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/lit/ - Literature

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1848008 No.1848008 [Reply] [Original]

/lit/ i'm curious

>Your mother tongue
>Your second (or 3rd, 4th...) language + level of proficiency
>Examples of books you finished in a second language

Spanish
English (High fluency)
The wind-up bird chronicle, A confederacy of Dunces, Foe, Kitchen, Naked Lunch

>> No.1848034

>English
>Spanish (okay), French (poor-okay), Japanese (poor)
>The Little Prince

Yeah, I need to read more foreign language books. Do you have any examples of good children's literature in the Spanish language, OP?

>> No.1848037

What the fuck is "dankscheen" supposed to mean on that picture? Whoever made that picture is a moron.

>> No.1848050

>>1848034
El valle de la Pájara Pinta

>> No.1848051

>>1848034
El valle de los Cocuyos is also good

>> No.1848052

>>1848050
Maybe something somewhat easier to get ahold of?

>> No.1848055

>>1848051
Alright! I'll pick up that one.

>> No.1848056

>>1848037
It means thank you in German

>> No.1848073

>>1848056
Hey look. Someone who doesn't speak German yet tries to offer translation services.

It's Mennonite.

>> No.1848091

>>1848073
Well, excuuuuuse me for trying to help out. "dankscheen" is in Plattdeutsch (Low German). There is no such language called "Mennonite". Mennonites speak Deitsch ("Pennsylvania Dutch"), Alemannic German, Plautdietsch, English and Spanish.

Here's where I found the translation:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Fn9gpveagTwJ:www.myanmar.ca/language/thankyou.h
tm+dankscheen+language&cd=9&hl=es-419&ct=clnk&gl=gt&source=www.google.com.gt

>> No.1848106

>1848073

Hey since you know German so well, are there any programs that you know of that teach the Bavarian dialect?

>> No.1848107

>Spanish and Catalan
>English (perfect)
> Norwegian Wood, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.

>> No.1848108

English
Second Language: Dutch
Third: Spanish
Fourth: French

Read Komt een Vrouw bij de Dokter. Hated that. There's not a massive amount of literature that grabs me in Dutch, so I'm happy for dutchfags to recommend.

In Spanish, quite a few - my favourite was Sin Noticias De Gurb (Eduardo Mendoza), or The Alatriste novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

French: They made me read Candide and Huis Clos at school, as well as some Moliere. I came out the other side traumatised and I haven't read a book in French since except for Les Fourmis by Bernard Werber, which was pretty good. And I may force myself to read Mygale by Thierry Jonquet because I can't find it in English, and since I heard that Almodovar geezer is making a movie about it, it's piqued my interest.

>> No.1848132

>>1848108
How did you find the Alatriste series?

>> No.1848139

English
Spanish (advanced)
un mundo para julius, la tia julia y el escribidor, dormir al sol, el tunel, sobre tumbas y heroes

>> No.1848168

>>1848132

Pretty good actually - like Bernard Cornwell with more womanising and hanging out with, so many.

>> No.1848171

Mother tongue:
Moroccan Arabic (High fluency):
There isn't really any fiction in the language. Only lately have they started translating some stuff (e.g. the Prince). The closes thing is poetry by our sufi master رضي الله عنهمة.

Second language:
Classical Arabic (high fluency):
The Quran, various book of traditional Islamic knowledge. I haven't read a lot of fiction in Arabic (OK, don't be clever), mostly some Arabian Nights stories (which were excellent.)

Third language:
French (less than high fluency):
Un Condamné à Mort, Les Chants de Maldoror, a Murakami and Mishima novel each etc.

Fourth Language:
English (High fluency):
Most of my reading is in English.

>> No.1848176

>>1848108
Candid and Moliere stuff are actually not bad once you get pass the school ick.

>> No.1848178

>>1848107
Catalan is Spanish. You mean to say Castillano. We give you independence for 500 years and now you don't even know what your languages are called!

>> No.1848181

Mother tounge: Swedish

2nd: English
Book example: Cryptonomicon)
Proficiency: I'd say very high reading, decent writing, high listening, and relatively low speaking due to lack of practice.

