I am Dutch (now living in the UK), and at school we had to read 15 books in Dutch, 12 in English and 10 in any other language (I took German). You had to write a book report on it, and then study those for your oral exams, where you would have a chat with your teacher about these books. It put a lot of students of reading ever again. ;) I happen to love reading, and read almost exclusively in English now. I am currently learning Italian, and am nowhere near ready to read an actual book, but have picked up an 'easy reader' ('graded reader') and am reading my first short stories. Love it! Being able to read a full novel in Italian is a huge goal! Who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be able to join your book club. ;)
Reading novels in a foreign language is a different experience each time for polyglots. The first time I read a novel in a foreign language was Harry Potter in English, because I didn't have the patience to wait for the translation to come out, but I was nervous because I didn't think I was going to be able to do that. It turned out I was, and aside from some unknown vocabulary, it went smoothly. I must already have been a somewhere between B2 and C1 back then. The second language I tried to read a novel in was Swedish. Looking back I guess my level was a solid B1. I had to read one novel in Swedish per semester that year, and this was something I wasn't ready at all to do, but was obligated to. The first book I picked was really short, and the story was super simple and kind of uninteresting. I basically picked the closest thing to a children's book I could find. I made it through the book, with great difficulty, but it didn't feel like I had accomplished anything. For the second book, I picked a much bigger one, but about a theme I was interested in. At first I was struggling so much! Honestly if it hadn't been for my university degree, I would have abandoned. My problem was I was trying to look up too many words in the dictionary. Not only did it interrupt my flow, I couldn't even remember the words' meaning 30 seconds later. It felt like going through gibberish. So instead of giving up, I did the closest thing: just working my way through the book as quickly as possible without ever looking anything up in the dictionary. I thought this was going to be an epic fail but at least I would be able to write a paper, and at that point I just didn't care what grade I would get, just get this over with and be done with it! Much too my surprise, this was exactly the right strategy for me. Without the constant dictionary interruptions, after a few reading sessions and a few dozen pages, the story suddenly started making sense and I was able to enjoy the rest of the book beautifully! So now it's my go to strategy: NEVER LOOK ANYTHING UP (unless a specific word keeps coming up so much that I just get super curious about it). I've learned that when reading a novel, because it's a long story that you gradually get more and more familiar with, you can keep reading even with A LOT of unknown words. Just read through it whether you understand it or not, and your brain will magically start filling in some of the blanks after a few pages. It's so weird but it works. Now I recently started reading book in Finnish. And I'm only an A2 in Finnish so I figured this strategy may not work and indeed it didn't. So the strategy I ended up adopting was pretty much what you described: - I picked a book I had already read and liked (Harry Potter, again) - I ended up buying the e-book in English on my phone - I read one page in Finnish, then I read the same passage in English on my phone - I underline some interesting yet simple sentences and write down what they mean in English (Yes, I write on my books, sue me! :-p ) - Later on, I gather these Finnish sentences and their original English version and write them down in my vocabulary notebook (I use the Goldlist method)
Great comment. By the way, it's amazing how HP is usually the option for a foreign reading. Taking advantage of your comment I would add that the German translation of HP-I by Fritz Klaus matches perfectly with the original, and helps for the page by page comparison technique. Not the same with the Spanish translation of editorial salamandra (Alicia Dellepiane).
I got my oldest daughter The Sorcerer’s Stone in French, and she took it on the plane when she went to go visit her bf. She said she was reading as they took off, having not spoken to her seatmate since he’d sat down. As soon as the lights were turned off and she could use the bathroom, she put the book down, looked at the guy and said “Excuse me, I need to go use the bathroom”-of course without a hint of a French accent because it wasn’t her L1. He didn’t know that, though, and his jaw dropped--he’d assumed she was French. Does everyone have a Harry Potter foreign language story? That would be awesome.
The original text in the target language, a translation version in your native language and an audio book ( or a film adaptation of the book) is my favorite setup as well! Personally, I find it hard to finish a book in a foreign language, especially fictions, without the aid of audio/ visual materials.
I've been trying to read "Tintinherz" in German - had I known it was 560 pages long beforehand I doubt I would have selected it. However, I was able to download the English translation ("Inkheart") audiobook from the library and it helped immensely. Now when I read I have a general idea of what is going on and so I don't need to look up as many words. And I'm almost halfway through! The book club is a great idea and I hope to participate (although I'll probably be reading Tintinherz for the next 3 months).
