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Reading books in another language (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by BadaRokeY@alien.top to c/books@metacritics.zone

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This post is kind of specific , so...

For those fellow readers from all around the world, how it was your first encounter to a book that was NOT in your native languague. How did you feel? How the impact of reading a "new" language influenced how you looked books back then? etc.

I speak 'Português', so obviously my first book was in the same language.
However when i read a Spanish book things did not change as much as the way it was to when i read an English book.

What i'm saying is: The formatting of books are different along cultures and languages.

My first book in Spanish had a Em dash — to represent Dialogue, as well as it is in Portuguese. My friend had a french book and it was also —. (i dont speak french, tho)

But then I discovered that it was not a common thing when i read a book in english, along with other few things that are small but still relevant. At first I thought that it was "wrong" and that it didn't make any sense to use "quotation" to... speak?! I mean a quote was to quote, right?

Anyways, right now i'm used to reading english format, so the question is: if you find a book, lets say, written in your native language but formatted like the german books, or written in english but formatted the way its done in your native language,

How would you feel?
To me, I think that it would take me some time to understand and get used to it, but I wouldn't dare to not learn this "new" way of reading and would even look for other kinds of books that way.

What bout you guys?

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[–] gujiasi@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

It would be very odd for English books to be formatted like Japanese publications. Long books split into parts and reading top to bottom, right to left with little circles for period and half brackets for quotations...

[–] othybear@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I’ve read a couple children’s books that I love in Spanish. I was entertained that there were a few notes to explain translation issues - like a phrase that rhymed in English but didn’t in Spanish would have a note to explain the missed context. Beyond that I haven’t paid much attention to formatting differences.

[–] False__MICHAEL@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

different languages have different grammar

I don't think 9.99 compared to 9,99 is as mind blowing of a difference to declare something as「wrong」

¿Know what I mean?

[–] GreysLucas@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Then there is Saramago who just throw away every rules

[–] FoxTofu@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

When I started reading Japanese books in my twenties, I was surprised at how frequently my eyes accidentally jumped to the wrong line when moving back to the top of the page. Reading the correct line was completely automatized in my horizontal reading, but for a while when I first started vertical reading I needed to put a notecard or bookmark on the page and use it to mark the line I was on. I got used to it, though, and now it’s automatic again in both horizontal and vertical text.

[–] elementaryhastings@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Personally, I struggle more with my native language which is Arabic. I grew up speaking English more and reading and writing and all of that comes naturally to me in English. Recently I’ve tried reading more books in Arabic and I constantly have to translate and look up words because I’m not as fluent in it as I am in English

[–] moniemanie@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I was born in Korea but grew up living abroad. I read mostly in English, but will read in Korean from time to time. IM SO MUCH SLOWER!!!