3rd: Spanish
Proficiency: Low/very low

4th: German
Proficiency: Low/very low

>> No.1848184

Polyglot fags, how hard is it to speak and listen to a language after being able to read and write in that language fluently?

>> No.1848185

>>1848181
I was under the impressions the Swedes and Norwegians can at least understand what's going on when reading German or hearing it, even without any prior education in the language, is that wrong?

A friend of mine was born in Germany and lived there for 13 years, and I was shocked when he said that he can't understand Dutch, not even poorly.

>> No.1848188

>>1848184
Speaking is the hardest part. Without practice, you would find it extremely difficult to speak a language even if your proficient in all other aspects. Listening is the second most difficult, especially with certain languages, such as Spanish (continental at least) where they speak in the speed of light (even when they know that you don't know the language very much, which I find extremely rude). Of course, reading is the easiest.

>> No.1848192

>>1848184

Reading and listening are linked, to some extent, as are writing and speaking (less so, depends on the language).

Learning the passive skills of listening and reading is usually much easier than learning the active skills of speakking and writing, and sometimes people can be fluent speakers without ever learning to write (if the language uses a different script, for example).

However it's almost impossible to learn to read and write fluently without working on your speaking and listening.

>>1848188

Agreed - listening can sometimes be super-hard. You spend weeks and months in the classroom, then you arrive in the country and some guy walks up to you chatting shit like a motherfucker and you think "shit, what the fuck language have I been learning?".

feelsbadman.jpg

>> No.1848203

>>1848192
Sometimes you're just learning the wrong language. For example, many people learn Standard/Classical Arabic when they want to go to an Arabic Speaking country, which is quite absurd. Learning Classical Arabic when you want to go to,say, Morocco, is like learning Danish when you want to go to England. Then again, it's nearly impossible to understand the language you've learned when it's spoken. Spanish is an example of that with their speed talking.

>> No.1848205

>>1848008
Spanish
Catalan (god tier, as long as I live in Ibiza education is in Catalan), English (having the B2 Exam on Wednesday)
Lots of catalan books, over 100 probably, L'Auca del Senyor Esteve by Rusiñol is probably the best. White Fang, The Fightclub and Ulysses in English.

>> No.1848219

>>1848205

>Ibiza education is in Catalan

Ibicenc, rather than Catalan, you fucking pages.

>> No.1848221

>>1848185
>I was under the impressions the Swedes and Norwegians can at least understand what's going on when reading German or hearing it, even without any prior education in the language, is that wrong?

We can understand the basic meaning of written German with just small amount of education. Some words are very different. We have a very easy time learning it, except for some grammar of course.

It's just that I can't speak or write in German at all :P

>> No.1848231

>>1848219
Eivissenc may I correct you sir. However, what they teach in schools is Catalan. What dumb rednecks shout in their over9000hectareas fincas is that spanish-catalan mixed with earth. Yes. Earth from the ground. Hint, my granparents can't even speak a single word in catalan. Guess what? Not an agriculturefag here.

>> No.1848243

>>1848178
Catalan is from Catalunya, and isn't Spanish.

>> No.1848252
File: 106 KB, 285x400, franco.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1848252

>>1848243
Catalan is forbidden.
/discussion

>> No.1848258

>>1848252
I know two language when i was three years old and you no.

>> No.1848262

>>1848108
Arnon Grunberg bro

>> No.1848265

>>1848258
Catalan isn't a language.

>> No.1848271

Mother tongue: German

Second: English, living in Australia, so pretty good with a "sexy" accent

Third: French, from school, is I'd say mediocre to bad

Fourth: Japanese, from travelling and gf - I'd say intermediate, I can read most basic shit (children's books) and I can easily hold a conversation with her and her friends

Do programming languages count, too? I'm pretty good at Python, Ruby (on Rails) and Java!

>> No.1848278

>>1848271
>"sexy" accent
How'd that happen with German and Australia? I'd have thought you'd just sound like a drunk with low self esteem.

