French

[Anonymous No.4522987]

Learning a bit of French by reading, started with a prequel to ASOIAF. Anyone read any French translation?
Can't remember how the language in ASOIAF was and don't want to sound like an ultimate tryhard by using pseudo-old French if I do learn enough.

[Anonymous No.4523051]

Hijacking this thread to ask another French related question:
I'm beginner-intermediate level French: know most of the grammar, verb conjugations, etc. Is it worth it to read Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert in French if I have to look up the definition of every other word on my ereader? That kind of lowers comprehension and ruins the experience in a way. Should I just read them in English and re-visit them at a later time when I've (somehow) improved my vocab?

[Anonymous No.4523666]

bump

[Anonymous No.4523696]

>>4522987
>Persona
Now that's unexpected, at least here in 4chan. Widely regarded as Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece, though not my personal favourite, it's surely one of the best films one will ever watch, from one of the greatest directors that has ever lived, and the best im my humble opinion.
Oh, Liv Ullmann, you make me doubt my faggotry...

[Anonymous No.4523698]

>>4523051
Verne's good for beginners because the range of vocabulary doesn't get too large, and you should pick up speed as you learn more words and can intuit more. Balzac and Flaubert once you've made it through a novel, in that order too.

[Anonymous No.4523700]

>>4523696
Only Bergman I've seen that I really fucking loved, though Nattvardsgästerna (Winter Light) was pretty damn swell too.

[Anonymous No.4523703]

>>4523698
Not that guy (am OP actually) but suggestions for Verne? Never read his books, presuming some are easier than others

[Anonymous No.4523711]

>>4523696
persona is pretty entry level bro, it's posted on /tv/ all the time

[Anonymous No.4523724]

>>4523696
>That scene where she describes her sexual encounter
My dick

[Anonymous No.4523749]

>>4523703
Le tour de monde, of course. It helps that it's a travel adventure and something you'll probably know the plot of. Before Balzac, you might want to try Maupassant's Contes du jour et de la nuit, or either of the Dumas (wtf is plural?) His poetry is more entry level, but don't attempt prose Balzac before you can get through Verne or a Maupassant short story at least. If Verne is too much, The Little Prince.

[Anonymous No.4523752]

>>4523749
du monde*
fuck

[Anonymous No.4523755]

>>4523749
Thank you. Got Le Tour Du Monde for kindle

[Anonymous No.4524365]

>>4523051
>Is it worth it to read [X] in French if I have to look up the definition of every other word on my ereader?

Yes, that is what I am doing. You will not make any progress in learning the language if you don't push yourself and encounter new words. Maybe don't jump in so deep with such an advanced book, but you shouldn't shy away from them just because there are words you won't know. There will ALWAYS be words you don't know. Always write them down and understand them.

You might also try using LingQ. They have a lot of public domain books posted along with the accompanying audiobook so you can read along with it. The nice thing about it is you can click on any word and a definition will pop up, so it saves a lot of time in having to find it yourself. I am going through reading Alice in Wonderland, and hopefully in a month or so I will have learned enough new words I will tackle some Alexandre Dumas. I am little leery on reading something so old, but from what I hear the language usage hasn't changed a whole lot from the mid-1800s.

[Anonymous No.4525077]

Hey, I'm English-born but I was raised in France. I recommend you start learning French by reading simple, classic shit like Jules Verne. A little later on you'll be able to fully enjoy Sartre, Camus and pic related (a favourite of mine).

Watching some of the old Nouvelle Vague movies like A Bout De Souffle with subtitles might help too. Also I have a book of short stories by Borges of which every other page is translated., maybe you should look out for those editions?

It might be clever of you to also find out which authors translated their own work. Beckett is cool because he translated all of his plays from Engish to French (or vice-versa) himself, and he tends to used different types of formal/informal vocabulary. Also he was pretty much bilingual so his translations are basically rewritings.

If you want any more advice you can hmu on goodreads (/red_wine). Have fun!

[Anonymous No.4525085]

>>4525077
Sauce: I learnt French on my own when I was eight years old or so, mainly through reading because I had trouble making friends at school.

[Anonymous No.4525098]

>>4525077
Isn't "The Stranger" traditionally the first full work students read? I don't know, seems that I heard this somewhere.

[Anonymous No.4525134]

>>4525098
I discovered Camus when I was 13 and my history teacher lent me The Stranger, nothing to do with school though. The first time he became required reading during my cursus was at age 15 or 16 with The Plague.

Learning a language through literature is totally different to studying literature in your first language though.

[Anonymous No.4525138]

>>4525098
Different guy here, but The Stranger was hard enough for me to read in English and I'm a native speaker. I can only assume it's fairly advanced in French too. My first book was Little Prince for what it's worth, which would have been pretty easy if not for its use of passé simple which is inevitable, but virtually no classes ever teach it so it's going to be a shock to beginners no matter what book you choose.

[Anonymous No.4525179]

>>4523711
>it's posted on /tv/ all the time
So what? would popularity automatically make the film bad or poor? That's the hipster way of thinking, dear.

[Anonymous No.4525192]

>>4525085
>I learnt French on my own when I was eight years old or so, mainly through reading

Well this is probably a stupid question because I am assuming you also had constant audio feedback by living in the country and interacting with people, which obviously would speed up your learning, but how fast do you think you reached actual fluency? And I guess how much did reading actually help for that? I started in August and have been reading some stuff but damn, all those particles (ne, se, y, en) that get thrown between the subject and verb still screw me up all the time.

[Anonymous No.4525203]

>>4525192
Define actual fluency? I could converse properly (but with lots of mistakes still) after like six months, and reading was almost all I did with my spare time pre-Internet.

[Anonymous No.4525217]

>>4525203
I'd say fluency is somewhere in the B level at least. My goal is B2 at the bare minimum, hopefully C someday, but living in Oregon I have no opportunity to ever speak it, not that I'm far enough along yet anyway.

[Anonymous No.4525271]

>>4522987
i was quite good at french in school but i have forgotten a lot of it now. whats a good way to re learn?

[Anonymous No.4525304]

>>4525271
How much did you forget? Like all of it? I would say get a good beginner's book covering the rules that will go over the basics and hopefully a lot will return to you. Don't pussyfoot around with sites like Duolingo, they're useless. You'll learn a lot more a lot faster using a dedicated book.

[Anonymous No.4525328]

Where do you guys find French books to read? My library has jack in its foreign language section unless you want Spanish.

[Anonymous No.4525426]

>>4525077
Thanks, I actually found Verne a bit tricky but just read a few pages before remembering I hadn't read Pierre Clostermann's biography and went to that. Will go back when I finish this though.

[Anonymous No.4525814]

>>4522987
why did you post a picture of two swedish actresses when tje topic of the thread is french?

[Anonymous No.4525815]

>>4525814
cause the swedish royal family is french