I am half way through reading my first ever foreign book, 'The hound of the Baskervilles' in French. I could have done this years ago but I used to be obsessed by not reading something unless I could understand every word. So I would start a book and have a dictionary ready to check any words that I didn't understand. This was so annoying that I always gave up after a few pages. Now I just don't care and haven't looked at a dictionary once. I understand about 80% of it, I can work out another 15% from the context and 5% I haven't got a clue about. I have realised that you have to push yourself and you don't have to understand everything.
The same goes for watching TV. I have read a lot of people talking about this sort of thing but it is true, just watch films, documentaries, cartoons, anything, even if you don't understand it all and it gradually becomes easier.
I want to read a French book by a French author afterwards, it's got to be fairly easy though.
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Hi Jim!
ReplyDeleteI never ever use a dictionary when reading books (except when I am very curious or the meaning of a word is too obscure to get the message).
I remember my first books in English and French and got the meaning of almost everything despite the fact that I was not an advanced learner. I was surprised by the fact that I could still evoke all that the book said and imagine the situations, even with the same intensity I would with a Catalan or Spanish book (that doesn't mean that I wasn't slower or did not have difficulties at the beginning, though). Since then, I read books in any of the four languages without caring for specific words. As far as I see it, if you get too obsessed with word meaning, it is more difficult to enjoy a book.
>> I was surprised by the fact that I could still evoke all that the book said and imagine the situations, even with the same intensity I would with a Catalan or Spanish book.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean by that. If I was reading the hound of the baskervilles in English, later that day, I would feel that I have been out on the moors ealier on. I didn't think I would have the same feeling with a foreign language book, but I do, even though I don't understand it all. That was quite suprising for me too!