>> No.1848282

>>1848278
Dunno, I get loads of compliments from girls ("oh my gosh you sound so cuuuute" etc.)

I think it's because I pronounce the words "harder" and my "th" sounds like its from Hitler's kitten.

>> No.1848315

mother tongue: german
second: english (high fluency)
third: french (enough to get around)
I can speak a few words italian and spanish

books in second language: "Brave New World"
"The Venetian Betrayal"

>> No.1848325

>>1848315
Va fan culo.

>> No.1848328

>>1848325
Not that guy, but everyone knows what that means, amico.

>> No.1848337

Finnish, adept
English, proficient, I've read a ton of books like the Dark Tower saga, Dune and Brave New World
German, limited, I will read Die Physiker and Die Leiden des jungen Werther when I have time
Swedish, low, I'll never read a book in Swedish

>> No.1848338

>>1848328
Trombamico.

>> No.1848356

1.Catalan
2.French
3.English
4.Spanish
5.Italian

When you speak 2 romanic languages, the rest of them are pretty easy to learn.

>> No.1848370

English (fluent)
Russian (alright)
Random childrens books and short stories by Gogol, Pushkin. Most of my Russian literature is read in English

>> No.1848383

1-English
2-French. I've been speaking French since kindergarten. Mme Bovary, A la Recherche du temps perdu
3- Deutsch. Medium fluency (conversational). Duino elegies, sorrows of young werther.
4- Spanish. Medium fluency (written). Abridged and simplified Don Quijote, going to attempt an Isabel Allende novel soon...

>> No.1848384

1) Dutch (adept)
2) English (adept)
3) French (fluent)
4) German (moderate)

I dislike my first language actually and usually read in English.

>> No.1848387
File: 17 KB, 400x343, feelsbatman.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1848387

1. I would say English but my first language was actually Japanese.
2. Which means my second language is English
>mfw I can barely speak Japanese anymore

>> No.1848394

>>1848387
Damn, that sucks. Did you read many Japanese authors?

>> No.1848399

>>1848394
No, well, excluding kids books and manga. My mum has a copy of Norwegian Wood. I could only read the first sentence.

>> No.1848398

1. Salvadoran Spanish
2. English (high fluency)
3. French (almost fluent)
4. L'Étranger, Huis clos
>MFW Spanish speakers are overrunning /lit/.

>> No.1848402

>>1848399
Kid's books by Japanese authors? If so, it'd be awesome if you could give me some names of them.

>> No.1848404

Icelandic: native
English: fluent
Dansh: advanced
German: intermediate
Russian: beginner

>> No.1848408

>Dutch
>English (qualified interpreter) / Danish (same, but rusty) / French (conversational) / Swedish (okay - poor) / German (okay - poor) / some others (mostly passive)

English: Collected Tales and Poems of E. A. Poe and Moby Dick currently
Danish: The Young Lions, Tavshed i oktober, but it's hard to come by Danish books
French: Le Petit Prince
Norwegian (yes, somehow): All the Pretty Horses

I'll read a book in the original language if I can.

>> No.1848418

Argentine spanish (Mother tongue).
Portuguese (Can read and understand everything but can't really talk it, can't get the accent right).
English (High fluency)
German (Good fluency)
Swedish (Medium Fluency - Took one year and a half of it)

>> No.1848420

German
English fluent
French
A little spanish
A little russian
A little japanese
Swiss accent

>> No.1848426

Everyone in this thread who can read german. Read "Die Physiker". It is really short but really good.

>> No.1848428

Mother Tongue: English
Can read and converse in French and German
Have working knowledge of Italian and BCS
Some knowledge of Spanish, Russian, Dutch

L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être
Die Verwandlung
Zivo meso
Idiot

>> No.1848431

English - Native language.
Spanish - High proficiency. Learned it before English but stopped using it once I got to school.
Galician - Very low proficiency. Only my grandfather speaks it and he uses Spanish most of the time, so I was never really exposed to it much. I can understand Galician but I can't speak or write it myself.

