A language learners’ forum

Week 23:
Incredibly long days, but soon they'll get shorter again...

French:
Still no Assimil, but at least I reborrowed the Grammaire Progressive. Not started that though.
Finished reading Zabus & Hippolyte - Incroyable ! (Incredible!). Really liked this graphic novel.
Read Georges Simenon - L'affaire Saint-Fiacre (Maigret Goes Home). For me, Simenon's books are quite easy to read now.
Still reading Terry Pratchett - Timbre (Going Postal).

Afrikaans:
Finished reading Willem D. Koetzé - Voetspoere in die Kalahari. I loved reading about the author's childhood in the fascinating Kalahari.

Estonian:
Finished "reading" Martin Widmark - Kirikumõistatus (Kyrkomysteriet) with the help of a dictionary and the Swedish original. Learned a few words by encountering them again and again, and recognized a few through similar words in other languages, for example "püksid" <- Swedish "byxor" (trousers). Learned to recognize a verb in third person singular, present tense as well (always helpful to be able to identify the verb). Don't think I'll ever try to learn Estonian, but I had fun. Might do something similar in other languages further on.

Swedish:
Read Jakob Wegelius - Den falska rosen (The False Rose). Third book about Sally Jones, the gorilla chief engineer. Really gripping adventure novel for children, well written.

Week 24:
Spent most of the week on my balcony, reading.

Faroese:
A Scandinavian language I can't read properly, but it's a bit more intellegible than Icelandic. From time to time I borrow a children's book from the library in Faroese, and now it was time again.
Jakob Wegelius - Ótrúliga søgan um ​Sally Jones​ (The Legend of Sally Jones). Surprisingly, it was quite an easy read, probably due to the illustrations.
The librarian and I talked a little about the library's Faroese books. She told me that those books are borrowed very infrequently and she was afraid that they might be discarded due to lack of interest. That would be a shame, so I decided to work on the statistics and borrowed some more Faroese books. Two of them I've already read.
Martin Widmark/Helena Willis - Gullgátan (The Gold Mystery) and Skúlugátan (not translated to English, I believe).

French:
Read Jakob Wegelius - Sally Jones, la grande aventure (The Legend of Sally Jones), to make sure that I understood the Faroese translation correctly.
AND: At long last I finished reading Terry Pratchett - Timbré (Going Postal). It took almost three months, but so it was my bedside table book and most evenings I only read a few pages before falling asleep.

English:
Read Ali Smith - Companion piece. Great book!
Read David Almond - The Boy who Swam with Piranas. I have to check all his books - I think he's one of the very, very best living children's authors.
Read Kiran Milwood Hargrave - Julia and the Shark. Another book written for children. Not bad at all, but not comparable to Almond. Great illustrations though.

Swedish:
Read Jakob Wegelius - Spionerna i Oreborg (not in English). I like Wegelius' books. This one was quite funny, but it lacked depth, I think.
And a lot of nature related books:
Jonas Classon/Anna Froster - Lappuggla (about great grey owls); Martin Ragnar - Åkerbär (about Rubus arcticus, the Arctic bramble); Stefano Mancusi/Alessandra Viola - Intelligenta växter (Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence); derek jarmans trädgård (derek jarman's garden); Elisabeth Gunnarsson Svahlin - Dahlior (about dahlias).

Nogon wrote:Martin Ragnar - Åkerbär (about Rubus arcticus, the Arctic bramble)

That guy is from my home town.

Bibliography here:
http://www.boktugg.se/forfattare/645779/ragnar-martin/

Thanks Jeff!

Oh, he has written a book about krusbär (gooseberries) too! I love them and would love to learn more about them, so tomorrow I'll borrow the book from the library.

"Blott Sverige svenska krusbär har"

Week 25 & 26:
Too hot for languages.

