaans:
Reading Therese Benadé - Anna dogter van Engela van Bengale. A historical novel taking place in Cape Town during the 17th and 18th century.

Other:
Finished reading Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - The Perfect Nine (in English).
Read Ben Okri - Astonishing the Gods. Learned some new words: entablature and supernal.
Reading David Grossman - Med mig leker livet (in Swedish).
Last edited by Nogon on Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
4 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon Apr 26, 2021 6:31 am

Week 16:
Lots of reading time, but not much reading done :roll: . I've decided to mention the English titles, in case there are English translations.

Afrikaans:
Continuing with Therese Benadé - Anna dogter van Engela van Bengale. It's not a good book - if it weren't for the language, I'd stop reading it. Still, I'm learning some new words and also some snippets of South African history. I thought that it was originally written in Afrikaans, but actually it's translated from the English (The Kites of Good Fortune).

Dutch:
Reading Esther Gerritsen - Superduif. (Not translated, I think.)

Polish:
Listening/reading Olga Tokarczuk - Dom dzienny, dom nocny/Daghus, natthus. The audiobook is read by the author herself. This is actually my favourite novel by Tokarczuk; I've previously read both the German and the Swedish translation. (House of Day, House of Night)

Other:
Finished reading David Grossman - Med mig leker livet (in Swedish). Great book by one of my favourite authors. (More Than I Love My Life)
Read Ann-Helén Laestadius - Stöld (in Swedish). A gripping novel about the life of the Sami people in modern day Sweden. (not translated)
Reading Yoko Tawada - Sändebudet (also in Swedish). A fascinating novel about life in Japan after an unspecified ecological catastrophe. (The Last Children of Tokyo)
6 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon May 10, 2021 2:08 pm

Week 17 & 18:
Very little reading done in my "learning" languages. I spent far too much time watching booktube videos, hearing about interesting books, checking whether the library has them and borrowing them, or - even worse - remembering that I bought those books a long time ago and still haven't read them. So lots of reading in my ususal languages done.
I'm looking for Booktube chanels in French but having a hard time finding good ones. Any recommendations?

Afrikaans:
Read a few pages of Therese Benadé - Anna dogter van Engela van Bengale. (The Kites of Good Fortune).

Dutch:
Read a few pages of Esther Gerritsen - Superduif.

French:
Reading Jean-Claude Mourlevat - La rivière à l'envers; Tomek.

Other:
Read Yoko Ogawa - The Memory Police.
Read Clifford Witting - Catt Out of the Bag.
Read Fernanda Melchor - Orkansäsong (Season of Hurricanes).
Read Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart.
Reading Charles Dickens - Hard Times.
Reading Peter Godfrey-Smith - Djupsinne. Hur bläckfisken började tänka (Other Minds: The Octopus And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life).
5 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

Dagane
Orange Belt
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:08 pm
Location: London, UK
Languages: I regularly use:
Spanish (N)
English (C2)
German (C1+)
Hungarian (A2?)

I formerly studied:
Galician (B2?)
Dutch (A1)
Czech (A0)
Portuguese (A2?)
French (A1?)
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Dagane » Thu May 13, 2021 2:31 pm

Nogon wrote:Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart.

This book was the first book I read in English that truly made me feel that WOW feeling good literature conveys. I'll always remember that impression! I am hooked to English literature ever since.
3 x

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon May 17, 2021 7:53 am

Week 19:
A great week regarding reading in my lesser languages! :D

Danish:
In my library I happened to notice a book called Morden i Norden (Murders in Scandinavia), containing three 19th-century stories from the three Nordic countries, written and printed in each cuontry's language. They are three sort of very early crime stories of which I already had read the Swedish one (C. J. L. Almqvist - Skällnora kvarn). The Danish one was Steen Steensen Blicher - Præsten i Vejlby from 1829 (The Diary of a Parish Clerk). Due to its age it still had the old orthography with "aa" instead of "å" and nouns starting with a capital letter.