>> No.1848436

English is my native language. Then:

(Mexican) Spanish, fluent/proficient
American Sign Language, fluent/proficient
Esperanto, fluent/proficient
Portuguese, intermediate (Nearly all the Portuguese I know is due to its similarity to Spanish)
Japanese, beginner
French, even more beginner

All that I've read that isn't in English is pretty much just Spanish language poetry. Any suggestions to expand my Spanish readings are welcome, same goes for Portuguese. In relation to this topic, though, ASL and Esperanto are just silly and I haven't read any books in them nor do I desire to.

Japanese resources would be hecka helpful to me right now. I was thinking of making a Japanese literature thread sometime soon. Learning materials as well as just books to read either in translation or in Japanese are of interest to me.

I'm not very motivated to learn French but if you have some good resources lemme know.

>> No.1848464

1. spanish natively, but I don't read anything in spanish. it sounds kind of ugly to me.

2. native-like/fluent in english. I read all of my lit and poetry in english.

3. mediocre french, but I'm working on it.

I used to speak portuguese when I was little, but it faded away. I want to learn cantonese and russian when I'm done with french.

>> No.1848476
File: 57 KB, 300x287, 1288136049170.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1848476

>>1848265
>nice brolling tro

>> No.1848478

>English
>Spanish (Luckily I've been exposed to all kinds of spanish, so I understand quite a bit for never having formal study)
>La Sombra Del Viento & Once Minutes were the last two books I read

>> No.1848517

German
English(pretty good), french(ok), spanish(ok)
Richard Powers "The Echo Maker" at the age of 16(mind = blown), HP7, Brave New World, Everyman, a lot of fairytales

>> No.1848540

German
English - near-native: Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (apart from I Shall Wear Midnight, which I haven't yet managed to get my hands on), Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Asimov's Foundation series, the Illuminatus trilogy, tons of others over the past 15-odd years
Japanese - JLPT2: err, none. Unless manga count, then: R-18, Koe de Oshigoto, Gravitation, GTO ... and others I forgot.

>> No.1848552

English
German, moderate proficiency (A level standard)
Norwegian, extreme beginner

Die Verwandlung (barely understood it)
Reading a German translation of Knut Hamsun's Hunger at the moment.

>> No.1848557

English (southern American dialect)
Spanish (elementary)
none

>> No.1848573

English and uhh...

:(

>> No.1848574

English (American)
Thai - conversational, not fluent
Spanish - conversational

Haven't read books in anything other than English

>> No.1848596

Native: Portuguese
Fluent: English
I can read stuff in spanish and french, but I never dared to engage on a conversation.

All the Bukowski I have is in english. Also, series like the Dark Tower. Couple Isherwood books in english. Classic stuff from England or North America.

Pretty much half the articles and books that I use at university are in French.

I've read Uruguayan authors like Juan-Carlos Onetti and Mario Benedetti in spanish. No clue if the spanish from Uruguay's too different from the others. I'd guess it is.

>> No.1848616

German
English (fluent)
A little Dutch and Latin (very bad at both, though). Planning to learn Spanish.

I always try to buy the untranslated version of any English text i'm interested in. Martin Amis, Thomas Pynchon, Don de Lillo and E.L. Doctorov are among my favorite authors.
Haven't read any Latin texts since school. Caesar was relatively easy to translate back then, Ovid was a total nightmare.
Also read some medieval German literature in uni (Nibelungenlied, Tristan etc.), but i'm not sure whether i'd still understand any of that stuff.
Never really bothered with Dutch literature.

>> No.1848618

>English
>French, Latin, Greek
Currently reading Les Miserables and De Re Publica (Cicero). I could probably understand simple Spanish and Italian.

>> No.1848636

1. American - very good

>> No.1848638

>Spanish
>English (good much, almost hundred percenteage of speak)
>Dubliners, The Stand (Stephen King), Slaughterhouse Five.

I've finished a few, most are kindergarden level.

