Saim wrote:Isn't the whole point to be able read things in the original -- or alternatively to read translations that don't exist in your native language?
I think the idea is to pick accessible, engaging books that are translated into as many languages as possible, and that usually means Anglophone books or things like
Le Petit Prince. That way you end up learning a few of these books inside out such that you get maximum benefit from extensive reading of them in your languages.
The only problem is that I find it to be an utterly uninspiring activity. I am far more motivated to read books in the original, or at least books where I get closer to the original (I imagine that Russian translations of Polish novels are generally closer to the original than English translations). My method of jumping straight into original TL books after readers and online articles may not be the most efficient, but what good is efficiency if I keep avoiding the efficient activity because it's dull.
It's not that I don't read translations or there's anything fundamentally wrong with translations, there's certainly a place for it in language learning, but it seems weird how common it is, to the point of overshadowing reading literature originally produced in the target language. In fact I would find it more motivating if people spent more time recommending original works.
I make a point of searching out "booktube" channels in my target languages. They can be a great source of recommendations.
linguoboy wrote:I try as much as possible not to read works in translation--to the point that if I buy something translated and then discover the original is in a language I can read, I feel cheated. This happened to me last year with a work by Naivo, billed as "the first Malagasy novel translated into English". I naturally assumed that meant the first novel to be translated from Malagasy (a language I don't read and never will) into English. So I bought it, only to discover the original title was Au-delà des rizières.
I quietly discarded a translated volume of Japanese poetry I was gifted without reading it, and not because it was poetry.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka