Do you read books in more than one language?

[pepak]

I read mainly in english rather than my native language because I am sick of bad translations - with originals I can only be sick of bad writing :-)

[Jaro]

I read in englich, german and rusian.They dont sell ebooks in our coutry.
And i dont like to steal.

[t-town]

My native language is Dutch, but sometimes the translations are so horrible... So I read some books in English, and now, with my Kindle, I only read in English.

[Eddie]

Native Romanian, read fluently in French and English. Bought some Manuel Vázquez Montalbán books that were never translated in any of these three languages, never got the time to actually try and read them (although I can read Spanish newspapers all right, as I discovered during my holidays). I guess I'm a trilingual reader because there just weren't enough interesting books to read in Romanian when I was a kid...

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Eddie

Native Romanian, read fluently in French and English. Bought some Manuel Vázquez Montalbán books that were never translated in any of these three languages, never got the time to actually try and read them (although I can read Spanish newspapers all right, as I discovered during my holidays). I guess I'm a trilingual reader because there just weren't enough interesting books to read in Romanian when I was a kid...

Why is it that so many Romanians (at least of the ones I know) are fluent in French? Is there some secret connection that has escaped me 'til now?

[nothatkind]

I read mostly in English because you'll find almost everything in that tongue. But I also read in Spanish (native) and Italian ('cause I live in Italy, but there aren't many ebooks in italian) :-(

[abjdiat]

I read mostly in Arabic, It's rich language with tons of lovely expressions you wouldn't find in other languages, I love reading Arabic because I'm a native speaker, plus I can understand it thoroughly, I can feel the setting pretty well..
sadly, e-readers can't support right to left languages like Arabic and Hebrew yet

I read English, especially novels which I can't find translation for or that translated cheaply,it's easy to read and I can find many translated novels from other languages..
reading literature take longer time to comprehend but I keep reading to improve my skills

[hidari]

As some of the others posted: I read for many reasons thus chose other. I tend to read in my native English the majority of the time, but I like to read good literature in the native language as well as some newpapers. I read novels in Spanish and French and occasionally in Russian and German. Settled in Japan, So hopefully I can read some good novels in a few years time once my Kanji gets decent,Now, I must read only short stories in hirigana with bits and bobs of Kanji. I think reading in the original is a big reason for many as translations often fall short. I.E. Poetry in Russian and French is far richer in the original than any English translation I have ever read.

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Why is it that so many Romanians (at least of the ones I know) are fluent in French? Is there some secret connection that has escaped me 'til now?

Well, Romanian *is* a Romance language, meaning that it is closer to French/Italian/Spanish/etc. than it is to the Slavic languages spoken in most of the other countries in the area. So one would speculate that French is simply relatively easy to learn for a Romanian. If there are other historical reasons for that French-Romanian affinity, I'm not aware of them.


As for what I read, it's mostly English with the occasional book in my native German thrown in for good measure. Why? I like English, I prefer reading English speaking authors in their native language, and I aim to improve my command of English as well.

[hidari]

Originally Posted by Gudy

Well, Romanian *is* a Romance language, meaning that it is closer to French/Italian/Spanish/etc. than it is to the Slavic languages spoken in most of the other countries in the area. So one would speculate that French is simply relatively easy to learn for a Romanian. If there are other historical reasons for that French-Romanian affinity, I'm not aware of them.


As for what I read, it's mostly English with the occasional book in my native German thrown in for good measure. Why? I like English, I prefer reading English speaking authors in their native language, and I aim to improve my command of English as well.

And I find it fairly easy to read basic Romanian news articles. But, I would never venture into a novel..I think I would fall into the depths. My Spanish and French help me for the most part.... Fortunately Romanian Cases aren't the nightmare that Russian ones are... otherwise I would be cringing every time I look at a Romanian website. Love the language.... But not many speakers where I live at the moment.

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Why is it that so many Romanians (at least of the ones I know) are fluent in French? Is there some secret connection that has escaped me 'til now?

I've always considered it normal, without looking into it.
There was a good number of Romanian students around when I was doing my engineering studies.

I searched in Wikipedia to try to understand.
It seems the main reason is the great cultural influence that France had during the "Age of Enlightenment" (Siècle des Lumières).
Immigration in the last decades has also strenghtened that bond.
Romania hosted the Francophonie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francophonie) summit in 2006 and around 25% of the Romanians speak French, according to the data posted in Wikipedia.

EDIT :
About the language itself, it is very frustrating to hear, because you always seem to recognize a word but you can't understand what is said.
I never tried to read it, though.

[emai7s2]

Originally Posted by abjdiat

I read mostly in Arabic, ..... sadly, e-readers can't support right to left languages like Arabic and Hebrew yet

I would like to use an e-reader to develop my reading ability in foreign languages such as Russian and Mandarin (preferably with dictionary support), but very few e-readers provide out-of-box support for such 'exotic' languages.

What is the best all-round e-reader for foreign character support? I have the impression that the Pocket Book and Jetbook provide better foreign-language support than major players like Kindle and Sony. Is there anything better on the market at the moment? I realize that many people are successfully hacking their devices to support Unicode fonts, but I would prefer out-of-box support.

[yagiz]

These days I read mostly in English but I'm trilingual so I normally read in Turkish, French and English depending on the language that the book is written in. I also read novels in Spanish to maintain my otherwise-rapidly-degrading level.

[Brandobras]

Hello,
as for me, i read in italian (it's my native language), in spanish (I live in Spain since 2003) and in english (to try to improve my knowledge of english).
At the moment, i'm reading a "traditional" book in spanish, but i have some "hot" italian ebooks waiting to be read: I'm going to receive my ereader by the end of this week...

Best regards

Brandobras

[beachwanderer]

My native tongue is german but I prefer reading books that have been written in english in the original version.

Sadly I can't do so with texts in other languages

The Italians have this nice saying, what was it again ? Ah yes:"Traduttore, Traditore" You inevitably lose so much with every translation ...