I remember when I read my first German book. I understood like 30-40 percent of what was going on. Because of this, it wasn't very fun. But with time, I got better and today, my library is full of german books that I read effortlessly. Keep up. You can do it too.
I find the idea interesting but I have to confess I wish you had chosen a not so long book to begin :-) My target languages are currently German and Swedish, I am like B1 in both but I somehow feel that trying to read La sombra del viento in those languages will take me so much time that the experience will probably be discouraging since I would probably have the feeling that I don't progress.
And of course I’m looking forward to the book club. I’ve read la sombra del viento twice in my native German. And now is the ideal opportunity to finally read it in Spanish
@@blindschach Ich werde es auf Deutsch lesen! Meine Muttersprache ist Englisch und ich bin ein bisschen nervös! Ich habe ein paar Seiten gelesen und es scheint möglich. Ich freue mich darauf, während des Lockdowns mit vielen anderen zu lesen!
Hi Michael, would you mind sharing where you did you order the book from? I am in Uruguay and I would like to read it in Russian and I do not know how to get it. Thank you very much!!
@@patriciaarbiza8658 I got it from this website, I don't know if they have it in Russian though. https: //www. bookdepository. com/ (the address has spaces because youtube doesn't like it when you post links)
I have the Spanish version and I really don't know how well my Spanish will hold up but for now I'm going to try Spanish only and I'll get an English copy if needed later. You didn't mention this option but I often like to read books using a text to speech app. I like the app Voice Dream Reader on my iPhone.
I got the Spanish copy, and I am listening to it in French on Audible, both of them are target languages (French is better than Spanish though). I hope to manage without resorting to German or English. Good Luck!
Hello Robin, I am not quite ready to read a full novel in my target language (French). I am still reading graded readers at A1 to A2 level. But, I love your concept and look forward to participating in a future read.
Excellent Video. Interesting, I was just thinking of looking for a spanish book club in my local area to attend. I just purchased El Principito in Spanish to advance my Spanish learning journey, so excited to start. Books are an excellent way to increase vocabulary in native and target language.
I FOUND ONE!!! Amazon just had it listed in Norwegian for $68, but AbeBooks.com also had one just listed **for only $15 after shipping.** Woo hoo! Result!! My first novel in Norwegian! I’m so excited! (I’ve read novels in German before, so I’m super stoked to do it in this language, too.)
I'm currently reading novels in 6 foreign languages. Echo Park (Harry Bosch series) by Michael Connelly (Brazilian Portuguese) Los Cañones de Navarone by Alistair MacLean (Spanish) Alt Risc by Ken Follett (Catalan) Il Rapporto Pelican by John Grisham (Italian) À la Poursuite d'Octobre Rouge by Tom Clancy (French) Blackout by Simon Scarrow (English) Reading in a foreign language is twice as fun as reading in your native tongue.
You know, you could literally start you language channel now and you will have a lot of subs, including me, cuz you have done such a good job at being present in the language learning community.
Hey Robin! Coincidentally, I started reading La Sombra del Viento a few weeks ago. I'm on page 65. It's going well. There are some characters who have a fairly advanced vocabulary so in those passages it takes me a while to plod through, but there are other stretches of text where I can zip along quite nicely. It's a good story too so far! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the book. Good luck!
Such a great idea, i can’t wait to try it myself. I’ll probably read online.. a korean webnovel without any translations/ audio.. I predict not knowing 50% of the words as web novels tend to have more of an advanced vocabulary that I do not know yet. So yeah.. first chapter gonna be a big thicc wall. Hopefully this time i actually overcome it :D Looking forward to see more ideas on how to tackle the reading especially for some like me who doesnt have “many options”.
Right!! I tried reading web novels in chinese and they were just overwhelming, eventhough I can already speak with natives. I hope we can find books in thee future that we can read.
Where do you read your Web novels from? And is it like a korean version of wattpad? (because some wattpaders are like 12 year olds with bad english so wondering if it's the same for the Korean webnovels) And are there versions in other languages like Spanish?
Definitely the big big big plus of learning Swedish is that basically if someone has printed it... then there's an audiobook, and most likely a good one, read by someone who can read (i.e. not an Audible reader). For a second when you said "you could do it backwards" I thought you meant like, in reverse, like Tenet haha. That's what they call hyperadvanced foreign language learning haha.
