Berengaria’s Comments (group member since Nov 11, 2021)

Berengaria’s comments from the Language Learners and Polyglots group.

Just finished my 1st Italian challenge book: La falsa pista by Henning Mankell. Yay!

It's one of those Wallander ones. "Sidetracked" in English. "Villospår" in the original. I didn't like it very much which will probs anger Wallander fans.

Since it was almost 500 pages, I'm not sure if I could count it as 2 books. If I don't make it through the final Italian challenge novel, I think I will count it as two books. Took me more than a month to get through at any rate!

Iamthesword wrote: "I just realized that I marked two books as 6/11 (and changed it). So this is already 9/11: Édouard Louis - Histoire de la violence.."

You were further along than you knew. 9/11...only 2 more to go! 👏

Paul wrote: "I've been doing so much reading and I've been so busy that I'm STILL not quite finished SHORT STORIES IN SPANISH (it won't be too much longer though!). BUT, I've written my review in Spanish and po..."

We've missed you, Paul! Glad to see you're still around with the Challenge. 😉

Anna wrote: "So, while the challenge isn't going great for me, I actually finished my first french book this year and wanted to share this achievement! :) maybe others will follow?"

YAY! You got to one and that's fantastic. 👏👏👏 It's all about the time spent with the language. :-)

*Tau* wrote: "Don't know if it'll be possible to add following book to the Goodreads database, as I don't find any ISBN number: https://www.kobo.com/za/en/ebook/bitt...

But I read it and really enj..."

That's really cool! Congratulations. 👏 I'm glad to hear that a good understanding of Dutch transfers over to Afrikaans once you've got the differences down. Gives me hope that I'll be able to put Afrikaans in my language bag later on without much problem!

*Tau* wrote: "'Reading around the world' really changes my reading behaviour and expands my knowledge enormously."

Cool! I had to look up Bajan as I'd never heard of that dialect before. Great that you were able to find something written in it!

I've tried to have a Dutch - Afrikaans written exchange with a South African, and it didn't work so well.

It's like Yiddish, I suspect. If you know good German, you can understand about 60% of "pure" Yiddish with no problems. That's enough to get the general idea, but the details are lost because those are generally in Russian or Hebrew.

With Afrikaans, I'd guess the same. I could be mistaken but that's what it looked like when we tried those exchanges.

I'll put you down for Spanish and Afrikaans.

What is the book from Costa Rica?

Peter wrote: "Today I finished Wybór nowel (Selected short stories) by Bolesław Prus and Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney and wrote reviews for both of them. This is my second..."

Excellent, Peter! Well done! 👏

I saw your review for Wybor nowel and liked the part where you said that Polish school children who had to analyse the stories had it hard, whereas you as an adult could just enjoy them.

I had a Polish friend who complained bitterly about the literature she had to read in school. Turned her off of reading for a number of years and still she won't touch certain genres.

From her description, the reading selections do sound awful. Or, at least, not meant for youngsters.

elias wrote: "Berengaria wrote: "elias wrote: "I actually had to Google it as I wasn't sure what the Lättläst series was and as it turns out I've only read one! For the most part I'm just brute forcing my way an..."

I'd be interested in that, but perhaps later in the year? Swedish is deffo on my challenge for next year and I might start on that once I finish up this year's challenge. Probs around November.

How is Greta coming?

Just finished the Icelandic mystery Les fantômes de Reykjavik in French. It's a pretty good mystery if you like Scandi Noir or just Icelandic stuff in general. Dark and delving into the historic underbelly of Iceland, and quite well done. 2nd in the series.

AND that's also my French challenge of 4 novels complete! Woo hoo!

Now it's just 1 in Dutch and 2 in Italian left to go on my year goal.

I've decided to start Hennig Mankell's "La falsa pista" (Villospår) in Italian next/soon. It's fairly long, but from just giving it a glance, it doesn't seem as if it will be toooooo challenging.

elias wrote: "I actually had to Google it as I wasn't sure what the Lättläst series was and as it turns out I've only read one! For the most part I'm just brute forcing my way any book that looks interesting, is..."

Cool! Gets around having to make do with what bookdealers in one's country have on offer in Swedish, which normally is not a lot and lätläst. Are the loans from Malmö free and how do you get a library card there? I don't see any pricing.

