5 things I noticed from reading 5 books in my TL (long post)

My goal is to read a minimum of 20 books this year in the language I’m learning (Italian). To anyone learning Italian, I would recommend any of these depending on your level and interests! My personal favorite (and arguably the best one for language learners) was Seta. I immediately wanted to reread the entire book on finishing it. I really think Baricco’s writing simply could not be the same in translation, so if you’re learning Italian take advantage of that and read this beautiful book in the original Italian. My least favorite was the Emilio Salgari book, but I think it was a genre issue. I really liked parts of his writing style, and I read one of his short stories in this time as well (Alla conquista della luna) that I’d rate 4/5. I’d read a few books in Italian before but very spread out over the past 5+ years I’ve been learning this language. I wanted to commit to reading daily and see what happened, even just for 10 minutes. Here’s what I noticed: Most days, 10 minutes turned into at least 20. Some days it turned into an hour or more. It’s pretty much an established habit by now. What worked for me was combining it with my morning coffee routine, and purposefully setting aside time on weekends in my calendar to read. My reading speed sped up. I noticed this the most with the Italian translation of game of thrones. It was taking me 5-6 minutes per page at the beginning of the book, and I was looking up a lot of fantasy/medieval words. By the end, it was taking me closer to 3-4 minutes per page. I also got more comfortable with not understanding everything as I progressed - at first I stopped at almost every word I didn’t know. Having someone to talk to about these books as I read them helped keep me accountable. I work with a lovely tutor who recommended some of these, and we’d read a few chapters together and discuss. I thought reading a translation of a book I’d already read several times in my native language would be easier, and I was wrong. Turns out the vocab in fantasy novels is kind of difficult since they’re words you wouldn’t normally encounter. And fun fact, for the Italian translation of game of thrones the translator chose to go with more dated terms than the original english for many words to convey a high fantasy/medieval tone (which was a bit of an odd choice, imo). So it just depends on the book/genre. Do your research on the translation first and don’t assume it’ll be easier. I got into a flow state while reading only a handful of times. I think this is both a reflection of my reading level and some of the books I chose. I definitely learned to stop stopping over every word I didn’t know at a certain point. I think there’s a balance to be found between intensive and extensive reading and I still haven’t found it. tldr; My advice if you’re wanting to read more in your TL is to just commit to 10 minutes per day with no other pressure, and see where it gets you. And make sure you choose books you’ll like. It’s that simple. submitted by /u/spooky-cat- [link] [comments]

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