When it comes to reading serious literature, I'm always facing dilemma, whether to read it in translation into my native language (Serbian), or in the original language.
When it comes to non-native languages in which I could read decently, they include English and Italian.
But I've realized that for almost all books that can count as literature... novels and stuff, I always chose to read them in Serbian, if the translation is available.
When it comes to reading online content, the situation is completely opposite: I mostly read in English... articles, forums, Wikipedia, blogs, pretty much everything, I read it in English... with no problems. When it comes to Italian stuff, I also read it in Italian, without much probems.
When it comes to audio-visual content: Vlogs, TED talks, AMSR videos (heh, yeah, even those), documentaries, educational videos, and pretty much everything that is non-fiction, I can consume it with no problems in English/Italian.
But as soon as something is FICTION, I prefer to have it translated in Serbian, or if it's a video, I'd prefer to have subtitles in Serbian, or at least in original language (English/Italian)... Watching movies without subtitles (at least in original language), still feels like I miss a lot of what was said.
Anyway, I think I could approach fiction in English and Italian too, and I intend to do it, but I kind of feel that I might miss something, and that if my goal is simply to read, for the sake of reading and understanding the book, that my best bet is to read in Serbian. If my goal is to improve in English or Italian, then of course I should read in original. But I am wondering how many of you can read fiction in original, non-native languages, without feeling that you're missing something, with full understanding, and with the same feel as "full fledged" reading experience that you can have in your native language?
I have this problem especially if I want to read some classic or some sort of serious novel. I feel if I don't read it in Serbian, that I haven't really read it. Like I can't say I really read it and understood it, if I read it in original, because I would surely miss something... (unless I read it VERY slowly with checking each new word that isn't 100% clear from the context)... and there's this belief that when you're dealing with serious literature, it's not really permissible to miss much stuff, because some of the stuff that you didn't get, might be important to the novel, etc...
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