Hello, everyone! Recently I, a man who's been learning English for 3 years now, started off reading the novel David Copperfield by Dickens, and you know what? I still cannot figure out even 70% of what I read. Sometimes I have to reread passages twice or even more times to get to the point, not to mention of how much the English word order differs from Russian's. And all those different meanings of the same words. Fucking hell. Is it supposed to mean that I will never be able to read English classics without being exposed to the language at the very young age? Should I kill myself?
>>7677506
Literature is faggot shit, don't waste your time. Your English writing skills already surpass 96% of natives'.
Including mine because I don't know how to write that last word
Three years is nothing. Keep reading, reread, read easy books, read complicated books.
Keep reading him, I was reading ToTC and his writing style didn't click until the 200th page, but then it was fluid af.
Mark the sentences you don't understand and read them later or read a translation.
Practice is key.
t. as you can see, someone with shit english
Keep trying.
>>7677506
>Is it supposed to mean that I will never be able to read English classics without being exposed to the language at the very young age?
That is correct. You should've been thinking over it when you were up to 12
I am from Finland and been studying English for 10+ years. I started reading books in English last year. Best thing I did was buying a Kindle. It has a really good dictionary. Classics are harder so I try to read something easier, like Stephen King etc.
I am better at reading than writing though. But just keep at it and don't give up even though you can't understand everything.
>>7677506
maybe try some more contemporary/leisurely reading? Then, once you are used to the syntax, you can branch out to classics and writers with unique writing styles. david copperfield wouldn't be an easy one going from Russian to English, depending on your reading skill.
>>7677839
this. and this may be sacrilege, but maybe even young adult lit. YES I KNOW, but just for language learning purposes since it is written pretty simply. If I was trying to read in, say, French, I would start with some books I read as a child because I know the material, then I can help myself learn since it is familiar territory.
>>7677848
Oh yeah I forgot to add that I read YA on my phone because it is easy but I am still able to learn new words. Damn I even read two books by John Green (his writing is good for a language learner but god those books made me cringe).
nobody has learnt any foreign language being an adult yet
>>7677506
I just finished reading Bleak House and it was hard to read too. He uses old words and at lot of things look weird because they are different from today's context.
Like there's this scene where this guy just catches by fire by no reason.
I had to find the explanation in wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion
>>7678028
Are you a native English speaker?
Somewhat off topic but does anyone have any good recommendations for easy Spanish books for someone learning the language?
Why would anyone learn this stupid language called English instead of let's say German? The most primitive shit I've ever encountered with in my entire life to be honest. Here you've got no case systems or genders and lots of other sophisticated stuff. And oh my fucking God what about the strict word order? Fuck you with your Shitglish. I wanna see German as an international language prospectively.
>>7678031
Classic books for kids: Platero y yo
Mi planta de naranja lima
Chico Carlo
Those are meh, imo, but easy and have a dry prose.
For something with more literary merit read the memeauthors, Borges, Cortazar, Garcia Marquez.
You can also try Horacio Quiroga, Leopoldo Lugones, Roberto Arlt, Jose Ingenieros.
>>7677506
well, if you're having trouble with dickens, it's going to be difficult for you to make progress towards more difficult and rewarding english literature. you're going to have to go back to more easy simple english lit. Have you tried reading the russian masters and looking through their translations into english? it might be fun to do, and a lot of russians seem to have a good time making fun of the end result. It might give you a better insight as to how we interpret your language, and since you'll probably already be familiar with russian lit like dostoevsky or tolstoy, or gogol, (short stories might be best) you won't have much difficulty in understanding what is supposed to be happening, vs what you're reading in english.
Dickens sucks anyway. Maybe try reading some American literature. Steinbeck is pretty easy to read, so maybe start with him.
>>7677506
I start to suspect that the entirety of this board is Russian. Thankfully, most people are to ashamed to admit it.
