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german books for begineers
hi, i am a non gold member and am new to this site.i would be very thankful if somebody could suggest to me what to read in german literature.i have learnt the language but am not being able to practice it as i do not find anyone near me knowing the language.
also it would be nice to talk to someone who could help me with the language.i could help with english as i am very good at it
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Language pair: English; German
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barun m.
March 11, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lloyd Alexander, et al
Part II
I love Shakespeare a lot (My favorite play is Hamlet--it's very intense, but it has a lot of really dark humor in it), and really, just about everything I’ve seen on “Great books” lists have really great things to offer. Dwyn, have you ever seen Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics? It may seem a little dry when you start to read it, but I also think you would really enjoy it, because Aristotle’s values are a lot like your own in many ways. You might find it kind of affirming and rewarding reading. There is some controversy around what exactly it was. Nichomachus was Aristotle’s son, so some scholars think it was a legacy for Nichomachus. Others argue that Aristotle didn’t exactly write it, that his students put it together out of their lecture notes after Aristotle died. But anyway, it’s Aristotle’s view of how to live a successful, happy life. He’s got a lot of great ideas, too. You might enjoy it.
We’ve finished studying "Gawain and the Green Knight," in my class, which was a lot of fun. Next week, we’re starting on "Phantastes," by George MacDonald. He’s a very interesting character, a 19th century writer whose reputation was that he wasn’t the greatest writer, but was an outstanding myth writer. His famous short-story, “the Golden Key” is easy to find on-line with a search engine. His mythic insights were evidently so profound, that he inspired people like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, to whom he was a personal friend. In fact, after reading “Phantastes” the first time, I was able to see certain ways in which his ideas had appeared in various places in “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Fellowship of the Ring.” Great fun.
Talk to you soon!
Thanks for a great topic!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA.
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 26, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lloyd Alexander, et al
I love books too! I would be almost happy to spend the rest of my life curled up in a huge library, just reading everything I could get my hands on. I have bookshelves in every room in the house, and a huge collection of all kinds of books: Children’s books, school books, language books, books in various languages. Old books and new books, novels, and books of poetry and short stories, and spiritual philosophy.
I'm not sure I would call them a panacea, but there is definitely a good book for any possible occasion.
Of your favorites, I’m afraid I only know Lloyd Alexander. A friend of mine who I met when I was in high school recommended his Prydain books to me, and I enjoyed them thoroughly. At that time, I was reading a lot of Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony. I loved Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide” books, though he tended to lose his touch as the series went on. I ate up C.S. Lewis’s books, of course, and I enjoy Anne Rice a lot. She has an amazing insight into human nature, and uses her various unnatural creatures—the vampires, mummies, witches, ghosts, and so on, to magnify certain human traits, so as to kind of see them under a microscope. I think she’s brilliant. And she and I graduated from the same college!
I’m a big fan of a lot of Science Fiction (it has to be thoughtful and meaningful—not a “Starship Troopers” kind of story that’s just a big fight with a lot of bug-eyed monsters—Heinlein wrote so many wonderful novels. Why did they have to pick the very worst one to make a movie out of?).
(See next message)
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 26, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
It really is. Thought it's not so exotic, I think, as it may sound. You can get it pretty much in any bookstore. It's written in Middle English, but it's easy to get really good translations into the modern English. Marie Borroff's "new verse translation" is really popular, and really easy to read. Penguin Classics has a more academic version that comes with lots of commentary and background information that may be a lot of fun if you're a lit person like me, but a lot of overkill if you're just interested in a unique and exciting adventure story. I recommend either one highly.
Hmm. That's strange. They don't have Middle English down as a language available here. What do you think? Have we just found number 116?
Tell me something about the books you have enjoyed reading.
Mark
Sacramento, CA
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 20, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Re:You're welcome any time
As a graduate Lit major, I can probably recommend books to you from here to the moon and back again.
Maybe if you told me something about what you enjoy, we could narrow the field down a bit.
This semester I'm studying mostly Contemporary American Literature, so I've been reading Joseph Heller, Don Delillo, Saul Bellow and many others. Enjoying them all tremendously in many different ways.
My other class is one of the most exciting I've had. We started with Carl Jung and Joseph Campell, and now we're surveying a cross section of literature from Sir Gawain and the Green Night to Byatt's Possessions, which you may have heard they made a movie out of not too long ago.
One of my all-time favorites is The Little Prince, which I've read in English and in French.
Cheers!
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 18, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Re:French Literature!
BONJOUR fIONA,
je m'appelle Paul, je suis pére de famille,marié, 53 ans, et j'ai 5 enfants dont certains ont ton âge.
Je vais te proposer bientôt, si tu le souhaites,quelques livres qui pourront t'intéresser , notamment sur le terroir ( la campagne) du sud ouest ou du sud est de la France, plein d'humanité, simples dans le style.
