Reading in Spanish as a second tongue

[Anonymous No.9034262]

Has anybody of you (native speakers of Spanish included) read or at least tried to read a whole book in Spanish? If so, what does it feel like? Does it seem any more flowery and expressive than, say, when you read in English? I'm actually only planning on learning this language, so I wouldn't know myself. And what do you think of my endeavour in general? Is Spanish really worth learning to be able to read books in?

[Anonymous No.9034291]

Yes it is worth it.

Spanish tends to be more flowery than Ebglish, but it is not a detriment nor does it make it more expressive. It is just different from English.

I have read several books in Spanish. I am a native speaker.

[Anonymous No.9034307]

I'm a Spanish native speaker who is also 100% fluent in english and I dislike reading in Spanish very much. I don't know exactly why, suppose I'm just not used to it. Been reading books in English since I was reading books and have read moderately few in spanish (despite living in mexico)

It's all a matter of preference. I simply associate reading with english.

[Anonymous No.9034314]

>>9034262
It's a little more musical, I think. English is more technical but Spanish tends to have a lot of phonemes repeat in text, so it kind of has a singsong cadence. At least to me, as an English speaker who learned Spanish as a very small child.

[Anonymous No.9034385]

>>9034307
very silly of you considering the amount of riches the Spanish language possesses compared to its counterparts

[Anonymous No.9034395]

>>9034262
As Spanish speaker I've read books in Spanish and English... Personally I don't find the language more "expressive," but I've not paid enough attention anyway...

[Anonymous No.9034400]

>>9034385
I don't know what riches are you talking about. Could you give an example?

[Anonymous No.9034405]

>>9034400
numerous suffixes such as diminutives and augmentatives, and I'm not only talking about nouns, but adjectives also, much freer word order and so on

[Anonymous No.9034406]

>>9034395
does it seem worse than English?

[Anonymous No.9034408]

>>9034405
I didn't notice that, you're right.

[Anonymous No.9034421]

>>9034385
Spanish vocabulary is absolutely tiny compared to English, in terms of grammar it's just a simplified baby version of Latin with some arabic loanwords left from moor gangrape of Iberia
Can you provide an example of said richness?

[Anonymous No.9034422]

>>9034406
I'm used to it. But speaking from the English point of view, the only strange thing you could find are the symbols unused in English like 'Ñ', '¿', '¡' and 'á, é, í, ó, ú.'
This said, there is a lot of words very similar to Spanish like: inteligente, creación, información, similar, alien, espacio, esfera, especial, ect. I don't believe it's hard to get used to.

[Anonymous No.9034434]

>>9034421
One can't know all the words anyway, besides certain suffixes can slightly change connotation of any word. Spanish just isn't a mongrel like English.

[Anonymous No.9034438]

What is the best language to learn for literature?

French? Spanish? Russian?

[Anonymous No.9034442]

>>9034438
1. French
2. Russian
3. Spanish
Tried to stay as much objective as possible

[Anonymous No.9034444]

>>9034438
French and russian are roughly equal. French has longer history and a larger literary corpus, russian produced better 19/20 century lit and has, subjectively, grander library of raw masterpieces. Spanish is way down the list, somewhere with irrelevant shit like italian or japanese

[Anonymous No.9034446]

>>9034262
Every word in Spanish sounds exactly like it reads so you can practice your Spanish reading out loud, that's one real benefit to learning Spanish over other major languages.

Other than that, you'd probably improve in taco ordering and impress some Hispanic girls with some Spanish knowledge, that's about it.

[Anonymous No.9034454]

>>9034438
world languages: French, Russian or German...

classical: Greek/Latin.

[Anonymous No.9034461]

>>9034454
Neither French nor German are world languages, bozo. Spanish, on the contrary, is.

[Anonymous No.9034468]

>>9034461
>french
>not world language
>Europe
>Canada
>half of Africa

[Anonymous No.9034472]

>>9034468
Now, compare the number of French speakers in Canada to that of Spanish speakers in USA, retard.

[Anonymous No.9034482]

I have read many books in Spanish, since I'm a native Portuguese speaker.