Norwegian:
The Norwegian story in that book was Maurits Christopher Hansen - Mordet på maskinbygger Roolfsen from 1839 (The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen). I didn't much like the story itself, but there were some dialogues mixing Norwegian and German in quite a funny way. Here an example:
Et pass? For hvem? For stiger Ole Hassle? – Den er ja død og begravet i går, lå syk i åtte dager, eben som han skulle reise til Harzen og – hva vill Diegels med det pass? Dog ikke rømme fra mig? Hat kein Gefahr, kein Gefahr. Passet har han hos etatsråden genommen oder bekommen? Og samtidig dukatene? Og Geheimnissen, at jag må leugne for Kassiren hvem sine dukater det er? Og denne selskapelighet, og denne vaktsjef? Geduld, Geduld, Rachel! Wenn die Rotte kommt, so wirds sich wohl erspähen lassen.


French:
After pausing French for a few weeks I'm back to it! I read both parts of Jean-Claude Mourlevat - La rivière à l'envers, Tomek and Hannah (not translated into English as far as I could find out). These are middle-grade books which I could read quite effortlessly. Of course there was some unknown vocabulary, but far, far less than when reading another book of his about two years ago.
I AM progressing, and absolutely should start to read literary fiction, leaving children's books and genre fiction. But somehow I don't dare, which is strange as I read fiction in Afrikaans without being scared of the language and I've learned much more French than Afrikaans. :roll:
I'm not sure what to read next in French. I have several library books to choose from.

Afrikaans:
At long last I decided to discontinue reading Therese Benadé - Anna dogter van Engela van Bengale (The Kites of Good Fortune). It's such a boring book, and I just couldn't imagine reading another 120 pages. Instead I read H. F. Novella - Oog-Oog (untranslated). A short 100 page long novel telling about the lives of fishermen at the Cape west coast. I learned lots of marine vocabulary, amongst other several words for jellyfish, as there was a gigantic and very poisonous one threatening the lives of bathers. You never know when it might come in handy to know jellyfish in Afrikaans :lol: ! No high literature but a nice read.
Next I'm going to read Dalene Matthee - Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest).

Other:
Read Durian Sukegawa - Sweet Bean Paste.
Reading Kelly Barnhill - The Girl Who Drank the Moon.
4 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

User avatar
Sonjaconjota
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:12 am
Location: Barcelona
Languages: German (N) - English, Spanish, Catalan (advanced) - French, Dutch, Italian (intermediate) - Turkish (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 24#p192024
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Sonjaconjota » Mon May 17, 2021 3:40 pm

I don't usually have the patience to read through another person's complete learning log, but this was different, and I've at least skimmed over all entries. All those books, and then Lindgren and Tolkien! And I also think that The Little Prince is incredibly boring - although I love Maigret!
I feel a bit like I have found a kindred spirit! :) Maybe it's just our common cultural background.
But, I mean - I also have bought (though not yet started) Yiddish with ease, and I'm right now waiting for my copies of Emil i Lönneberga and Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn. I want to dabble a bit in Swedish and thought that the similarities with German would make it a good language to try out the comprehension-through-reading method with.
Nogon, may I ask you how old you are? And I'm also intrigued by the local library you are mentioning, it seems to have so much language-related stuff. Where do you live? Sorry if this comes across as stalkerish.
4 x

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Mon May 17, 2021 6:37 pm

Glad to hear that you like my log, Sonjaconjota! :D
About my age: let's say that I grew up in the pre-internet-age.
My local library is Stockholms stadsbibliotek, Stockholms municipal library. I frequently visit both the main building and several of its many branches in town's districts and suburbs. One of its branches houses the International library which has books in more than 100 different languages. Often I walk through its aisles, whishing that I could read all those different languages.

