Fiction To Read First When You’re Learning Another Language
I am not a language expert by any stretch of the imagination. I speak and read pretty well in Spanish and French, so-so in Italian, and wretchedly in German. However, I do think that learning languages is a blast, and books have always been the key.
What I want to do in this post is give you the reading progression that has worked best for me.
That said, reading has certainly not made me into a great speaker of any language. Confidently making it through a Stendahl book in French does not suddenly mean you speak French. Disclaimer over.
Some brief background.
I learned Spanish as a Mormon missionary. My religious affiliation didn’t last, but my love for the language did. So I kept reading in Spanish, hoping that it wouldn’t fade too quickly, and it didn’t. What a relief it was to put down The Book of Mormon and jump into everything from The Wind in the Willows to Don Quixote.
I did fine with most of it. Generally, when I couldn’t pick up on everything from context I was getting too ambitious and trying to tackle elegant and ornate writing like Garcia Marquez, wonky semiotics discussions like the characters have in Bolaño novels, or the more archaic pastoral bits of Cervantes.
I got interested in learning French because I was going to go to Paris for ten days.
I got into the other languages because the travel bug bit me on that trip and hasn’t let me go.
Now then, here’s the reading progression that has worked well for me so far.
- Choose books that you’re familiar with. Preferably, very familiar with. Once you have even a primitive vocabulary, it’s possible to limp through something like Winnie The Pooh, provided that you know the story well enough. If you know the song the bear sings when he’s holding onto that balloon, you can look at the words in another language and really see how it translates.
At this point, as long as I don’t think I’m fooling myself, I’m usually in the clear to try whatever else I like. It’s always slow going, but it’s nearly always enjoyable.
One particularly bittersweet realization was when I realized that reading in another language forces me to read with the care and attention that I used to give to every book. In a way, it’s helped me reconnect with a joy that I’d let slide in some ways, despite still reading constantly.
Regardless, there’s no downside.
Do any of you have a touchstone book that helped you break through a barrier in a foreign language? Please fill the comments up with suggestions and we’ll see how big of a list we can build.
Thanks!