Spanish feels a bit less flowery than Portuguese, since it has less phonemes, but both languages are much more expressive for feelings than English. English has a wider vocabulary, though.

It is worthwhile to learn it, but it would be better to learn Portuguese. You can understand Spanish and have access to many other works of literature. You'll get fucked by nasal phonemes and many exceptions, but it's rewarding.

[Anonymous No.9034497]

>>9034307
>Mexican intellectuals.

[Anonymous No.9034505]

>>9034307

[Anonymous No.9034510]

>>9034461
it's a bit overrated as a world language, I'd say German and Russian are more valuable on a business level and hands down on a literary one.

Most of central/south America is negligible. No one in America worthwhile can't speak English. English is just way too dominant, and many elite from these southern countries study in America for college because Spanish is not very important.

[Anonymous No.9034521]

>>9034482
Learning Spanish was pretty easy, right? How long did it take you?

[Anonymous No.9034579]

>>9034510
When it comes to a literary heritage then French is the way to go. But Spanish at least is a language of Crusaders unlike cuckgerman.

[Anonymous No.9034603]

>>9034521
I'm not completely fluent, but I've had some classes in school and read a few books with a dictionary. I could probably be fluent in roughly 1-2 years of regular study.

[Anonymous No.9034613]

>>9034307
cuck chicano

[Anonymous No.9034626]

Spanish tends more to abstraction than English, since English is a verb-focused language and Spanish a sustantive-focused language. Therefore, English is more fitted to describe action concisely and Spanish is better for ideas.

[Anonymous No.9036014]

bump

[Anonymous No.9036235]

As a native Spanish speaker who's also fluent in English, I can say it depends on the tone of what you're reading. Poetry, for example, unless it's written with extreme skill, will always read better in English. More visceral sutuff, on the other hand, reads better in Spanish to me, because I read it in a more personal, intimate level. I read 1984 in Spanish and it made a far deeper impression than if I had read the original. Poe, on the other hand, is perfect in English even if I have to grab a dictionary to look up soke of the more archaic words.

[Anonymous No.9036246]

The quality of the translations is also very important. I remember seeing, like, 3 versions of 1984 with hilariously mistranslated words and sentences. Same goes for Nietzsche.

[Anonymous No.9036248]

I read this god-awful piece of shit in Spanish. One of my worst reading experiences.

[Anonymous No.9036267]

>>9036248
That's because you have horrible tastes http://www.indiana.edu/~madweb/s411/textstarea/canciondelpirata.html

[Anonymous No.9036286]

>>9034262
I have been wondering this, too. Spanish sounds sexy af.

[Anonymous No.9036323]

>>9036286
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGGOv3t3BMo

[Anonymous No.9036333]

>>9036323
muh dick

[Anonymous No.9036370]

>>9036323
it's Argentinian, though, not Spanish

[Anonymous No.9036398]

>>9036323
Spanish is a qt language, too bad it's literary legacy is shit and it's spoken mostly by mexicano subhumans, so there's no incentive to learn

[Anonymous No.9036401]

>>9036370
>american education

[Anonymous No.9036410]

>>9034444
>Spanish is way down the list, somewhere with irrelevant shit like italian or japanese
Borges, Bolano, Marquez, Naruda, Cervantes. Spanish language literature is fucking God tier.

[Anonymous No.9036428]

>>9036398
>too bad it's literary legacy is shit
Where the fuck are people getting this notion? Most of the modern additions to the Western canon have come from Latin America

[Anonymous No.9036442]

>>9036398
>american education

[Anonymous No.9036445]

>>9036428
>Western canon
>Latin America

[Anonymous No.9036453]

>>9036445
Is Latin America not part of the West? It's a New World territory conquered by Europeans, just like North America. It's also predominantly Christian.

[Anonymous No.9036479]

>>9036453
Western civilization isn't defined by geography. Third world shitholes do not get to be a part of it, sorry

[Anonymous No.9036494]

The best contemporary literature is in Spanish, so yeah
>>9036445
See Harold Bloom, frogshit

[Anonymous No.9036512]

>>9036479
I'm not the anon you're responding to, but didn't he just refer not only to Geography if at all? Why are you so closed-minded? Not all Latin American countries boil down to a Mexican tier.

