Now you see, I am trying to be a good little Catalan student...granted I haven't done all the exercises in the text books I have, and I should do more of that boring studying of verbs...but...
I decided to take a more whole language approach to the problem and bought me a novel....I had been hearing about Haruki Murikame a lot, and so I picked up, "El meu amor, sputnik" in English, "Sputnick Sweetheart" (Mostly because it was the only one in Catalan rather than Spanish)
Jackpot!!!
The book is a little (read quite a lot) more depressing than I would normally aim at, but goodness gracious me, I was so happy to be able to read it so, well, so easily that NOTHING could bring me down. Read the entire book in 4 days! Slower than my English standards, but considering I was in Amsterdam doing stuff too....not too shabby.
The ending stymied me though....I had put it down for a bit and then I got lost, so I backed up and took a run at it...going back seven or eight pages and trying again. I understood it enough to realise that he is being deliberately ambiguous, which is tricky when reading a book in a foreign language....
Amsterdam, overlaid with Japanese novels read in Catalan.
*whew*
Now to find another.
He is a brilliant writer...whatever the language.
8 comments:
why not reading the catalan novels that you bought for your kid the other day? :)
"Amsterdam, overlaid with Japanese novels read in Catalan."
Wow. What a life you are leading and what an education you are getting.
Talk about a multicultural melting pot. What are you having for lunch, Italian?
how cool is all that? I would say that being able to read a book in another language goes a lot further than just doing exercises from a text book.
Just like reading in plain english - it completes the language.
elP, I could, they aren't really the kind of books I am all that interested in though...
Diane, thank you...how is the Spanish going?
Beth, it certainly has it's odd moments. Have you read anything by Murikame? I think you'd like him...
Bodhi...if you count the tomato salad, yes...but not really...
Trish, I still find it really cool that I can read a book (well some books) in another language....neat....the exercises are still useful though...
That is pretty good. Learning a new language is not an easy task. If you can read a book, it would mean that you are really understanding the language. Good for you!!
Sirdar, thanks...I can read some books, others leave me stuck...getting there though.
I found that reading all I could in Catalan helped me learn the language. I found it especially helpful to read out loud so I could get used to hearing myself speak Catalan as well.
The last novel I read was "L'ombra Del Vent" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The first novel I read in Catalan was "Homenatje a Catalunya" by George Orwell.
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