Thursday, May 24, 2007

Booking Through Thursday - Parlez Vous




I've never done a Booking Through Thursday, but I was blog hopping today and thought, "I DO have a book related blog!! Why haven't I done this before?" So I thought I would join in!!




Booking Through Thursday
Here’s an idea from Julie:
I had an idea for a BTT question when I was taking a peek at one of my bookcases yesterday and spotted my old copy of the Aeneid in Latin sitting there. Maybe this question has already been done—but if not… Do you have any foreign language books and if so can you (still) read them?


Actually, I took 4 years of French and I can still READ a lot of it. (Speaking or understanding someone talking VERY fast......well that's another thing altogether!) I don't have any of my School French books left, but I have 3 of my Grandmother's Poetry books in French, as well as a copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. I haven't picked them up in a very long time and I'm rather rusty, but I think I'd do OK!!




7 comments:

Ana S. said...

Good question. Actually, a great deal of my books are in English, which is a foreign language for me. Other than that, no.

I took Latin in college, but it was only an introductory course, not enough to read a book. And I took French and German in highschool, but I also never became fluent enough to read books in those languages.

I do wish I could read book in more languages, though. I really, really dislike translations - I feel like they create a veil between me and the author's actual words. So what I do when I can't read the original is try to read a translation in a language that is as close to it as possible - Portuguese for books originally written in Spanish, French or Italian, English for German or Scandinavian books.

Anonymous said...

You're doing better than me. Welcome to BTT!

Literary Feline said...

I'm glad you decided to participate, Stephanie! I envy you still being able to read and understand a foreign language. I maybe can pick up a rudimentary amount of Spanish, but that's about it.

Scribbit said...

Yes, I was just over at Chris' BOok a Rama and she had the same question, I have all my old French lit novels and could probably still get through but just barely.

kookie said...

My younger son, Logan, has been taking French since junior high and he read 'The Little Prince' in French.

I grew up in a family of Spanish speakers (older family members mostly) and I took Spanish in high school and STILL I can only read grade school text. Hopeless.

Chris said...

Welcome to BTT! 'Bout time.

Kat said...

Well, English is technically a foreign language for my countrymen, but as we're pretty much saturated with TV shows, books and other media, I don't think it counts. Hehe. I've got some Japanese comics, a few French & Spanish books at home, and although I've studied all three languages, I probably won't be able to get past the basic greetings. :)

Welcome to BTT! Enjoy!