[Anonymous No.9036520]

>>9036323
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gl1AvJuNMA

here you can hear him BTFO'ing Hesse

[Anonymous No.9036521]

>>9036479
It's about culture, language, and history, not geography.

[Anonymous No.9036523]

>>9036398
>English is a qt language, too bad it's literary legacy is shit and it's spoken mostly by texan subhumans, so there's no incentive to learn

[Anonymous No.9036528]

>>9036521
in that case USA shouldnt be part of western civilization either since they are as retarded and degenerate as spic countries

[Anonymous No.9036532]

>>9036528
Who isn't degenerate these days?

[Anonymous No.9036543]

>>9036532
According to /pol/, only Trump, Israel, and themselves.

[Anonymous No.9036567]

>>9034421
>Spanish vocabulary is absolutely tiny compared to English
Au contraire tho

[Anonymous No.9036602]

>>9036567
I think that's factually correct though. English has a larger vocab than Spanish

[Anonymous No.9036614]

>>9036602
What does having a larger vocab give you?

[Anonymous No.9036618]

>>9036602
It is not "absolutely tiny" in comparison, that's just idiotic.

[Anonymous No.9036624]

>>9036614
There's a good argument to be made that the numerous synonyms in English made it a particularly suitable language for poetry

[Anonymous No.9036669]

>>9036624
Not only has any language numerous synonyms, but also numerous suffixes that can change changing the connotation depending on your attitude towards a certain noun or adjective, and which English unfortunately lacks.

[Anonymous No.9036676]

>>9036669
by any language I meant only European ones

[Anonymous No.9036690]

>>9036676
>moving goalposts like a mong

[Anonymous No.9036707]

>>9036669
>and which English unfortunately lacks.

That is also a dumb thing to say. English also has suffixes and prefixes, like Spanish.

[Anonymous No.9036728]

>>9036401
>>9036442
I wonder which Mexican intellectual is behind these genius posts

[Anonymous No.9036754]

>>9036624
On the other hand, english lacks flexible word order and rhyming inflections found in fusional languages

[Anonymous No.9036755]

>>9036707
Name me a diminutive form of an adjective stupid then. You're clearly a fucking monoglot.

[Anonymous No.9036760]

>>9036755
>the adjective*
fixed

[Anonymous No.9036763]

>>9036755
dummy
bozo
dopey

[Anonymous No.9036767]

>>9036763
those words you listed have nothing in common with the word stupid

[Anonymous No.9036784]

>>9036755
Why are you so buttblasted?

English may not have diminutive form for adjectives, but it has other prefixes and suffixes (e.g. negatives)

Spanish is my mother tongue, pendejete, and I also speak Japanese and Ancient Greek. Don't just assume stuff because your understanding of one language is limited and prejudiced.

[Anonymous No.9036793]

>>9036784
Where did I say English is a bad language?

[Anonymous No.9036799]

>>9036793
Where did I say that you said that? :^)

[Anonymous No.9036803]

>>9034307
i hate my language a-am i cool now?

[Anonymous No.9036809]

>>9036799
So even though what I said about English not having diminutives for adjectives turned out to be true, I shouldn't assume what?

[Anonymous No.9036811]

>>9036803
Trump isn't going to grant him a greencard anyway.

[Anonymous No.9036817]

>>9036809
That it lacks suffixes and prefixes completely, or that others are monoglots for pointing out that. As if diminutives were the only kind of suffixes there are.

[Anonymous No.9036825]

>>9036817
I didn't say that English lacks suffixes and prefixes completely. It's just that in terms of suffixes that alter a connotation, but not general meaning, English is very poor.

[Anonymous No.9036831]

>>9036825
C'mon man, you clearly said "unfortunately lacks". I agree that in comparison to Spanish it is poorer, but that isn't what you said. Whatever, not that it matters.