This is a very exciting project. Thanks Robin. I am excited to try the tips you suggested in this video. I have tried reading 3 different novels so far and have yet to finish one. After one of your video I began The Little Prince in Italian and have the book on my Kindle. My conversation tutor has a hard copy and the story is quite different to my version. I found the same with the audio versions. I guess this will not be the case with more recent or classic novels but I'll be interested to hear how it goes for others.
Since we aren't officially underway yet, I've been taking the opportunity to play with ways of tackling the first chapter. Thanks for adding some new approaches with your video.
@@kristin3205 It was very slow reading the chapter for the first time. But with repetition it is coming together. How about you? How have you approached this book?
Yes I started playing with Chapter 1, too. I have no digital version, but the good old paper thingy, and my phone, and every word I look up I copy into an email, that I send to myself after finishing reading, so that I can put them into an excel sheet or import them into a flash card system.
I am so excited also! I have read another novel of the author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, so I am familiar with his style. I am somewhere in the intermediate level of español learning. I am currently reading my 3rd novel in Spanish with a teacher I have using Zoom 3 hours a week. I am a big fan of yours and listened to your talks on intensive reading vs extensive. By nature, I do everything in an intensive way, but my goal for the reading club is to try to loosen up and read it in a more extensive fashion. We’ll see how that goes! A side note, the other book I am reading is Mexican-Spanish, but I don’t mind going back and forth, since in Houston, TX, where I live, we have people from around the globe! I love the diversity here! I have the physical book in Spanish, the English versión on my Kindle app, and in Spanish with Audible, even before I watched this video. Now I am going to sign up to be a patron, because you definitely deserve. You’re an awesome teacher!
This is great! I got inspired by your original book club video to read a book too and try out different methods. I chose a different book, one by Hermann Hesse is German, but I'm looking forward to trying out some of your techniques :) And I'll be sure to give Journaly a go too! (Signed up but haven't used it yet... Shame...)
I got my book in target language :-) "L'Ombre du vent" thé other one is on its way. I'm really excited 🙂🙂 (It is "Der Schatten des Windes", my native language)
Thank you for this project and great idea. I have a book bought with the audio and also in my native language. I had already tried to read this book and felt bad about giving up and loose motivation, could we form other groups on Journaly to share and motivate each others with others books too?
What a great find! I’ve been looking for a Norwegian translation & can’t find one. I’m also learning Cherokee & pretty sure that translation doesn’t exist.
Grossartig! Diría que se alinearon los planetas para una lectura. I recently pick up that tittle of my local library, well it's a book that I choose 'cause I was on battle to enjoy and try to finish longs novels. I think it's a smart election, and I say this like a native spanish readers. This writter is amazing with language, has many references but in a invisible way. This is the magic, he put all the wisdom of the latinoamerican boom (like García Márquez or Juan Rulfo or even Borges) and just reduce that language on a simplicity. And by simple I mean like someone who knoes by hearts the Spanish language.
Don’t mind me, I’m just over here excitedly coming up with a like dozen step plan to get this book read/listened to in four other languages. Not expecting all of them to keep up with the book club timeline though.
We all can find easy books like Alice in the Wonderland in English and in our native language and also its audio version. I think children's literature is awesome.
I only read ebooks. Easy access to dictionaries, translators, wikipedia, saving quotations, bookmarks and notes. How I wish the tablets were invented 40 years earlier, when I was a kid :)
I love the idea of this and I too have tried reading books in my target language (French) and always ground to a halt - so far. I’ve bought the book in French - and English as my support language, both on Kindle. Plus the French audio version which I found on Audible. I’ve test-driven a few chapters and found some of the book hard going but mostly fairly readable - if I look up several words a page. It’s certainly going to really stretch me! Honestly, I’d give up at this point if there wasn’t a book club as it’s not very relaxing to read at times. So, I’m very interested to see if being a part of this club does help me get through all 400 pages...
It is true that it is quite difficult to read a book in a foreign language. When I started reading books in German, I understood very little and had to search for a lot of words, but now I read most of my books in German without any problem. Just keep on improving your French and you will eventually be able to read effortlessly
What do you think of including more than 1 target language in the mix? e.g. text in target language #1 (Spanish), audiobook in target language #2 (French), plus text in 1st language (English)
I want to choose my own books to read, so I probably won’t be participating in the book club. But I’m excited for your tips on the subject. I’ve been trying to read a book I already know in French and it’s not going well because in an effort to make things stick I’ve been trying to take too many vocab notes, which made me so slow it’s demotivating. Should I read faster and just make sure that I generally understand the narrative, or should I try to learn from every single sentence?
