/lit/ - Literature

>>23090338
>German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian,
Perfectly doable.
>Russian, Greek (Modern and Koine), Latin,
Very time consuming.
>mharic, Arabic, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean,
Not interested.
>Vietnamese, and Indonesian
Who gives a shit.

>>23090338
Yeah but the good news is you’re fluent in the most useful language for literature and business. Also, you can still learn other languages to read, if not necessarily hold conversation, since the former is easier to do. Who would you speak to with fluent Latin anyways? Cum nemine plerumque, sed legere poteris.

>>23090459
>Cum

>>23090459
as is everyone else anon, while also being a native speaker in another language. Stop being barbarians and learn at least another language.

>>23090485
>as is everyone else anon

They’re not. Why does Karl Ove Knausgaard, who speaks English, always have his written work translated from Norwegian into English, even for articles primarily intended for US publications, such as his pieces for the New York Times Magazine? Why does Murakami, who’s translated English works into Japanese, also have his work (written in Japanese) translated into English by someone else? ESLs think they have impeccable English, but they don’t. Show me a person who migrated to an English speaking country, who started learning English at ages five or six, and I’ll show you someone who has an imperfect grasp on the language. There’s always a little something missing. Don’t flatter yourself.

>>23090338
YOU WON'T IF YOU DON'T PUT THE WORK IN YOU FUCKING FAGGOT AARGHHHHHHHHH

>>23090634
Translation is up to the author (if he’s alive). There are also authors who translate their own works to other languages but it’s uncommon because when it comes to translating literature one of the “rules” is that you must only translate things into your native language ( at least that’s an unwritten standard I’ve read).

>>23090634
Translation is up to the author (if he’s alive). There are also authors who translate their own works to other languages but it’s uncommon because when it comes to translating literature one of the “rules” is that you must only translate things into your native language ( at least that’s an unwritten standard I’ve heard). It’s a common superstition in the industry.

In any case, I’ve never seen an English speaker master another language the way some ESLs master English. What are the Conrads and the Nabokovs of other languages?

>>23090634
It also depends on the success of the author. Many academics who do not come from a major language are all writing in atrocious English.

>>23090703
Beckett

>>23090776
Beckett wrote the most basic French prose. That's why he opted for French in the first place

>>23090338
Just don't be monolingual, then.

I think it's worth it to learn at least one foreign language but the further I get with my French, the happier I am to read translations of other languages

>>23090703
Ionesco (Romanian who wrote in French)
Marcus Aurelius (Roman who wrote in Greek)
all of neo-Latin writers and philosophers

>>23090801
If his English texts are anything to go by, the basicness was extremely carefully pulled off and isn't merely a constraint caused by the foreign language. I'm ESL and can write (seemingly) more complex stuff than Beckett, whereas Beckett lived in France for years and must've mastered and "grown into" the language completely, much more than I can.

>>23090338
do you think multilinguals were born knowing more than one language, or what is happening here?

>>23090338
I enjoy it, I completely despise mind-colonized bilinguals. There is a reason bilingual and bisexual begin with the same two letters and it goes deeper than just meaning “two”

>>23090634
Joseph Conrad supposedly didn’t learn English until his 20’s

>>23091263
Many are

>>23092387
But the vast majority isn't.

>>23091257
He said English speakers.