/lit/ - Literature

Try learning Uzbek.
It is essential in understanding high literature.

>>13122837
god i want a grey gf

For Spanish start with Cervantes
For German start with Mann

Yes, some of the best writers are bilingual.

>>13123701
Hesse you surely meant
t. Started with Mann, but not Thomas

>>13122837
Why would it be detrimental to be able to speak, read and write multiple languages?

>>13122837
what languages do you speak? maybe French then Spanish. they're both very useful, French is more widespread while Spanish has a higher number of speakers. Once you know french then Spanish becomes pretty easy.

>>13123701
>For Spanish start with Cervantes
What an awful advice. You seem more concerned with being a pseud than actually giving good advice. Starting with Cervantes to learn spanish is like starting with Shakespear to learn english, or Aristotle to learn modern day greek.
>t. Native spanish speaker

Don't listen to him OP, start with Borges' short stories. They are easy to read(most of them), and really good. Not to mention, they are short duh so you can read them multiple times if you don't understand them.

>>13122837
what isp ainting?

>>13124815
You lose time that could be better spent perfecting one's own mastery over the one language you want to write in.

>>13124815
I never said or implied it would be detrimental. I'm asking if it would have any benefit.

>>13126130
Thanks anon. I dislike most fiction and don quixote never really appealed to me.

In Europe you can't really be taken seriously as a writer and only speak one language. Everybody speaks English. Then if you're seriously into literature you'll need to be able to at least read another language.

You're asking what kind of benefits you could get by learning a new language in an ever increasing globalized world? Maybe being able to open up to more opportunities and to be self sufficient in understanding potentially another half of the planet? (in reference to english for a non native speaking of it). If you actually had more experience in life you would understand that learning a new language is essential mostly for practical uses. Learning one also means learning the soul of another people's culture.

>>13128091
>Learning one also means learning the soul of another people's culture.

This is the most important thing.

我觉得学习第二语言浪费时间,你为什么不可以用别人的翻译?

>>13123701
Don't start with Cervantes.
t. Native spanish speaker

>>13130250
What should I start with then
t. aspiring to write a novel in spanish

>>13130341
Personally, I'd recommend Horacio Quiroga's short stories and other writers like Juan Rulfo, Miguel de Unamuno and Mario Vargas Llosa.

>>13130358
I'll check those out. What about Borges?

first of all, I hate to say it, but you have to know English in and out, since it's the current lingua franca
if you live in the US, your first priority is Spanish, second is Mandarin, and third is Latin for shits and giggles. you don't need much more, fluent Spanish will help you understand most French, Italian, and Portuguese. if you really want another, do German or Japanese. even if you like the music, don't even think about touching Korean, it's useless to Americans
if you live in the UK, first is Mandarin, then Spanish or French, then Scottish/Irish Gaelic or Welsh, then Latin for shits and giggles. again, optionally German or Japanese
if you live in mainland Europe, first is Englush, then Mandarin, then Russian, then Arabic, since one of the last three will be the new lingua franca where you live within a hundred years. don't bother with the others, you won't get the chance to use them
if you live in China, Russia, or the Middle East, same as above, but remove Mandarin, Russian, or Arabic respectively. you're set as is, don't bother any further
if you live in Japan, Korea, or non-Mandarin parts of China, first is Mandarin, then English. optionally throw in Russian and Arabic too, but you don't need to. if you really want to, learn Japanese, Korean, or other Chinese dialects, whichever of the three you don't know
if you live in South America, Africa, or SE Asia, don't bother, you won't live past forty anyway

>>13130441
oh yeah, sorry Canadians, I forgot about you like everyone else. consider yourselves American, but replace Spanish with French
also Mexico counts as South American here, even if that doesn't make sense geographically speaking

>>13130459
Life expectancy in South America is greater than 70 years.

>>13130484
t. brasileño que debe suicidarse

>>13130223
Translation: learning a second language is a dumb waste of time. Just use translation.

>>13130382
He's good, but not an easy read when you're just starting

>>13130494
*debe de, maricón

>>13130441
>Spanish, second is Mandarin, and third is Latin for shits and giggles
>fluent Spanish will help you understand most French, Italian, and Portuguese
couldn't even make it to the middle of this shitpost, good lord

>>13131222
aw, anon, but it only gets funnier :)
>if you live in mainland Europe, first is Englush, then Mandarin, then Russian, then Arabic, since one of the last three will be the new lingua franca where you live within a hundred years

>>13131228
your post is even worse than his

>>13131262
my post is a quote of his ;)

>>13131228
>mandarin, russian, or arabic being the lingua franca

How fucking stupid do you have to be to actually believe this

>>13131275
I guess he thinks that Russia, China, and some unspecified Middle Eastern country are going to take over Europe? yeah, he seems pretty retarded, still funny though :)

What's some good, easy German literature to read for a beginner speaker? I'm learning it to see if Siddhartha is as shit in German as it is in English.

