2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Our reader Elizaveta Timofeychuk shared her thoughts on why it is worth reading books in the original, and not in translation. Elizabeth's arguments are wonderful food for thought. We urge you to be active and share your opinions on the topic.
I've always loved poetry by Rudyard Kipling. Recently, I took up reading these verses in the original and was surprised how much of the meaning of these amazing verses simply disappeared when translated. Even if it is a very good translation that is closest to the original. And before you think that in order to read in the original, you need a level of knowledge of the language at least Upper-Intermediate, I will please you - my level is not higher than Pre-Intermediate.
Many do not dare to read books in the original, considering it an incredibly difficult task and requiring a high level of knowledge of the language. I also thought so for a long time, until I wanted to read Douglas Adams' book Last Chance To See. There is no translation of this book into Russian, and it is not planned. So I took the book and started reading. In this book, humor and amazing sarcasm are found on almost every page, and I am afraid to even think how much of all this would be lost when reading in translation.
While reading the book, I experimented with different approaches to the text that I read about or that came to my mind as I read. For those who are still hesitant to embark on the path of reading in the original, I wrote 10 conclusions, which I made, experimenting with different approaches to reading in the original.
It is possible and even necessary to start, regardless of your level of knowledge of English. Know the alphabet, so you can start reading.
Do not read adapted books or books that someone recommends for a first reading. Choose the book that YOU want to read! Then you will be interested. Better yet, take a book that you really want to read, but has not yet been translated.
The main problem with the fact that reading in the original is exhausting and boring is that we try to translate every word. As a result, after a couple of pages, a fascinating reading turns into terribly boring and annoying.
Conclusion: don't try to translate every word! Is it important what the monkey does with the stick - knocks or hits, the main thing is that the monkey is doing something!
Translate no more than 5-10 words per page. It seems that this is not enough, but believe me, this is more than enough! So you don't get bored of constantly tearing away from the text to dive into the dictionary. Plus, you'll memorize a lot more words and do it faster.
If you translate too many words, they will all get confused and will not linger in your head for a long time.
Many people think that if they take a book of 50 thousand words, then they will have to learn 50 thousand words, and this, of course, is not feasible. But the fact is that most of the words and phrases are repeated in the book on almost every page! When you come across such words in the text, write their translation at the top. And so on until the end of the book. This repetition just drives words into your vocabulary.
If at some point in your reading you don't want to go into the dictionary, skip it. Skip paragraphs and even pages. Just read, even if you don’t understand a word. You will rest, and in a couple of pages, I guarantee, you will again want to translate some word that interests you especially.
During reading, the grammar of the language is very well assimilated. If you don’t know it or you don’t know it well, this is not a problem.
Use an audio or video language learning course (I used Dmitry Petrov's Polyglot). Listen or watch the course while reading the book.
When translating words, do not use online translators. Better to take a paper version of the dictionary. This way, you avoid the temptation to translate entire passages by simply typing the text into an online translator. I used the Oxford English Dictionary.
To assimilate the text by ear, you can listen in parallel with reading and audio recording of the book in the original, if any.
On the first reading, I understood no more than 30-40% of the book. But this is 30-40% more than if I hadn't tried at all. On the second reading of this book, I already understand 60-70%. And after reading the book for the third time - already 100%.
So, reading a book in the original is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to devote at least 15 minutes a day to this, and things will get off the ground very quickly. And most importantly, you will not miss the uniqueness of the work, which is lost even with the best translation.
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