Do you read books in more than 1 language?

[WorkAndPlay]

It depends on the book. I can read five languages: my own, English (which I guess is also sort of "my own" in a way), German, French, and Afrikaans.

Only four of these I consider myself a good enough reader in that I can read academic texts or heavy literature. My French is only good enough that I can read newspaper articles or light novels. I can (or have tried to) read literature and philosophical texts in French, but I always feel like I am missing a lot. Even in German I'd say I probably miss a lot of the nuances. When texts are heavy in slang I am useless in german, French and Afrikaans (Afrikaans slang is INCREDIBLY varied and complex!). Jargon seems to be pretty similar across most Europe-originated languages, so I can get the gist of many academic texts, but totally not get what exactly the author is arguing.

Cookbooks are a different genre altogether. Because I love to cook, I can read (or decipher) recipes in most European languages. I am lucky enough to have been taught to read the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets, so I can (after some puzzling) follow recipes in Russian, Greek, or Serbian. Finnish and Hungarian are the exceptions. Even though they use the Roman alphabet, I do not understand anything written in those languages. Almost every European language will call a tomato something that sounds like "tomat*" or "paradi*zh*", but in Finnish it'll be something like "húrglbarglifi" and in Hungarian something that sounds like the opposite of what the letters I am reading suggest it should be sounding like.

I would love (LOVE!) to learn sign language, and see what happens to literature when it is performed through sign language.
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[Kendaljay]

That is *awesome* WorkandPlay! I know the alphabet in sign language and a few colors, but that's it. I think that would be really neat to see too.

I'm at the library today and decided to check if they have Harry Potter (duh, right?) and they only had the 3rd one, which is one of my favorites anyway, so I decided to go for it! I'll check back in once I get started.

Anybody else want to join in? Not just Harry Potter in Spanish, but any book any language! Challenge yourself! :)
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ps- you're my favourite. We should be friends.--e

[meexie]

[Teahugger]

I mostly read in Swedish and English, prefer Swedish sometimes (like for relaxing reads) and English sometimes (like knitting patterns, because I'm actually more familiar with English knitting terms than Swedish ones). I don't have to consciously switch between languages or translate things in my head, it's all automatic.

Norwegian and Danish are easy to read too, because they're so similar to Swedish. Norwegian is easier than Danish but that's mainly because I've lived in Norway. I don't read a lot in those languages though but that's because it's generally easier to find books in Swedish or English and I don't have a reason to seek out other Scandinavian stuff...I own a couple of books in Norwegian though, and there are a few Norwegian blogs that I follow.

I can follow simple texts in Dutch, French and German but it requires more effort. Not as easy to glance through and I probably miss a lot of nuances, I can get the gist of it though.

Finnish I can decipher if it's something simple, but it takes work. I know basic words and structure.

Though if we're talking restaurang menus, I can read more languages, including Malay :-) Too bad my vocabulary only contains words like "chicken" and "rice"...

[Kendaljay]

I had to give up on HP in Spanish, it was too hard. :( There were too many odd, made-up words I think. I'd like to try something simpler still, but I'm not sure what.
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ps- you're my favourite. We should be friends.--e

[Teahugger]