>>13130441
based monolingual
>>13123709
this anon is barely literate

>>13122837
Ancient Greek obviously.
Firstly, it provides the root to thousands of words you know. Secondly, there's no other language with better literature. And thirdly, it completely loses the meaning if you translate it into English. I mean, every language loses some of the meaning depending on how close their roots are but ancient Greek is its own thing so you can expect words to lose all their meaning.

>>13125810
The thing about español is it opens the door the Portuguese as well. I occasionally dab in Portuguese language content to see how much I can understand, and the more you do the more learn about it.

>>13126920
As one famous polyglot said "languages explain each other'.

Learning language is practicing general language skills. It's not enough to make you a good writer but it can be every bit as valuable as reading more in your native language. Zero-sum thinking won't get you far here.

>>13130441
Fun post but really

>learning languages because they'll be unavoidable some decades after your death

I mean come on. By the time Arabic or Chinese becomes dominant in Europe (if it ever does) my grandchildren will be old enough to shitpost here.

Knowing languages with more complex grammatical declension than English might give one the upper hand at understanding how other languages like that might work like ancient Greek, and the combination of proficiency in two languages can cover more aspects of the complete linguistic spectrum.

>>13122837
>Is it beneficial to be able to speak, read and write in multiple languages?
Well, of course. Translated books always lose their style and some details imo.
>What are the best languages to learn?
I think English and French. And Italian but just because I love Italian.

>>13131275
A lot of French youth believe Russia is modern El Dorado and Russian is essential to learn.

>>13131663
Well the at least koiné of the NT appears to have been quite translatable into various languages. English has a surprisingly abundant vocabulary repertoire that is never used to the fullest potential by any one translation.

Sanskrit is probably a language in greater need of attention by westerners.

>>13122837
>bilingualism
Pleb tier. Three is the bare minimum to be considered human.

>>13131962
I heard the Greek of the NT is a bit weird, sometimes borderline faulty, is that true ?

>>13131983
Yeah it's more of a vernacular supposedly since the NT is largely prose while the epics as can be surmised by the word may be more posh and elaborate, maybe comparable to Shakespeare or Middle English poetry.

I've always avoided what I quite want to read by Hugo, Baudelaire, Proust, Flaubert etc because I figure if I learn a second language it will be French and I'd like to experience the language's great works in the original.

>>13123701
Do not start with Mann. Mann is quality, but most of his stuff is these clunky indigestible sentences. Start with Kafka.

>>13131663
the language you chose was plebeian, every reason you gave was either blatantly false or unbelievably plebeian, and in total, this post is the most plebeian thing I’ve seen on this board in years

>>13122837
>the modern day version of monolingual literacy

Come on. No serious author has ever been monolingual

>>13122837
I took the opposite point of view. French, Spanish, German etc. do not seem very useful to me, because literature in these languages is always translated (and the languages are similar enough for translations to be very good). Ancient Greek and Latin suffer from a similar problem.
Chinese, on the other hand, has a wealth of literature that has either never been translated or only translated partially/badly. The language is also very different from English, so even the best translations suffer. So that's what I'm learning right now. After that, I'll probably move on to Japanese so I can flex muh hanzi skillz.

I might learn French just for its practical value, though, and because I already learned quite a bit in school.

>>13130441
Unless you are motivated by literature or history, you should not learn Mandarin. Although not many Chinese people speak English, there's still more than enough to drown you out.

>>13123267
in the mean time, there's a horrorporn video where a guy fucks a grey.

>>13123267
Crescent is top-tier ayy cutie

>>13133417
>willingly speaking to Chinese people in English when their accents are almost always insufferable

>>13130441
>if you live in the u.s. learn Spanish
Only poor people speak Spanish, fact. It is a waste of time. Nobody You want to talk to speaks only Spanish.
>Spending countless hours so you can understand Jose talking about pleb soccer or so you can order tocos better
Think about this shit a little more

>>13133978
In a job where you have to talk to customers, clients, patients, etc being bilingual is clearly beneficial. But I can't say that I don't lose motivation to learn the language every time I hear some bipolar/anxious abuela bitching and crying about some stupid shit and making annoying noises.

>>13133978
>soccer
>tocos

>>13133936
Who cares? Businesses certainly don't. There's enough Chinese people who speak English to make it cheaper to hire them than to hire a westerner who speaks Chinese.