[Anonymous No.9036836]

>>9036831
Which it certainly does. I wasn't talking about suffixes as such. Learn what the word connotation means before responding.

[Anonymous No.9036861]

>>9036836
>Not only has any language numerous synonyms, but also numerous suffixes that can change changing the connotation depending on your attitude towards a certain noun or adjective, and which English unfortunately lacks.

If you want to have the last word, that's fine by me, just be sure to learn how English actually works before responding.

[Anonymous No.9036879]

>>9034307
CHI

Knowing how to speak like a fucking vato does not qualify you to be a native speaker, carnal.

[Anonymous No.9036894]

>>9036861
Learn how your mom's overused anus works before saying anything ITT.

[Anonymous No.9036938]

>>9036894
>being this mad

[Anonymous No.9036971]

>>9034262
I'm Mexican, I read in both in English and Spanish. First of all I don't see a point comparing the two languages as "better or worse". Like every language both have an extensive tradition of literature and prose.

Now back in topic, Spanish prose tends to be really flowery (Specially prose and poetry from the golden century), if you really want to learn spanish to read books originally written on it I encourage it really much, i have compared some translations in english from lots of novels and shorts stories and its phonetic quality it's quite dispersed from the original language. This is not meant to say that english translations are of bad quality, most of Edith Grossman's translations respect the meaning of spanish but cannot reproduce exactly the play on words and prose technics that are peculiar to the spanish language. Think about reading Moby Dick in spanish for example, most of the puns and plays on ethimologies aren't reproducible to spanish aswell, english and spanish are quite different gramatically aswell.

[Anonymous No.9036986]

>>9034444
There's more relevant literature in Spanish tradition than the Japanese, specially for western literature. The Golden century was even influential to german romanticism.

[Anonymous No.9036999]

>>9034482
Portuguese is beautiful aswell, I'm a native Spanish speaker and I read with a grammatic and a dictionary at hand. Learning either language would open the doors to romantic tongues.

[Anonymous No.9037005]

>>9036248
Because she's a horrible entry level writter that became famous in a fluke.

[Anonymous No.9037009]

>>9034438
Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German,
and from there you can learn whatever you want

>>9034482
Japanese-Brasileiro here. Fuck flowery PT shit: lusophone intellectuals are stuck so many centuries behind it's ridiculous. I'll take Spanish literature anyday.
though I do agree that Portuguese is better to learn because I find that Portuguese speakers speak Spanish better than Spanish speakers speak Portuguese, plus I have more affectation for "people's dialects" in Portuguese, though that may be my own bias and they're almost never written in anyway

[Anonymous No.9037040]

>>9036999
Any romance language except Romanian will. I regularly read Italian with a dictionary in hand.

[Anonymous No.9037050]

>>9037040
You are right.

[Anonymous No.9037057]

>>9034262
Its worth it for garcia marquez alone. But anything that doesnt have spanish as its original tongue its a waste, english is an objectively superior experience.

[Anonymous No.9037102]

>>9037057
Have you ever read Don Quijote de la Mancha? Or even something more modern like Paradiso by Lezama Lima?

[Anonymous No.9037115]

>>9037057
translations are a waste. if you're used to the process, you can acquire reading proficiency in any reasonably familiar language in three months (this includes Russian)
though I would agree that translations into Spanish (and Portuguese for that matter) are usually terrible. the best translations are often into French.

[Anonymous No.9037162]

>>9037115
>translations are a waste
biased
>you can acquire reading proficiency in any reasonably familiar language in three months (this includes Russian)
No, you can't.

[Anonymous No.9037178]

>>9037162
not fluency, but enough for a foundation. it's okay to start reading at that point if you don't ever intend to speak (I don't ever understand to speak Russian)
also you'd be similarly biased if you had to deal with Portuguese-language translations

[Anonymous No.9037494]

Between Russian and Spanish which is better?

[Anonymous No.9037524]

>>9034444
>Spanish and Italian
>Irrelevant
Have fun never being able to enjoy two writers second to Shakespeare alone.

[Anonymous No.9037727]

>>9036479
None of America should be considered part of the so-called "Western civilization", then.