If anybody else is interested, the link is: https://malmo.elib.se

elias wrote: "Hej allihopa! My name is Elias and I'm cartwheeling in super late. It's so cool to meet others who are doing the same thing as I am - there's a certain scarcity of language nerds in my life so it's..."

Hej Elias och välkommen!

There is one other in our group on your level in Swedish: Sportyrod.

I bet you are just ploughing through the Lätläst books, aren't you? That's great! The Greta book sounds really sweet. Jag läser också svenska men inte i år. Kanske näste år.

I'll put you on our roster. Just hop in from time to time and let us know how you're coming along. Some people are already finished with their challenges and others only stop by every so often. It's best if you set it so you are notified when someone posts on this thread so you can join in conversations.

Iamthesword wrote: "I did a lot of rearrangement of my list of French books to read due to what I took with me to France and what I acquired here (I'm here for a month for work)
So, 6/11: Amélie Nothomb - Cosméthique ..."

Rearranging is always allowed! You've probably found some good stuff in France you'll be wanting to add.

I've seen Folio, but they seem to mostly publish highbrow stuff which doesn't interest me too much. I'm one who goes right for the Krimi rack. That's more Points, Pocket and J'ai lu, I think?

elias wrote: "Another late arrival here, if that's ok!"

Hi Elias! Sure, just hop over onto the chat thread and let us know what you'd like to do for reading goal.

Lea wrote: "I just read my first one of the challenge. I'm home sick with covid right now "

Sorry to hear you're sick. Get well soon!

Jane wrote: "I've just finished A present-day German time travels to the Germania of Emperor Domitian's time."

Congratulations! This is your...2nd or 3rd novel in German this year?

*Tau* wrote: "Actually, this is an ongoing challenge that I set myself 😉"

Glad to hear it! Me too, actually. I started this group because I'd been doing a similar challenge just for me. It'd been so helpful, so I thought it might be nice to have an interactive group and encourage others to spend more time with their languages.

I already read novels in German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish and Italian, besides my native English. I'm working on adding Icelandic and Welsh, but am not good enough in those yet for anything other than easy readers.

(And trying to find easy readers or any basic reading material in Icelandic is harder than learning the language, I'm convinced!)

With the exception of German, I'm entirely self-taught. No classes or anything.

My personal life goal is to be able to read books in 10 languages and be a lay expert in the Germanic language family. The only real one I'll have left after I get Icelandic is Afrikaans. That's why I'm strengthening my Dutch now. Getting ready for the Big Boer Challenge! 😅

Cool that you were able to get 6 years of Latin! I had 1 year in school (all they offered) and taught myself up to A2 with the fantastic Cambridge Latin Course for self-learners.

You're absolutely right, having a good Latin vocab helps not only with the Romance langs, but also with academic English. Can't tell you how many more obscure English words I understand now that I have decent Italian/beginner Latin!

Sportyrod wrote: "I haven't finished my language goal yet"

I thought you'd read a "Flirting in Bahasa Indonesian" for that goal around March, if memory serves? I remember teasing you about it. 😁

If I understand correctly, you've found a short stories for learners book in BI?

Peter wrote: "By finishing Intermediate Italian Short Stories: 10 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Italian & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way!" I ticked off my second foreign language (after Po..."

Yay! Congratulations, Peter! 👏 2nd goal language down!

That collection looks quite good. It's always such a problem to find interesting stories on one's level, isn't it? Glad you found some. I've noted it down to rec to others if they ask for something in Italian.

*Tau* wrote: "Hello everyone!"

Hoi Tau! Wat leuk dat je bij ons bent gekomen. 👋

I've put you and your challenge on our list of participants.

We have several native German speakers here, and I'm a fluent (if not native) speaker of German. So if you have any questions, or there is a phrase you can't find a translation for, don't hesitate to post your question here.

Unfortunately, no one else here has Portuguese as a challenge or native language. 🙁

I know Gut gegen Nordwind, although I haven't read it. It was a fairly popular title when it was first published.

A number of the participants here are already finished with their challenges (like Sportyrod), but don't let that stop you from stopping by and letting us know how you're getting on!

Peter wrote: "By finishing "10 Captivating Stories to learn Italian" (Intermediate Level) I ticked off my second foreign language. Still books in French, Dutch, English and Russian on the goal list."

Peter, you've posted to the wrong thread. :-) This is just the announcement one, not the chat thread. If you post this message to the chat, everybody else will be able to see it.