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/lit/ - Literature

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5405650

Anonymous Mon Sep 8 14:46:28 2014 No.5405650 [Reply] [Original]

English is not my first language (europoor reporting in) and although I believe I'm quite decent at it, I'm not familiar with some more words and grammar structures that are out of everyday use. I do understand the text I'm reading quite well, but I must admit that reading novels in English is a vastly different experience from the usual one for me.
Mostly, I've been experiencing only translations of foreign works and while I do believe it's fine when it comes to pieces written in language I'm not familiar with at all like Italian or Russian, it started bugging me lately in terms of the ones written in English. I am actually able to understand the originals and I started thinking that I might be mutilating my own experience by not doing so (after all, even the best translations are never lossless).
I wonder what's the /lit opinion on this matter. Fellow foreigners, how do you go about this? Do you think that if possible one should always read the original version or is it better to stick with first language all the time and just pick proper translations?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 14:48:38 2014 No.5405658 >>5405650 >I'm not familiar with some more complicated words and grammar structures that are out of everyday use seems like the 'complicated' part went missing for some reason

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Anonymous Mon Sep 8 14:49:29 2014 No.5405663

>>5405650
I'm a non-native English speaker as well, and all the books I read in my past-time are written in English. I have noticed vast improvement in my reading comprehension and my vocabulary has also increased. I enjoy reading in English a lot because I always get a cringy feeling when reading a translation. It just feels awkward for me.

I'm from Finland.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 14:54:02 2014 No.5405679 >>5405663 What about classics like Master & Margarita, Invisible Cities, Count of MC etc. assuming you don't speak French/Italian/Russian?

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 14:57:28 2014 No.5405694 >>5405679 I mostly read British and American literature, but I also like French writers such as Dumas and Camus, and yes I read translations.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:02:24 2014 No.5405712 >>5405663 >because I always get a cringy feeling when reading a translation. it's called autism m8. english word of the day for you. now go back to jerking off to your hot tom of finland prints.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:05:36 2014 No.5405726 >>5405712 >being this /b/

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Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:07:32 2014 No.5405731

>>5405650
You should pick your translations according to the languages you know.
For instance: When reading Russian books I prefer French translations to English ones, as French is more complex and varied than English and therefore is likely to paint a picture of the choice novel that is closer to the original. In fact I stir away from English translations as much as possible, though as I reside in England, that's not always easy when I can't be bothered to order online.

That said, nothing beats reading the novel in question in its original language, and it's never too late to learn it.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:27:41 2014 No.5405809 File: 114 KB, 841x623, 1409588960062.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >reading translations

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:36:17 2014 No.5405838 >>5405726 >being this reddit

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Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:37:51 2014 No.5405844

>mfw I read english, german and italian novels in their original language
>I can read french, spanish and portuguese novels in Italian with almost nothing being lost in translation
>I can read russian novels in German with very little being lost in translation

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:46:03 2014 No.5405883 File: 489 KB, 200x149, ==D.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>5405809 Oh I'm sorry, you speak English, French, Spanish and Russian? Truly you are the king of /lit/

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:50:37 2014 No.5405897 >>5405809 gl with reading Solaris

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Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:58:24 2014 No.5405929

Books translated from one romantic language to another don't lose much in the way of anything except potentially prose; I've found English has the best prose and translations of it come out wordy and awkward. Maybe that's just because English is my first language.

Russian to English is not a big deal either. Some of my favorite prose is in my English copy of Dead Souls.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 15:59:01 2014 No.5405934 >tfw putting off french literature until learn french >tfw will never learn french

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 16:16:26 2014 No.5405988 >>5405650 >Fellow foreigners, how do you go about this? By learning the god damn language, you Schwachkopf.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 16:42:49 2014 No.5406112 >>5405988 >Schwachkopf kek

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 16:53:53 2014 No.5406151 File: 167 KB, 600x590, SadFrog.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>5405679 140+ years after his death the French semantic has become so poor that people started reading Dumas for the value of his prose.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 8 16:55:49 2014 No.5406159 >>5406151 Nah, Dumas was the YA of his time. He payed people to lengthen his novels for him and sold them monthly to keep people hooked. He was always popular but meh.