Reading books not in your first language

[Sarah]

Just started reading La brújula dorada. I am just starting to realise the task I have taken on! I am VERY slow at reading this, having to look up pretty much every other word then comparing what I have as a sentence with the English version to make more sense. I am so slow, that my kindle has turned off twice while reading the first page alone as it thinks I've abandoned it! So 30 minutes per page that means if I carry on at this speed, it will take me 197 hours approximately to read this book! It better be good!

[Lisa]

Kudos to you for taking this on Sarah! You can do it! :)

[Esther]

Sarah wrote: "Just started reading La brújula dorada. I am just starting to realise the task I have taken on! I am VERY slow at reading this, having to look up pretty much every other word then co..."

Now you know why I was freaking out when December started and I still had my Z book (Zafon) to read. It does take forever at first, but it gets easier. I read in English as fast as in French and my speed is Spanish is getting better and better.

Hang in there, you can do it. I am sure that by the middle of the book you will be at 10 minutes per page.

[Ed]

Sarah wrote: "Just started reading La brújula dorada. I am just starting to realise the task I have taken on! I am VERY slow at reading this, having to look up pretty much every other word then co..."

I can do no better than repeat what Esther has said. You're doing everything right, the dictionary etc. Things will get better with every page, as you get used to the author's style you will need the dictionary less and less to grasp the meaning.

It's not a book I would read but thank goodness we all have different tastes.

Un saludo de España.

[Michelle T.]

Hi Sarah, I was born in the US, but my parents took me to South America when I was a year and four months. I had a lot of trouble when I came back because in Venezuela they give you English classes but only the basic stuff.
But a lot of Latin authors have books in Spanish and English, and they really don't change a lot. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my favorites, and I have read both versions... So maybe you can start there!!!

[Sarah]

Thanks guys for all the words of encouragement. I have to say that while it took me a while to read just that one page, I did thoroughly enjoy the process! I think it will have to be little and often in reading this one. So far, the story is intriguing which I think will keep me motivated to carry on.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Hi Sarah, I'm glad to know you are doing better.
By now I read English and Portuguese as fast as Spanish, my first language. I think the secret is just read. I'm not sure how is the difficulty of La Brujula Dorada, but the best thing is just read, don't stop at every word you don't now, just try to pick the idea. It's better to reread the whole chapter once you know what is it about than stop for the dictionary at every word. You'll be amazed at the difference between the first and the last chapter! Good luck!

[Michelle T.]

I agree with you Sandra, I love to read, my husband loves it to... I can go to the library and spend the whole day there, but reading more and more will help with it. I had a lot of difficulty reading in English when I came back on '98, but my love for books was so big that I ask my husband (by that time my boyfriends, roommate)for a dictionary and that help me a lot... now I actually need the dictionary to read Spanish...

[Georgi]

Hello! I am Georgi,my mother tongue is Bulgarian but I started learning English at a very young age. My parents would send me to the local English learning school where my teacher did a great job (in my opinion). She used to give us all kinds of assignments in order to improve our grammar and vocabulary skills,one of which was the 'book project' she made us do by the end of every term. We had a choice between a few books,as the school had just been opened and it's library wasn't that much of a big deal. I remember the first book I took 'The Cat in Ancient Egypt' by Jaromir Malek. It was of course an issue written in a more child-acceptable way so I didn't have problems with reading it,but I must confess - I picked this book just so I could have something to do my first book project on (can't remember the others,but this one had the coolest covers,though) :D
There were other books I picked up at school - a short version of 'The Thirty Nine Steps','The adventures of Tom Sawyer' etc. Later there was more interest in the school's library by the students and eventually it 'grew' and there was much more to choose from. I borrowed 'the Count of Monte Cristo' which was the first book I've ever read with so much pleasure! Honestly, the story was so involving that not for a minute was I bothered the book wasn't in Bulgarian. No doubt these books helped me improve my lingual skills,but they also gave me reading habits and culture. At school it may seem books are only 'things' you have to go through in order to gain certain grades or whatever, but truly they are there to help us get to know ourselves better and to make us open up for everything surrounding us which we sometimes forget; books are there to remind us never to stop questioning and to be curious,they help us forge our interests and to expand our knowledge.
P.S. Fun fact (not so fun to other Bulgarians) is that I've read the most notorious Bulgarian historical novel 'Under the Yoke'by Ivan Vazov in English. I strongly recommend this book to you guys too!
P.S.2 Must sound really strange to hear someone talking about learning to read in the most widely spoken language on Earth :D
Best wishes!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Hi Georgi! Welcome to the group, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Sounds like you had an awesome language teacher. I am a bit hopeless with languages, but I also never had good teachers and I think this had a lot to do with it. Oh, and I'm lazy :P

Thanks for the book rec. Under the Yoke just checking that's the one. Sounds like a great story, and I shall at it to my Around the World reading list that some of us do in another group. Hope you enjoy yourself here, and that you get some good book recommendations back in return. :D

[Lilisa]

Welcome Georgi - I have Under the Yoke on my To Be Read list. Someone from Bulgaria recommended it as well in the Around the World book group that Rusalka mentioned. Good to get another endorsement. Looking forward to reading it in the future.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Missed that one... but it's on that massive TBR list now!

[Dorottya]

I'm Hungarian and I do regularly read in English. There are loads of reasons for it:
1) I majored in English, but my MA is a Hungarian language one (Theatre), and I feel I need to keep up and maintain my knowledge
2) There are loads of books that I'm interested in but not available in Hungarian
3) Sometimes the Hungarian translations are awful. (I mean, I am quite prificient in English, and sometimes I can pinpoint what is mistranslated)