I am reading Harry Potter as I get better in the target languages. I am reading The first one in Spanish and as soon as I finish it, I'll bem starting the second in French and, hopefully, in Italian or German.
GREAT IDEA! May I recommend a few books for your club to read (these are some of my favourites!): (1) ANIMAL FARM (by George Orwell); (2) THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseini); (3) THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE (Michèle Roberts); (4) THE LONG FIRM (Jake Arnott); (5) THE SUNFLOWER FOREST (Torey Hayden); (6) A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS (Marlon James); (7) THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (Arundhati Roy); (8) GIOVANNI'S ROOM (James Baldwin); (9) I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (Maya Angelou); (10) A MEASURE OF TIME (Rosa Guy).
Hi Robin, I may skip this one, but do you already have some idea of the next books you want to read? May I suggest Il nome della Rosa by Umberto Eco? I've been meaning to read this one and I've never tried to read in Italian before so I figured I would start with this absolute favorite of mine. Hopefully I will get around to it this year. My mother wants me to take her to Italy someday so I better start studying!
Just bought my first Chinese book. I'm quite scared and most likely don't know enough words to make it less grindy... it'll maybe be a project of a few years haha 😂
I am reading this in German. I have the Kindle version auf Deutsch and a paperback in English. I was also able to find it auf Deutsch on Audible. I am ready to go!
How many people have already registered? What is going to be the reading spead? I for one think that I will start with one chapter per week, if I don't want to "just" read the book, but also learn the language. Maybe at a later stage, I will be able to take up some pace. But hearing you talk of a next book this year, it scares me a bit, since this book will probably keep me busy until the end of the year...
Hey I'm curious, what's your current level in your target language? In my experience, reading strategies (and reading speed) will vary a lot depending on your level. Also, reading a book is already a very good way to learn a language in and of itself, but probably not if you're starting from zero.
@@elisabethrichard yeah I wonder too. All I know is that I understand quite well what's written but terribly lack in speaking and writing. This is why I chose a mindful reading strategy instead of a fast reading one. I'd probably understand the story too, but wouldn't that much improve the other aspects.
@@eiseli99 Yeah spending a lot of time on reading mindfully is definitely more efficient, as long as you like what you're reading, you don't get bored and you're persistent. I know I usually prefer to read the story super fast if my language level will allow me to understand most of the story. I know I also get great benefits that way as well. I only revert to a slower pace if my language level is too low to understand much of anything and therefore to make any progress through reading in the target language alone.
Robin be careful with the term "native language". I'm personally a Portuguese native speaker but most of my education has been in English, I grew up immersed in English, aided by the fact that I lived in various English speaking countries. So English is my dominant language, technically a lot better than my native language. There are plenty of cases like mine. Rather use the terms dominant language or first language.
I am Dutch (now living in the UK), and at school we had to read 15 books in Dutch, 12 in English and 10 in any other language (I took German). You had to write a book report on it, and then study those for your oral exams, where you would have a chat with your teacher about these books. It put a lot of students of reading ever again. ;) I happen to love reading, and read almost exclusively in English now. I am currently learning Italian, and am nowhere near ready to read an actual book, but have picked up an 'easy reader' ('graded reader') and am reading my first short stories. Love it! Being able to read a full novel in Italian is a huge goal! Who knows, maybe this time next year I'll be able to join your book club. ;)
You are such an inspiration and a motivation for us language learners
Agree 😊😊☕👌
Yes totally
Agreed.
Reading novels in a foreign language is a different experience each time for polyglots.
The first time I read a novel in a foreign language was Harry Potter in English, because I didn't have the patience to wait for the translation to come out, but I was nervous because I didn't think I was going to be able to do that. It turned out I was, and aside from some unknown vocabulary, it went smoothly. I must already have been a somewhere between B2 and C1 back then.