Au revoir et à bientôt.
Paul
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Language pair: French; English
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Paul
February 16, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: February 16, 2005
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Re:Thank you!
Delighted I could help. Please let me know what you think of the book when you've read it. It could make some interesting discussion in the Books/Literature board.
Cheers,
Mark
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 15, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Re:Spanish Books Esperanza Renace
¡Hola Mathy!
No soy de esos países, pero tengo un libro que he leído que es bastante fácil leer, y fue escribido, si no en México, al menos por una Americana Mexicana escribiendo en español sobre la mudanza de su familia de México a California. "Esperanza Renace" por Pam Muñoz Ryan es una historia verdadera, sobre una joven de familia rica que les perdieron todo sus tierras y dinero en lucha de clases, y tuvieron que ir norte a California para trabajar con los campesinos.
Es muy interesante, y aprenderá mucho sobre la cultura Mexicano y de la cultura campesino de California. Lo gocé mucho.
El libro también se hace en inglés con el título, "Esperanza Rising," y me gusta eso, porque cuando estoy leyendo nuevas cosas en español, es muy ayudante poder revisar el inglés cuando tengo problemas con el español.
¡Ojala que este es algo ayudante!
Hi Mathy!
I’m not from any of those countries, but I have a book I read that was fairly easy reading, and was written—if not in Mexico, at least by a Mexican-American writing in Spanish about her family’s move from Mexico to California. Esperanza Renace by Pam Muñoz Ryan is a true story about a young woman from a wealthy family who loses all their lands and money in the class struggle in Mexico, and who has to travel north to California to join the migrant workers.
It’s very interesting, and you’ll learn a lot about Mexican culture and about the California campesino culture. I enjoyed it very much.
The book is also available in English under the title, Esperanza Rising, which I like because it is often helpful to me when I’m reading new texts in Spanish to be able to consult the English in order to see what I may be doing wrong in trying to translate the Spanish.
I hope you find this helpful!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
Miembro normal Hablando: inglés, español
Estudiando: español, portugués
Estudié: alemán, turco, chino mandarín
Jugué con: ruso, hebreo, latín, tagalog, francés, lenguaje por señas.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
Normal member
Speaking: English, Spanish
Studying: Spanish, Portuguese
Studied: German, Turkish, Mandarin Chinese
Played with: Russian, Hebrew, Latin, Tagalog, French, Sign langua
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 14, 2005
# Msgs: 6
Latest: February 26, 2005
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Re:¡Hola!
Hi Adam,
It sounds like you are on the right track. I've been studying Spanish actively for a couple of years now, and playing my movies on DVD in Spanish, both with and without the Spanish subtitles has been a big help.
With the books, I found it helpful to start easy by reading children's books: The Spanish Translation of Winnie-the-Pooh was a lot of fun, and it was very interesting to see how puns from the English were rendered in Spanish. A novel called Esperanza Renace, originally written in Spanish, was wonderful, too, for the enlightening picture of the lives of Mexican campesinos working in California.
I soon worked up to Spanish translations of the Harry Potter books, which, as Frauke Buero points out (message 43737, this bulletin board), are great fun in any language. From there I was into Laura Esquivel's Como Agua Para Chocolate, a very fine piece of literature; and soon I was reading Spanish translations of Shakespeare plays, and even La Poema del Cid, an epic poem written in the 13th century in Spain. I was amazed to discover that it was actually easier for me to pick up the Spanish of 800 years ago than it had been for me to pick up the renaissance English of Shakespeare's time.
Of course, all of this reading and watching DVD's in Spanish was very helpful for my developing fluency. But I also spend lots of time listening to the Spanish radio stations, I have several comic strips that I read in Spanish daily on the Internet, and I try very hard to speak Spanish with others whenever I get a chance. Speaking Spanish out loud feels like trying to write with my left hand--especially with native speakers: It's very uncomfortable. It makes my stomach knot up, and I feel miserably shy, which is a really weird feeling for a ham like me. But the only way to get over the feeling is to practice speaking until it goes away. And very slowly, it does.
Adam, I wish you and all of us who have the courage and the passion to do this very rewarding work all of the very best of joy and success!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
Speaking: English, Spanish
Studying: Spanish, Portuguese
Studied: German, Turkish, Mandarin Chinese
Played with: Russian, Hebrew, Latin, Tagalog, French, Sign language.
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 12, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Favourite English (Audio) Books
I've been listening to the auidio CD's of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. The reader is just a tad nerdy, but the stories are excellent!
I also read the Harry Potter books often, both in English and in Spanish. I haven't tried them in German yet.
Mark Springer
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Language pair: Spanish; German
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Mark S.
February 10, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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