[Anonymous No.9037732]

>>9036755
brainlet

[Anonymous No.9037737]

>>9034421
This

Spanish literature is also shit, the only writer worth reading in Spanish is Cervantes

[Anonymous No.9037745]

>>9034438
French, German, Latin, Greek

Occitan is optional but there's no reason not to learn it if you're into poetry

Russian is a meme, they only have a few noteworthy poets and a couple of novelists and that's it. Unless you have a hard-on for Pushkin you should just read translations of Russian novels

[Anonymous No.9037751]

>>9034444
>the language Dante wrote in
>irrelevant
Italian is absolutely mandatory for literature.

[Anonymous No.9037813]

>>9037732
what is it?

[Anonymous No.9038675]

>>9034262
>>9037727
Thread full of assmad spics now

We need more cucked chicagos like >>9034307

[Anonymous No.9039236]

Its the second biggest language on earth so yes its overall worth it, its also easy mode if you already know English

[Anonymous No.9039237]

>>9034307
Its called self hate
I had that too for a few years when I was a very stupid young man

[Anonymous No.9039271]

>>9034262
Spanish poetry is phenomenal, especially stuff from South America. If you can piece your way through it, Don Quixote as it's meant to be read is one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever created. Beyond that, most of the great Spanish-speaking authors were also writing in English or have been translated into English, and the gap between the two for translation certainly isn't some insurmountable wall.

>>9036618
Spanish has anywhere from 180,000 to 300,000 recognized words, depending on whether your ask RAE and include all possible loan words and jargon.

English has anywhere from 280,000 to over one million. No other language on Earth even comes close. I wouldn't call it absolutely tiny in comparison, but smaller.

The suffixes in Spanish don't create anything special outside of humor. People need to stop pretending like the connotative difference between palabra and palabrota is intrinsically superior to "word" versus "bad words/cussword/curse".

[Anonymous No.9039532]

>>9037751
>the language guy from 13th century wrote in
Not really helping your point here, m8

[Anonymous No.9039550]

>>9039271
>most of the great Spanish-speaking authors were also writing in English
Mind to name some?

[Anonymous No.9039563]

>>9039271
>Spanish has anywhere from 180,000 to 300,000 recognized words
I somehow doubt that, unless you start counting conjugated cases and words that were used once by some monk 500 years ago in a letter and never again.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that english is estimated to have up to 150 000 unique morphemes, which is far more than any other modern language

[Anonymous No.9039700]

>>9034262
as a native italian speaker reading in spanish is extremely weird, a lot of spanish words sounds like funny caricatures of their italian counterparts to me. Ive always wondered how italian sounds like to spaniards.

[Anonymous No.9039978]

>>9039271
>English has anywhere from 280,000 to over one million
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language
Now, suck my dick.

[Anonymous No.9040102]

>>9039978
But that article pretty much affirms what he said except with a higher lowest number.

[Anonymous No.9040126]

>>9040102
Where does it affirm anything? All European languages are relatively equal in terms of vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.9040282]

Would greater vocabulary actually amount to better literature? My pocket latin dictionary has around ~22k entries, if anything, limited vocabulary gave the language incredibly complex implicative nature, where you know every word in a sentence and still not a clue of what they actually mean. I sometimes think the romans used the verb 'iactare' for fucking everything

[Anonymous No.9040317]

Spanish is wonderful. There are some pieces that simply cant be understood if not read in the original spanish language. A good example is Julio Cortazar's work. You lose a lot in translation, especially the richness of idioms. I highly recommend learning the language, the siglo de oro of Spain is one of the most rich and fufilling periods of literature, specifically the authors and artists of the Generación del 27.

[Anonymous No.9040526]

>>9039700
Same, basically.

[Anonymous No.9041312]

>>9039700
the same, like cartoon characters

[Anonymous No.9041351]

>>9036248
Isabel Allende is the Spanish language equivalent of JK Rowling anon

[Anonymous No.9041361]

>>9040282
This. Ambiguity is one of the more interesting aspects of literature for me