>> No.1848645

>Farsi
>English, then Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Japanese
>Don Quixote, Le Petit Prince, the list of books I've read in English goes forever so I'll spare us all

>> No.1848654

romanian
english (fluent)
japanese (intermediate-can hold a conversation,but i stumble too much,high listening level though)
spanish(can understand writing/speaking,never really talked with anyone though)
french(i can understand the writing,but that's about it)

>> No.1848666

Oh my god, there are so many foreigners here it's revolting.

English
Latin - pretty good.
German - mediocre. Can hold a simple conversation.
Ancient Greek - awful.

Metamorphoses, Catullus's poetry, Aeneid.
A collection of German short stories published by Penguin.
A bit of the Odyssey.

>> No.1848676

>>1848666
>foreigners here
>on the Internet
You dumb fuck.

>> No.1848684

Spanish
English (High fluency)
2001, An Space Odissey, 1984, bunch of slave narratives, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Silence of the Lambs, The Road, some Shakespeare's plays, etc.

>> No.1848688

I'm barely even fluent in English. Polyglots awe me.

>> No.1848694

>>1848666
>implying a small number of "foreigners" know about 4chan...

>> No.1848702

>>1848636
That's a lame joke. American wide spread conformity with monolingualism is sad...

>> No.1848711

>>1848702
implying that THAT'S a joke.

>> No.1848713

First language: Dutch (and Frisian)
Others: English, pretty good, not sure if you could call it fluent just yet
German: bad-mediocre
French: terrible

>> No.1848716

>>1848711
Well... it did seem like a joke to me and i do hope this guy gets to learn another language different from American english...

...still, conformism with being a monolingual is not good, in any part of the world...

>> No.1848719

English
spanish, very low, 1 year
none

>> No.1850301

>Vietnamese - Poor
>English - High
>French - Horrible

>> No.1850311

I never really read things in other languages except what's assigned in school because it's too much trouble. I even bought a bunch of bilingual editions and just read the translation.

It's not easy being this lazy.

>> No.1850316

...Girl : Am I pretty?

Boy : NO.

Girl : Do you want to be with me forever?
......
Boy : NO.

...Girl : Would you cry if I walked away?

.........Boy : NO.

She heard enough, and was hurt. She walked away, tears ran down her face. The boy grabbed her arm.

Boy : Your not pretty, your beautiful. I don't want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away, I would DIE.

(Boy whispers) : Please? Stay with me.

(Girl whispers) : I will.

Tonight at midnight your true love will realize they love you. Something good will happen to you between 1-4 pm. Tomorrow it could be anywhere. Get ready for the biggest shock of your life! If you don't post this to 5 other threads. You will have relationship problems for the next 10 years

>> No.1850326

>Your mother tongue
Spanish (I hate pretty much every single accent, tho)
>Your second (or 3rd, 4th...) language + level of proficiency
English (very fluent), Deutsch (not son fluent)
>Examples of books you finished in a second language
The sound and the fury
Catcher in the rye
Ivanhoe

>> No.1850328

English
French
Lolita. It was better in English.

>> No.1851890

English
French
Read most of Les Mots, L'Étranger and L'Amant and Une Femme but I went over the notes for exams so I didn't bother finishing them.

>> No.1851899

English
Spanish
Some old Goosebumps translations, Christine

>> No.1851946

Dutch (mother tongue)

English (fluent, most of the literature i read is written in english)

German, French (basics, had to read some books for school), Spanish (reading Don Quixote now) and Italian (very basic).

Next year I'm starting Hebrew classes (classic and modern)

>> No.1851957

English
German (I could read it, but I wasn't conversational)
Collections of myths and fairy tails, Der Kleine Prinz

>> No.1851965

>A confederacy of Dunces
Ultimate fucking brofist.

I just made a thread about that book. Greatest thing I've ever read.

>> No.1851977

>>1851957
>fairy tails
Something tells me you haven't read very many books in English.

>> No.1852111

English
Spanish (Highly proficiency)
French (Acceptable)
None

>> No.1852426

Farsi
English & French
I've read a lot to strenghten the 2