/lit/ - Literature

[anon No.8215766]

Have any of you learned a new language for the primary reason of being able to appreciate literature native to that language? I would love to understand French for this reason, especially for poetry that gets lost in translation.

[anon No.8215770]

Also, would reading two of the same book side by side, one in english the other in french, be a good way to get thrown into the deep end, so to speak

[Anonymous No.8215776]

>>8215766
>Have any of you learned a new language for the primary reason of being able to appreciate literature native to that language?

yes, ancient greek. and given how often i actually speak french, also french.

>would reading two of the same book side by side, one in english the other in french, be a good way to get thrown into the deep end, so to speak

no, translation is a little bit more complicated than that, and you would fail to understand the nuances of grammar.

[Anonymous No.8215782]

I've been learning German for about 5 years and I have read things in that language, but only recently I have begun to read my actual first novel in German, Er ist wieder da.

[anon No.8215793]

>>8215776
very cool, and thanks for the advice. any advice for picking up a new language? what resources did you use for learning ancient greek?
>>8215782
do you feel like you could have read a novel earlier than five years after starting? how much effort would you say you put into learning over that span of time?

[Anonymous No.8215806]

>>8215793
>any advice for picking up a new language?

you progress as much as you work. if you feel like you can't be arsed to do declension tables (for latin/greek/russian whatever), then don't be surprised you're not getting anywhere.

>what resources did you use for learning ancient greek?

cambridge reading greek/independent study + perseus project and a dictionary, but i also got the opportunity to be tutored by a ridiculously erudite classicist.

[Anonymous No.8215817]

>>8215793
If it was one or two years ago then maybe I could just get by reading it. I think a lot of learning a language to read is not necessarily drilling yourself with vocab words, but by more dissecting it when being exposed to it. What I mean is the more you read, hear etc the more patterns you will begin to see and from there you will have a much better understanding.

I studied the language a little bit outside of school, but most of it came from high school and college classes. Although I am currently studying in Germany and just by being surrounded by the language makes you have a better understanding of it because you constantly think about it in one way or another

[anon No.8215823]

>>8215806
very nice, and yes i'm concerned that learning primarily for literature might not provide the amount of motivation i need to rapidly learn. what about your resources for learning french?

[Anonymous No.8215828]

>>8215823
>what about your resources for learning french?

i moved to france, took a couple of months of classes and went through the easy camus books with a dictionary. sorry, i know it's not very helpful/

[Anonymous No.8216442]

yes, German.

it's focken ugly otherwise

[Anonymous No.8216446]

>>8215828
yeah Camus is actually very easy french.

in fact, apart from Descartes or our most autistic authors, french /lit/ isn't so complicated

[Anonymous No.8216447]

>>8216442
what was your method of learning? what do you like to read in German?

[Anonymous No.8217795]

I'm around an intermediate level of french -- know most tenses, and have a pretty good grasp on grammar and words. What's a good novel/novella to start with if I want to push myself further?

[Anonymous No.8217799]

>>8216446
yes, even moliere is pretty understandable with a few caveats

mfw i tried pascal tho

[Anonymous No.8218515]

>>8215770
this is what Tolstoy would do.

Read your favorite English book in French translation and figure it all out on your own.

Also if you're a NEET try these methods from the archaeologist who discovered Troy: http://libgen.io/scimag/get.php?doi=10.2307/324234&downloadname=&key=YBPNU56PRS2P7VI8