Faroese:
Read Sven Nordqvist - Neyðars Pettson (Findus Goes Fishing), one of the wonderful illustrated books about old man Pettson and his cat Findus.
Started reading Maj Bylock - Mánaringur (Månringen), part two of a trilogy of historical novels for children. I understand it surprisingly well; after reading a page or so, I check the Swedish original for comparison.

French:
Started reading several books but couldn't find the "right" book. Will try again next week.

English & Swedish:
Read lots and lots of books, most of them nature related.

Week 27:
Back to...

French:
Read Arnaldur Indriðason - Les fils de la poussière (no English translation, I think). This book really boosted my confidence in reading French! I read it with hitherto unknown ease and it felt that now, NOW I at long last can read French.
Unfortunately this confidence boost didn't survive the first two sentences of Honoré de Balzac - Le colonel Chabert, which turned out to be a string of unknown vocabulary interspersed with a few "il", "le", "à" and "qui" .
Now I knew it would be like that; I remember that stage very well from learning Swedish. Sometimes there are books, especially translated books, that are easy reads, and the next one happens to be almost unintellegible. Luckily I also know that the first pages of a book tend to be especially hard to read, until one has understood the setting und become familiar with the author's style. It usually gets easier later on, so one day I'll even read "Le colonel" - only just not now.

English:
Read Yismake Worku - The Lost Spell. An Ethiopean novel translated from the Amharic about a man who turned himself into a dog. Unfortunately he has forgotten the spell which would turn him back...

Swedish:
Read Jennifer Ackerman - Bevingad intelligens (The Genius of Bird). A fascinating book about birds' intelligence, very well written.

Ah, those books that make you think you've cracked it, until the next one which is unreadable.

Nogon wrote:Luckily I also know that the first pages of a book tend to be especially hard to read, until one has understood the setting and become familiar with the author's style.

Yes indeed. I always tell people this. To flick through a book you plan to read and read random bits rather than the opening pages. Those opening pages are generally more flowery and difficult as the author wants to make a literary impression.
The Ethiopian book has an interesting premise. I'll look for that.

Nogon wrote:
French:

Unfortunately this confidence boost didn't survive the first two sentences of Honoré de Balzac - Le colonel Chabert, which turned out to be a string of unknown vocabulary interspersed with a few "il", "le", "à" and "qui" .
Now I knew it would be like that; I remember that stage very well from learning Swedish. Sometimes there are books, especially translated books, that are easy reads, and the next one happens to be almost unintellegible. Luckily I also know that the first pages of a book tend to be especially hard to read, until one has understood the setting und become familiar with the author's style. It usually gets easier later on, so one day I'll even read "Le colonel" - only just not now.

If & when you return to the colonel, litteratureaudio.com has two readings of the story, one about 2h15m, the other about 2h30m. I personally listened to each only a bit to confirm they were in French.

Thanks for the link, Mork! I sure will listen to the audio some time, whenever I feel ready to tackle Balzac.

Week 28:
After reading Marianović's book, I found myself in a reading slump. I just couldn't find the "right" book to read so I had to resort to one of my secret weapons, ie one of Terry Pratchett's or Diana Wynne Jones's books. This time I chose one of the latter which I hadn't read for far too many years. That got me out of the slump but I still couldn't tackle any more demanding book, so I continued reading children's books.

Dutch:
Read David Almond - Het wonderlijke verhaal van Angelino Brown (The Tale of Angelino Brown). Easy to read in Dutch but not one of Almond's best books.

Swedish:
Read Fausta Marianović - Sista kulan sparar jag åt grannen (not translated). Partly autobiographical novel about the war in former Jugoslavia. Not very well written, but gripping, horrible descriptions of war.

Englisch:
Read Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon. Hilarious, even at the n'th re-read.
Read Jonathan Auxier - The Night Gardener. That could have been a really good horror book for children, but it wasn't. Everything was there, just a tiny bit off, alas.
Read Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons. Wonderful book - what a pity that I didn't know it in my childhood.