The second language I tried to read a novel in was Swedish. Looking back I guess my level was a solid B1. I had to read one novel in Swedish per semester that year, and this was something I wasn't ready at all to do, but was obligated to. The first book I picked was really short, and the story was super simple and kind of uninteresting. I basically picked the closest thing to a children's book I could find. I made it through the book, with great difficulty, but it didn't feel like I had accomplished anything. For the second book, I picked a much bigger one, but about a theme I was interested in. At first I was struggling so much! Honestly if it hadn't been for my university degree, I would have abandoned. My problem was I was trying to look up too many words in the dictionary. Not only did it interrupt my flow, I couldn't even remember the words' meaning 30 seconds later. It felt like going through gibberish. So instead of giving up, I did the closest thing: just working my way through the book as quickly as possible without ever looking anything up in the dictionary. I thought this was going to be an epic fail but at least I would be able to write a paper, and at that point I just didn't care what grade I would get, just get this over with and be done with it! Much too my surprise, this was exactly the right strategy for me. Without the constant dictionary interruptions, after a few reading sessions and a few dozen pages, the story suddenly started making sense and I was able to enjoy the rest of the book beautifully! So now it's my go to strategy: NEVER LOOK ANYTHING UP (unless a specific word keeps coming up so much that I just get super curious about it). I've learned that when reading a novel, because it's a long story that you gradually get more and more familiar with, you can keep reading even with A LOT of unknown words. Just read through it whether you understand it or not, and your brain will magically start filling in some of the blanks after a few pages. It's so weird but it works.
Now I recently started reading book in Finnish. And I'm only an A2 in Finnish so I figured this strategy may not work and indeed it didn't. So the strategy I ended up adopting was pretty much what you described:
- I picked a book I had already read and liked (Harry Potter, again)
- I ended up buying the e-book in English on my phone
- I read one page in Finnish, then I read the same passage in English on my phone
- I underline some interesting yet simple sentences and write down what they mean in English (Yes, I write on my books, sue me! :-p )
- Later on, I gather these Finnish sentences and their original English version and write them down in my vocabulary notebook (I use the Goldlist method)
Great comment. By the way, it's amazing how HP is usually the option for a foreign reading. Taking advantage of your comment I would add that the German translation of HP-I by Fritz Klaus matches perfectly with the original, and helps for the page by page comparison technique. Not the same with the Spanish translation of editorial salamandra (Alicia Dellepiane).
I got my oldest daughter The Sorcerer’s Stone in French, and she took it on the plane when she went to go visit her bf. She said she was reading as they took off, having not spoken to her seatmate since he’d sat down.
As soon as the lights were turned off and she could use the bathroom, she put the book down, looked at the guy and said “Excuse me, I need to go use the bathroom”-of course without a hint of a French accent because it wasn’t her L1. He didn’t know that, though, and his jaw dropped--he’d assumed she was French.
Does everyone have a Harry Potter foreign language story? That would be awesome.
thanks for sharing
I'm all ready! I got the book in German, English and Spanish. LOL. I read about 5 pages in each last night. Very interesting book.
The original text in the target language, a translation version in your native language and an audio book ( or a film adaptation of the book) is my favorite setup as well!
Personally, I find it hard to finish a book in a foreign language, especially fictions, without the aid of audio/ visual materials.
I've been looking forward to this so much!! I started reading a little already ;) only because it takes me about 10 minutes per page lol
I started reading La Sombra Del Viento because I'm just borrowing it from the library and no spoilers but y'all... It's so enchanting 😍
I've been trying to read "Tintinherz" in German - had I known it was 560 pages long beforehand I doubt I would have selected it. However, I was able to download the English translation ("Inkheart") audiobook from the library and it helped immensely. Now when I read I have a general idea of what is going on and so I don't need to look up as many words. And I'm almost halfway through! The book club is a great idea and I hope to participate (although I'll probably be reading Tintinherz for the next 3 months).
I love this series!
I remember when I read my first German book. I understood like 30-40 percent of what was going on. Because of this, it wasn't very fun. But with time, I got better and today, my library is full of german books that I read effortlessly. Keep up. You can do it too.
Robin posts a video and I say OUT LOUD "Oh! HI ROBIN!!"
Like he just walked in and sat down for a chat.
:D
Me sitting here drinking my cup of tea ☕️ happy to “cheers” with you for language learning!
I bought the book in Italian. It's arriving tomorrow. I can't wait to get started!
Yes! I've really been looking forward to this.
I love journaly! and cant wait for the bookclub to start :) you keep me motivated!
I find the idea interesting but I have to confess I wish you had chosen a not so long book to begin :-) My target languages are currently German and Swedish, I am like B1 in both but I somehow feel that trying to read La sombra del viento in those languages will take me so much time that the experience will probably be discouraging since I would probably have the feeling that I don't progress.
I am usually a patient person, but I am really wondering when you are going to start. Can't wait.
So exciting!
