Halie
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 982
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Post by Halie on Aug 16, 2008 15:45:50 GMT -5
I know that most of our lovely forum members are bilingual. If you are, what language do you usually read in? Do you read in a language that isn't your native language for easy reads, and your native language for harder books? Just curious
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Ansku
First novel published
Posts: 2,010
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Post by Ansku on Aug 17, 2008 2:02:32 GMT -5
I usually read in Finnish, but sometimes in English too. Last time I read The Other Boleyn girl in English, because there's no Finnish translation (or I don't know, is there?.) Finnish books are easier and faster to read, and local library has bad selection of English books. Someday I will read book in Swedish. That's my goal.
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Juliet
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.?Victor Hugo
Posts: 576
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Post by Juliet on Aug 17, 2008 7:48:51 GMT -5
I usually read in Italian and in English and sometimes also in Spanish...my goal is to read in French!
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Post by Pilleriin on Aug 17, 2008 7:53:40 GMT -5
Mostly I read in Estonian and English, but I've also read books in German. I try to read more and more books in English, because reading books in English really increases my vocabulary. When I want to read something difficult like Jane Austen novels, Shakespeare etc.. then I read the book at first in Estonian and after reading it in Estonian, I read the book in English, so it's easier to understand what the unknown words mean.
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Isa
Administrator
Posts: 6,995
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Post by Isa on Aug 17, 2008 11:33:49 GMT -5
I'll read the original version if it's a book written in French, English or Spanish. If it's a book written in another language, I'll read the English or French translation.
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Halie
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 982
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Post by Halie on Aug 17, 2008 12:21:22 GMT -5
I should edit my original post -- it seems that most of our members are trilingual!
I think that it's so beneficial to speak more than one language. Most Americans don't realize this and just go everywhere expecting that everyone will speak English.
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katiaisme
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 960
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Post by katiaisme on Aug 17, 2008 16:50:42 GMT -5
I normally read in english and some books in french.
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Post by Dominique on Aug 18, 2008 1:23:32 GMT -5
Unfortunately I'm unilingual. Unless you count the differences between American English and British/Australian English
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Lu
Administrator
Posts: 5,469
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Post by Lu on Aug 18, 2008 3:30:56 GMT -5
I read mostly in Italian but I've tried to read more and more books in English since I've fininshed high school, I don't study English anymore and I need to practice books are great When I was younger I was sort of scared to read in English (that's the reason why I started with Pride & Prejudice ) but I now I find it a lot easier. I've also more money to buy books now, because here libraries have just a few English books. My goal is to do like Isa: I'll read the original version if it's a book written in French, English or Spanish. If it's a book written in another language, I'll read the English or French translation. well, only with English books, because I don't know Spanish and French. ;D
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Post by Hanna on Aug 18, 2008 9:22:08 GMT -5
I read mostly in English, because I often buy books over the internet. I guess I read maybe 60% in English, 35% in Norwegian and 5% in Spanish or something.
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Bina
First novel published
Posts: 2,472
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Post by Bina on Aug 18, 2008 9:24:18 GMT -5
I read almost always in English, it´s my favorite language and most of what I like to read is English literature. Apart from that I read in German and Dutch and I´m working French because no matter how good the translation might be, the original is always better.
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bookworm
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"Everything you can imagine is real" - Pablo Picasso
Posts: 973
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Post by bookworm on Aug 18, 2008 9:55:20 GMT -5
If a book was written in English I prefer reading the original. The rest I used to read in Greek, but since I discovered amazon a couple of years ago, the majority of the books I read are in English...
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jella
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
Posts: 775
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Post by jella on Aug 18, 2008 10:49:54 GMT -5
I usually read books in Finnish, it's easier and faster than in English. I try to read more books in English but it's hard.
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Post by swissmiss on Aug 18, 2008 16:16:05 GMT -5
I usually read in english, occasionally in french as well.
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Post by Carma on Aug 18, 2008 16:31:19 GMT -5
If it's originally written in English, I'd like to read it in English, lately I seem to read and buy a lot of english books, it just reads better for me. I always enjoy the story better when it's in English.. is that weird? I don't read a lot of dutch books anymore... except when I wanna read a book, but I dont want to buy it (or can't find it) and teh library has the dutch translation... I really should read more books from dutch writers though.. I'm very disloyal to my own countries literary world!
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