How long did you study a language before trying to read a book in that language? What language was it and what book did you start with?
11 Months.
Das Parfum by Süskind in German. Had to look up phrases here and there but it was overall a very pleasurable experience.
>>7832791
Did you teach yourself or study at university?
I could slowly read Camus in French after like a month or two of on-off but intensive French study.
>>7832425
This may sound stupid, but I'd recommend Harry Potter. I read the books a few times during my childhood, so I had much of the story memorized. The language in the books also slightly increase in difficulty, so with each book you learn a bit more. I studied spanish all throughout high school. I read the first book as a junior, second as a senior, but once I started at uni I didn't bother with spanish. Sophomore year I tried reading prisoner of azkaban and I quit within a two week period. I couldn't remember anything. Reading is a good way to learn a language, but speaking it is also crucial. Just make sure you practice everyday.
>>7832425
i like languages theyre fun
>>7832864
Me too, lots of fun! xD
>>7832805
Goethe Institute
Best teachers and resources
It took me a few months of studying Russian to be able to read simple stories. Chekov is great for this, his language is often very basic and intelligible. Really though you can just start right away with dual texts, once you at least know which words are the adjectives or verbs or nouns, and you've learnt the first 100 or so common words.
8 years in french to become fluent enough to read.
I took Spanish for two years in high school before reading Ficciones, but I wasn't really all that serious about it during the first year, and it really was not that challenging. So I'd say that for an easy language like Spanish it should take only about a year of really dedicated study. For a hard language like Russian, I'm sure it'd be much longer. I'm currently flirting with the idea of learning Russian, but I know it would be years before I could read anything meaningful. For a English speaker, just the pronunciation of Russian is something of a puzzle, which isn't true in, say, Spanish or German (although German is significantly more difficult that Spanish - it took me like a year and a half of pretty dedicated study before I could try reading anything in German, and that was after I had already learned a second language).
>>7832855
Anon is right. My degree is in Farsi and even the lecturers recommend reading Harry Potter. If you think about it, when you were a kid you read children's books until your mastery of English was sufficient that you could tackle tougher texts. The same applies when you're an adult learning a second language. Parallel texts are extraordinarily useful for getting used to reading, though.
>>7833238
Is there something better than Harry Potter though? I can't stand those fucking shit books.
>>7833241
I fucking hate them too. For Farsi it's pretty difficult to get hold of any books at all where I live. What language are you learning? I do French, Italian, Farsi and Kurdish, I can help you with any of those.
>>7832425
Have Immigrant parents
t. immigrantbro
>>7833298
french
What do you guys think of Duolingo?
>>7833754
Good supplement to actual learning
>>7833754
Duolingo is tons and tons of worthless out of order vocab.
I tried my first Japanese book 3 years in, I started with fairy tales, and then akutagawa and abe kobo's short stories, then into Osamu-kun.
I'm doing French now; seems like everyone agrees Camus is the first author to read? I was thinking about just jumping straight into fleurs du mal.
>>7832425
Didn't study, started with Borges. Having already read him intranslationa couple months prior, it went okay.
>>7832817
Camus is pretty easy French but after one month it's impressive
>>7835256
I'm a native french speaker and Flowers of Evil is... difficult. I'm not a poetry buff though and I just jumped into that straight up, but I'd remember re-reading each poem 3-5 times, because one, they were amazingly beautiful and two, a lot of meaning felt present yet subdued in the way you would have to search for it. A lot of the vocabulary is extraneous to what you would casually encounter too, I'd think.
But really, I also think if there's a will, there's a way. Buy it, feel your way through it, I feel like if you really want to read something you'll work as hard as you need to and it'll be that much more beneficial for you.
>>7832425
English.
Learned it by reading books and using a dictionary.
>>7835355
Thanks anon
Studying French right now... just finished The Stranger and started The Plague.
It takes some intensive use of the dictionary.
>>7832425
Been doing German off and on for a year or so. Still could barely get through 10 pages of Momo.
Wanna read Russian, but fuck that
>>7837559
Go back to reddit and/or tumblr
>>7837568
HACK THE PLANET
Four years of French at uni.
The Stranger.
It was a breeze
>>7837578
It's pretty self explanatory broheim.
>>7837582
Then it should be easy for you to explain.
>>7837589
HACK THE PLANET
>>7837601
How do you do that?
>>7837605
THEY'RE TRASHING OUR RIGHTS! TRASHING!
>>7835256
What do you use besides Duolingo?
>>7837609
What are you talking about?
>>7833238
>>7832855
Don't read Harry Potter. Find children's books written in the original language. I can't speak to Farsi personally, but Harry Potter will be somewhat non-idiomatic in any language but English. Someone learning English only from translations of Russian stories would end up speaking English, but somewhat strangely. And exposing yourself to children's literature in original will give you a leg up culturally. Plus if you can read the original, you should. Always. Harry Potter or otherwise.
>>7833051
This. I only ever read a few Chekov stories (very, very short ones), and I wouldn't say I really read them in the way that I might read Hemingway stories, but they're at least comprehensible after a few months.
After about two years of truly dedicated Chinese study (living in country, speaking / encountering English maybe an hour a day max), I could read and really enjoy Lv Xun and other stories without a dictionary (used a Chinese-Chinese dictionary when one was necessary). After 4 years, I could vaguely decipher the meaning of the Water Margin, but it was never pleasant.
>>7837610
The Anki flash cards app helped me immensely
Find short conversations in your target language on YouTube rip and listen to them until you can split the words up.
Hello talk, some people are dicks but that program can be a huge help.
Then watch movies, read fairy tales, books or news, and try to learn enough phrases for an introductory conversation.
After you watch or read anything, write a short summary of it to lock your new words in(sometimes when I'm lazy these will be short; I.e. "There's a guy. He has two personalities. He make a club where people fight. He has a weird gf.")
If you're smart with google translate you can even put off buying a grammar text until intermediate level.
420 years, German, Mein Kampf