Well done again for starting this project
@ 4:15 I read the first two books like a year ago! I need to read the 3rd :)
Just to say: you have all the right to do self promotion, Robin! Cheers
And of course I’m looking forward to the book club. I’ve read la sombra del viento twice in my native German. And now is the ideal opportunity to finally read it in Spanish
@@blindschach Ich werde es auf Deutsch lesen! Meine Muttersprache ist Englisch und ich bin ein bisschen nervös! Ich habe ein paar Seiten gelesen und es scheint möglich. Ich freue mich darauf, während des Lockdowns mit vielen anderen zu lesen!
@@charlesedwardsy Yeah Charles. good luck and have fun with it!
I just ordered the book in Swedish., I hope it arrives on time :D
Hi Michael, would you mind sharing where you did you order the book from? I am in Uruguay and I would like to read it in Russian and I do not know how to get it. Thank you very much!!
@@patriciaarbiza8658 I got it from this website, I don't know if they have it in Russian though. https: //www. bookdepository. com/ (the address has spaces because youtube doesn't like it when you post links)
I have the Spanish version and I really don't know how well my Spanish will hold up but for now I'm going to try Spanish only and I'll get an English copy if needed later. You didn't mention this option but I often like to read books using a text to speech app. I like the app Voice Dream Reader on my iPhone.
I got the Spanish copy, and I am listening to it in French on Audible, both of them are target languages (French is better than Spanish though). I hope to manage without resorting to German or English. Good Luck!
I read a book with my firend and we discussed the idea it is really helpfull thank you so much
Hello Robin, I am not quite ready to read a full novel in my target language (French). I am still reading graded readers at A1 to A2 level. But, I love your concept and look forward to participating in a future read.
0:00 and I liked this video already. Cheers
Excellent Video. Interesting, I was just thinking of looking for a spanish book club in my local area to attend. I just purchased El Principito in Spanish to advance my Spanish learning journey, so excited to start. Books are an excellent way to increase vocabulary in native and target language.
I FOUND ONE!!! Amazon just had it listed in Norwegian for $68, but AbeBooks.com also had one just listed **for only $15 after shipping.** Woo hoo! Result!! My first novel in Norwegian! I’m so excited! (I’ve read novels in German before, so I’m super stoked to do it in this language, too.)
This came in my recommend I love this book club idea!!! Brilliant!!!
I'm currently reading novels in 6 foreign languages.
Echo Park (Harry Bosch series) by Michael Connelly (Brazilian Portuguese)
Los Cañones de Navarone by Alistair MacLean (Spanish)
Alt Risc by Ken Follett (Catalan)
Il Rapporto Pelican by John Grisham (Italian)
À la Poursuite d'Octobre Rouge by Tom Clancy (French)
Blackout by Simon Scarrow (English)
Reading in a foreign language is twice as fun as reading in your native tongue.
What a great idea! 😍🤓
You know, you could literally start you language channel now and you will have a lot of subs, including me, cuz you have done such a good job at being present in the language learning community.
Hey Robin! Coincidentally, I started reading La Sombra del Viento a few weeks ago. I'm on page 65. It's going well. There are some characters who have a fairly advanced vocabulary so in those passages it takes me a while to plod through, but there are other stretches of text where I can zip along quite nicely. It's a good story too so far! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the book. Good luck!
This is one of the best advice I have ever heard. Thank you. 🖒
Thanks for the set up suggestions.I can & will make use them.
Excelente este avance.... seguimos avanzando!
Yeah new video 😍😍
Such a great idea, i can’t wait to try it myself. I’ll probably read online.. a korean webnovel without any translations/ audio.. I predict not knowing 50% of the words as web novels tend to have more of an advanced vocabulary that I do not know yet. So yeah.. first chapter gonna be a big thicc wall. Hopefully this time i actually overcome it :D Looking forward to see more ideas on how to tackle the reading especially for some like me who doesnt have “many options”.
Right!! I tried reading web novels in chinese and they were just overwhelming, eventhough I can already speak with natives. I hope we can find books in thee future that we can read.
Where do you read your Web novels from?
And is it like a korean version of wattpad? (because some wattpaders are like 12 year olds with bad english so wondering if it's the same for the Korean webnovels)
And are there versions in other languages like Spanish?
Definitely the big big big plus of learning Swedish is that basically if someone has printed it... then there's an audiobook, and most likely a good one, read by someone who can read (i.e. not an Audible reader).
For a second when you said "you could do it backwards" I thought you meant like, in reverse, like Tenet haha. That's what they call hyperadvanced foreign language learning haha.
