01-23-2014, 03:34 AM
My favorites as a teenager out of school were Russian and French. In school, I only showed up for English class, but there was a big emphasis on English grammar on most days and English literature some days. English class meant 100 exercise questions a day about grammar and maybe a short story or poem once a week. I passed all my English classes by simply showing up and passing the exams. I wanted to read and write, and wasn't much interested in anything else, being a young punk not worth living.
But I read the French and Russian books the best I could and liked them better, assisting myself with English translations. I can't write or speak worth anything in other languages, but I learned to improvise. And I could get a sense of French writing despite the bad translations, in a practical and emotional way, with crummy literal language skills. Some of the Russian prose translations were a little better in English, at least for me.
I read more translations than English writers. Maybe that's why my English writing is so bad. I have a nice collection of those suicidal Japanese writers that get me through the night.
Do you count translations in your question? If you do, I read more books in translation than originally in English.
But I read the French and Russian books the best I could and liked them better, assisting myself with English translations. I can't write or speak worth anything in other languages, but I learned to improvise. And I could get a sense of French writing despite the bad translations, in a practical and emotional way, with crummy literal language skills. Some of the Russian prose translations were a little better in English, at least for me.
I read more translations than English writers. Maybe that's why my English writing is so bad. I have a nice collection of those suicidal Japanese writers that get me through the night.
Do you count translations in your question? If you do, I read more books in translation than originally in English.