Although I enjoy learning and using a new language, somehow, it's never occurred to me to read fiction in anything other than English. I could probably read middle to high school books in Spanish with little difficulty, but the idea doesn't seem appealing to me because I still have to translate everything in to English before I can fully comprehend it. In other words, it takes me a lot longer to finish, not to mention that there are a lot of subtle grammar rules in Spanish that just don't translate well. "Hace frío", for example, translates literally to "He made/did a cold." Of course I can recognize that difference easily, but what about the slang and the idioms? I think those are the hardest and the most important parts of any language, and I suck at them.
Not to mention the difference in stress and inflection. Just imagine if you had seen Star Wars in Spanish first, and instead of hearing James Earl Jones say, "No, Luke, I am your father", you hear some random Spanish man say "No, Luke... YO SOY TU PADRE." Would it have the same effect? I mean come on...no one is better than Mufasa.
My mom occasionally wanders into my room while I'm watching anime, and it baffles her why I watch it in Japanese with subtitles. "Why would you want to read subtitles?" She says. "You're distracted from the movie." Well, it's because I've tried watching it in English, and it's just not the same. Japanese and English are spoken in completely different ways, and when a English voice is dubbed over an animation that was originally in another language, it looks and sounds sloppy. No, I can't understand a word that they're saying, but it still sounds right, somehow. Even if I have to resort to watching subtitles, having some way of accessing the original language helps me understand the intent better. Whenever I read a book that has been translated into English from Spanish or Portuguese or Swedish, it makes me wonder if I'm really getting the same context, and even if I don't know why, the experience feels deficient somehow.
What about you guys? Are you bilingual or multi-lingual? What is your preferred language when reading for pleasure? Do you think a book translated from one language to the other loses something vital in the process? Why or why not?
2 comments:
I suck at learning all languages. In my years of school I took classes in Arabic, French, French again, Dutch, Spanish and Japanese. I watch English movies with English subtitles. I could never read a book in a different language.
While I do watch a several anime in English, I understand what you mean by watching them in Japanese with subtitles. With a show like Cardcaptor Sakura, you have to watch it in Japanese because the Americans butchered it so much. I also love to watch Korean dramas. There is so much humour and good music in them. It all rests on timing and vocals.
I just got a free ebook of The Journey to the Center of the Earth which is translated from French into English. I've only read the first couple of pages but it reads so fluidly (you know how some classics are the stuffiest unreadable things ever) that I wonder what it must read like in the original text.
I was just watching Star Wars yesterday and so now I'm off to watch the Empire Strikes Back to hear Mufasa say, "No, Luke... YO SOY TU PADRE." Great post! ♥
Also, did you know that James Earl Jones had a stutter when he was a child that then developed into selective mutism? Now he has a voice worth a princess' ransom!
WOW! Right on the dot!
I think I can say I'm bilingual...currently taking italian classes to make it multilingual lol :D but still...my first language isn't english...not by a loooooooong shot BUT I think there's a slight difference to your experience from mine...I've been studying and learning english since I was 3 so when I speak in english or listen to english being spoken I don't have to translate to my first language~which is spanish~ at all...
I completely get what you say though...I love reading and I've always said that I love reading books in the language they were originally written...I hate reading books in spanish that were written in english...Thank GOD I haven't had to do so...but also the other way around...last year I bought a book in english thinking that was the original language when I found out the original version was in spanish...I couldn't even get the half of the book read...I couldn't get into it that much either...not because of the language thing...I found out AFTER I had stopped trying to read the book, but because I thought I was missing something...apparently the language thing might've been it hehehe
AND OMG! YAY for watching anime in JAPANESE!! I get that question a lot too!!! hehehe
In the end...though I speak spanish more than I'd like my favorite language is English...most of the books I read are in english and if I want to find new reads I instantly think of english tittles or of US/UK/AUS/NZ authors...
LOL T_T sadly that's so true...when you say "Hace Frío" <--- not used usually, instead "Esta haciendo frío" which is translated "Is making cold" lol we're soooo weird...I've been told spanish is one hard language to learn ^-^
So keep on going with the spanish classes and I'm here if you have ANY questions...not that I'm THAT good with my language either but still I could help :D
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