This is a very exciting project. Thanks Robin. I am excited to try the tips you suggested in this video. I have tried reading 3 different novels so far and have yet to finish one. After one of your video I began The Little Prince in Italian and have the book on my Kindle. My conversation tutor has a hard copy and the story is quite different to my version. I found the same with the audio versions. I guess this will not be the case with more recent or classic novels but I'll be interested to hear how it goes for others.
I'm looking forward to reading with you guys and discussing the book with you.
Since we aren't officially underway yet, I've been taking the opportunity to play with ways of tackling the first chapter. Thanks for adding some new approaches with your video.
What language are you learning?
@@languagelearningdabbler Spanish. And you? What language are you learning?
Cool. Me too. How is it going so far, Kathleen?
@@kristin3205 It was very slow reading the chapter for the first time. But with repetition it is coming together. How about you? How have you approached this book?
Yes I started playing with Chapter 1, too. I have no digital version, but the good old paper thingy, and my phone, and every word I look up I copy into an email, that I send to myself after finishing reading, so that I can put them into an excel sheet or import them into a flash card system.
I have the Turkish version, have to get English (borrowed it from the library). Looking forward to the book club!
I am so excited also! I have read another novel of the author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, so I am familiar with his style. I am somewhere in the intermediate level of español learning. I am currently reading my 3rd novel in Spanish with a teacher I have using Zoom 3 hours a week. I am a big fan of yours and listened to your talks on intensive reading vs extensive. By nature, I do everything in an intensive way, but my goal for the reading club is to try to loosen up and read it in a more extensive fashion. We’ll see how that goes! A side note, the other book I am reading is Mexican-Spanish, but I don’t mind going back and forth, since in Houston, TX, where I live, we have people from around the globe! I love the diversity here! I have the physical book in Spanish, the English versión on my Kindle app, and in Spanish with Audible, even before I watched this video. Now I am going to sign up to be a patron, because you definitely deserve. You’re an awesome teacher!
This is great! I got inspired by your original book club video to read a book too and try out different methods. I chose a different book, one by Hermann Hesse is German, but I'm looking forward to trying out some of your techniques :)
And I'll be sure to give Journaly a go too! (Signed up but haven't used it yet... Shame...)
Omg I need this
I got my book in target language :-)
"L'Ombre du vent" thé other one is on its way. I'm really excited 🙂🙂
(It is "Der Schatten des Windes", my native language)
Thank you for this project and great idea.
I have a book bought with the audio and also in my native language. I had already tried to read this book and felt bad about giving up and loose motivation, could we form other groups on Journaly to share and motivate each others with others books too?
Absolutely!
I’m happy that I was able to find a Slovak version on EBay ...
What a great find! I’ve been looking for a Norwegian translation & can’t find one. I’m also learning Cherokee & pretty sure that translation doesn’t exist.
Grossartig! Diría que se alinearon los planetas para una lectura. I recently pick up that tittle of my local library, well it's a book that I choose 'cause I was on battle to enjoy and try to finish longs novels. I think it's a smart election, and I say this like a native spanish readers. This writter is amazing with language, has many references but in a invisible way. This is the magic, he put all the wisdom of the latinoamerican boom (like García Márquez or Juan Rulfo or even Borges) and just reduce that language on a simplicity. And by simple I mean like someone who knoes by hearts the Spanish language.
Don’t mind me, I’m just over here excitedly coming up with a like dozen step plan to get this book read/listened to in four other languages. Not expecting all of them to keep up with the book club timeline though.
I have just recently bought the 99f novel in French but am hesitant to read it. Maybe this is the perfect time to do it with these methods lol
We all can find easy books like Alice in the Wonderland in English and in our native language and also its audio version. I think children's literature is awesome.
I only read ebooks. Easy access to dictionaries, translators, wikipedia, saving quotations, bookmarks and notes. How I wish the tablets were invented 40 years earlier, when I was a kid :)
I love the idea of this and I too have tried reading books in my target language (French) and always ground to a halt - so far. I’ve bought the book in French - and English as my support language, both on Kindle. Plus the French audio version which I found on Audible. I’ve test-driven a few chapters and found some of the book hard going but mostly fairly readable - if I look up several words a page. It’s certainly going to really stretch me! Honestly, I’d give up at this point if there wasn’t a book club as it’s not very relaxing to read at times. So, I’m very interested to see if being a part of this club does help me get through all 400 pages...