Good luck with Swedish!
4 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

User avatar
Sonjaconjota
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:12 am
Location: Barcelona
Languages: German (N) - English, Spanish, Catalan (advanced) - French, Dutch, Italian (intermediate) - Turkish (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 24#p192024
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Sonjaconjota » Tue May 18, 2021 6:25 am

Nogon wrote:About my age: let's say that I grew up in the pre-internet-age.

:D Me, too. I thought those might be the literary tastes of someone of a similar age.

Nogon wrote:My local library is Stockholms stadsbibliotek, Stockholms municipal library. I frequently visit both the main building and several of its many branches in town's districts and suburbs. One of its branches houses the International library which has books in more than 100 different languages. Often I walk through its aisles, whishing that I could read all those different languages.

Wow, that sounds really cool!

Nogon wrote: Good luck with Swedish!

Thanks!
2 x

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
x 1068

Re: Learning by reading

Postby Nogon » Sun May 23, 2021 8:21 pm

Week 20:
A great week for languages! :D

Faroese:
I read a few pages of Inger Edelfeldt - Bókin um Kamalu. Unfortunately I don't have a Faroese dictionary, so it's really hard to understand more than just the gist. Fortunately I own the Swedish original, Kamals bok, so I first read a page in Faroese (often several times), and try to understand as much as possible, and then I read the same page in Swedish. Usually what I think I understand is correct, but of course there is much I don't get. Even though I only have red about 20 pages, my understanding has already improved.

Icelandic:
Today I started reading an Icelandic children¨s book, Kristín Helga Gunnarsdóttir - Strandanornir. There is no translation (at least the library doesn't own any), so I heavily depend on guesswork and my dictionary. Reading is very slow and I don't think that I will get through the entire book before having to return it. Nevertheless it's fun and I'm elated every time I managed to understand a sentence.

French:
I read a crime novel from 1943, Léo Malet - 120, rue de la Gare. I almost gave up while reading the prologue, due to a horrible amount of unknown words, many of those I couldn't even find in my dictionary. Luckily I had borrowed the Swedish translation, which helped me finding my way through the first chapters. Later I could read it quote comfortably with not too many checks in the dictionary. I continued though to read each chapter first in French and than in Swedish to make sure that I understood correctly - which I mostly did.
The book's setting in war-torn France was fascinating, but the crime mystery itself was barely avarage. I identified both the unidentified body and the murderer far too early, after less than 100 of 220 pages.
I was surprised to find a few English phrases in the book. I only remember fifty-fifty, but there were some more.

Dutch:
At long last I finished Esther Gerritsen - Superduif. A book about the difficult life of a girl in her early teens. Well worth a read.

Afrikaans:
Reading Dalene Matthee - Moerbeibos. A historical novel set in the Knysna Forest in 1881. The gouvernment had invited a group of Italian silk worm breeders to establish a silk industry. Unfortunately the mulberry forest they were told about doesn't exist... (The Mulberry Forest)

Other:
Finished reading Kelly Barnhill - The Girl Who Drank the Moon. An absolutely great middle-grade fantasy book!
Continued reading Peter Godfrey-Smith - Djupsinne. Hur bläckfisken började tänka (Other Minds: The Octopus And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life).
6 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
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Re: Learning by reading

Postby Mista » Sun May 23, 2021 9:35 pm

Nogon wrote:Faroese:Unfortunately I don't have a Faroese dictionary, so it's really hard to understand more than just the gist.

Are you familiar with Islex? https://islex.arnastofnun.is/is/ This is, of course, an Icelandic dictionary, but it has translations to all Nordic languages, including Faroese. It also has a function where you can show translations to all the languages simultaneously. In other words, it should be possible to search for a Faroese word and get the Icelandic word with Faroese and Swedish translations. It won't be as good for Faroese as for Icelandic, obviously, but I think it's worth trying if you have no other options. It could work quite well, and will probably be an interesting resource considering that you obviously have an interest in a whole range of Nordic languages.
5 x


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