>>13133997
>job
Yes yes, but as I said, only poor people speak only Spanish, so you are going to get all the Clients that don’t pay their bills

>>13122837
The most effecient way to become multi-lingual as an adult is pick a language semi-related to one you already know (e.g. Norwegian or Spanish for English speakers) and become completely fluent. Then work on either a middle-eastern language (Hebrew or Arabic) or a far east language (Mandarin, Korean, or Japanese). You first need to acclimate yourself to learning how to learn a language. Also, it's a good way to see if you even have the desire or long-term capability, which is why you're choosing something easy. If you can't learn Norwegian as an English speaker you'll never learn anything. Once you do that, the linguistic world is your oyster.

>>13134101
>well-paying/specialized service jobs don't exist
>pharmacists never have to speak to ESLs

>>13134109
>ESLs
So they speak English then? They still are going to not pay thier insurance

>>13134120
>Yes yes haw arrr yuuu I am cam forrrr perrrrscrrrrripsyon yes yes verrrri guuuud
do you want to speak to this?

>>13134173
I want them to learn English and go home.
Still a shitty reason to spend years learning a language to talk to inferiors. Wouldn’t you rather spend years learning a language to talk to equals with different knowledge overlaps compared with you?

>>13134173 #
I want them to learn English and go home.
Still a shitty reason to spend years learning a language to talk to inferiors. Wouldn’t you rather spend years learning a language to talk to equals with different knowledge overlaps compared with you?

>>13131663
>it completely loses the meaning if you translate it into English
complete meme. you obviously don't know Greek

>>13122837
>Personally, I would learn Spanish first because it would provide every-day value.
Monomutt, you just outed yourself. You shouldn't voice your opinion on this topic.

>>13134201
>doesn’t yet know how to speak English without a thick accent
>automatically inferior
lol

>>13134239
I never claimed to be bilingual and made it clear that my plan of action was for myself only, and not a suggestion to others. Do you have trouble with reading comprehension? Sincerely consider suicide, you sperge.

>>13134286
Yet you compare your own modern day monolingualism to that of modern day bilingualism. Seems a bit rich, mutt. Unless, of course, you deliberately placed yourself below the average person.

>>13134265
Yes, literally inferior, my knowledge base completely encapsulates their knowledge base, only people who speak *only* Spanish in the U.S. are grunt workers.
If you want to make an argument for learning Spanish it should be so you can talk to educated people in South American countries, not so you can order around the lowest tier of construction workers.
If you are just doing it for job/economic reasons, aim high, learn mandarin so you can sell high ticket items, so you can deal with high value clients and businesses

>>13134351
>Mexicans can’t speak Mandarin
are you high?

>>13134369
Reread what I posted.

>>13134348
>Yet you compare your own modern day monolingualism to that of modern day bilingualism
Are you utterly retarded? You seemed to have completely failed to understand the comparison. Please tell me that you are ESL and aren't fluent in English, rather than that you're retarded.

>>13134375
your post literally implies that Mexicans, who may I remind you are part of the Chinese diaspora, can’t speak Mandarin. what do you think they speak? Thai? Lao?

>>13122837
Anything you could do in life gives more perceptive that leads to you being better at writing certain things, from being bilingual to being rich to being blind to to being a total fucking neet. But at the end of the day, since all experiences can be equally turned into good writing, what matters is your actual writing ability, which comes down to talent, observation of other writing and practice. Bilingualism doesn't come into it any more than the billion other things you can be.

>>13134393
Are you ESL?
Reread what I posted again. Also note I even used a paragraph break, although strictly unnecessary, to break up the thought when when I switched tracks.

>>13134414
oh good god, you think Mexicans speak Japanese, don’t you? I knew it, you’re a self-hating ESL. thanks for the confirmation, cringe and bluepilled, never talk to me again, yada yada yada, goodbye

>>13134449
>I’m stupid but don’t want to admit it so I will la la la and leave the thread
Stay pleb forever

>>13134463
>Projecting
Even worse than other anon desu

>>13122837
It just takes time and time is finite. Learn a language if you need to or want to. Most people can't bother and it's not their fault.

>any good spanish/german literature
how retarded are you

>>13123701
duck those idiots
start with goethe, best german author of all time

Of course it’s beneficial. I think Russian is worth considering, both because of its extensive /lit/ tradition and because it’s a lingua franca for a large number of people, many of whom do not have good English skills.

First learn the largest language that is twelve time zones away from you. Then learn the largest languages six time zones away from you.

>>13122837
Japanese for untranslated hentai

>>13122837
i speak russian and english, but i don't think it counts as bilingual, as english is a non-language. it's the default, everyone speaks it, and it's not an achievement if you do, but rather a disgrace if you don't.

Personally I am fluent in Dutch and English.
I have a good grasp on French (I can converse). I can understand german but can't speak it.