It is true that it is quite difficult to read a book in a foreign language. When I started reading books in German, I understood very little and had to search for a lot of words, but now I read most of my books in German without any problem. Just keep on improving your French and you will eventually be able to read effortlessly
What do you think of including more than 1 target language in the mix? e.g. text in target language #1 (Spanish), audiobook in target language #2 (French), plus text in 1st language (English)
I want to choose my own books to read, so I probably won’t be participating in the book club. But I’m excited for your tips on the subject. I’ve been trying to read a book I already know in French and it’s not going well because in an effort to make things stick I’ve been trying to take too many vocab notes, which made me so slow it’s demotivating. Should I read faster and just make sure that I generally understand the narrative, or should I try to learn from every single sentence?
I am reading Harry Potter as I get better in the target languages. I am reading The first one in Spanish and as soon as I finish it, I'll bem starting the second in French and, hopefully, in Italian or German.
GREAT IDEA! May I recommend a few books for your club to read (these are some of my favourites!): (1) ANIMAL FARM (by George Orwell); (2) THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseini); (3) THE SECRET GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE (Michèle Roberts); (4) THE LONG FIRM (Jake Arnott); (5) THE SUNFLOWER FOREST (Torey Hayden); (6) A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS (Marlon James); (7) THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS (Arundhati Roy); (8) GIOVANNI'S ROOM (James Baldwin); (9) I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS (Maya Angelou); (10) A MEASURE OF TIME (Rosa Guy).
Hi Robin, I may skip this one, but do you already have some idea of the next books you want to read? May I suggest Il nome della Rosa by Umberto Eco? I've been meaning to read this one and I've never tried to read in Italian before so I figured I would start with this absolute favorite of mine. Hopefully I will get around to it this year. My mother wants me to take her to Italy someday so I better start studying!
Just bought my first Chinese book. I'm quite scared and most likely don't know enough words to make it less grindy... it'll maybe be a project of a few years haha 😂
I am reading this in German. I have the Kindle version auf Deutsch and a paperback in English. I was also able to find it auf Deutsch on Audible. I am ready to go!
Auf Deutsch lesen ist richtig geil. Ich lese auch meistens auf Deutsch. Weil ich Deutsch gelernt habe, bin ich immer froh, wenn ich es benutzen kann
@@AfroLinguo Das ist wirklich toll!
I am also going to read it in German!
@@kathyazzari839 danke
I wish to know WHEN I will be able to read in other language. I'm really a beginner in Chinese.
When is the book club going to start?
I highly recommend ¡SpanishDict! (app) as a translator resource.
I'm learnıng German Any recommendations from Audible?
Wow!!! This is an awesome group. Will the books be like fiction or non-fiction?
How many people have already registered? What is going to be the reading spead? I for one think that I will start with one chapter per week, if I don't want to "just" read the book, but also learn the language. Maybe at a later stage, I will be able to take up some pace. But hearing you talk of a next book this year, it scares me a bit, since this book will probably keep me busy until the end of the year...
Hey I'm curious, what's your current level in your target language? In my experience, reading strategies (and reading speed) will vary a lot depending on your level. Also, reading a book is already a very good way to learn a language in and of itself, but probably not if you're starting from zero.
@@elisabethrichard yeah I wonder too. All I know is that I understand quite well what's written but terribly lack in speaking and writing. This is why I chose a mindful reading strategy instead of a fast reading one. I'd probably understand the story too, but wouldn't that much improve the other aspects.
@@eiseli99 Yeah spending a lot of time on reading mindfully is definitely more efficient, as long as you like what you're reading, you don't get bored and you're persistent. I know I usually prefer to read the story super fast if my language level will allow me to understand most of the story. I know I also get great benefits that way as well. I only revert to a slower pace if my language level is too low to understand much of anything and therefore to make any progress through reading in the target language alone.
I'm reading 秒速５センチメートル now. Even though I'm still a beginner in learning Japanese.
Hi robin wie geht's ihnen
I'm reading (엄마를 부탁해) novel right now
Is it good? I heard about this novel a lot but haven't got a chance to read it.
@@justwanderer2287 Yes, this novel is good. You should definitely try it.
Hallo aus algerian. Hello from algeria
New sub!
oTIMo!
Robin be careful with the term "native language". I'm personally a Portuguese native speaker but most of my education has been in English, I grew up immersed in English, aided by the fact that I lived in various English speaking countries. So English is my dominant language, technically a lot better than my native language. There are plenty of cases like mine. Rather use the terms dominant language or first language.