In what language do you prefer to read books?

Of course, I prefer English or Filipino because they are the only languages I know as of now. But I would love to read books written in Spanish in the future. I actually started reading Spanish books for children last year like "The frog prince" because it's easier to understand. 

I will read it either in english or tagalog coz I dunno how to read japanese words written in Katana :sweat_smile: 

I mostly read English novels though I wish I could read some books without having to rely on translation. I bet there's a bunch of subtleties and wordplay that I'm missing. I'd love to read Little Prince in French, Kazuo Ishiguro and Murakami's books in Japanese, and Noli Mi Tangere in Spanish. :)

That's interesting. My immediate gut feeling is to read in primary reading language, in this case, English, then work on the original at a later date. 

But thinking back about my language-learning experience, I think you have a point about reading it in Swedish (or the original language) first, if you can manage it. 

I remember reading Pramoedya's Bumi Manusia/This Earth of Mankind in Indonesian first (class assignment). I came across this very veiled reference (translates to his face darkened), and was wondering what that was referring to. The English version was a lot more explicit (protagonist was pissed off after he found out his girlfriend wasn't a virgin). None of us reading it the Indonesian original at that point actually got the reference, because it was so nuanced, and required some explanation by our teachers. If I had actually read it in English first, I would have completely missed that point. 

I always prefer to read in English. This might be strange to some but I have a hard time reading in Tagalog and Bisaya (Cebuano) - two of my native languages.

Rose.Angelie wrote:

I always prefer to read in English. This might be strange to some but I have a hard time reading in Tagalog and Bisaya (Cebuano) - two of my native languages.

There also aren't a lot of very good books written in Filipino, I think. I have a couple of great books by Filipino writers but about half of em are in English.

Personally I find reading easier (meaning I read the book faster) in my own language, but I try to read in foreign language more cause I want to increase my vocabulary 

I prefer English, but the one exception would be French. If there were a French book that I really wanted to read, I'd do it in the original French because it's easy for me and I hate what translations do to a story.

I would prefer to capable of choosing which language tor read in but in not there yet

leosmith wrote:

I prefer English, but the one exception would be French. If there were a French book that I really wanted to read, I'd do it in the original French because it's easy for me and I hate what translations do to a story.

Couldn't agree more so much is lost in translation