What level of fluency is required to read in other languages?

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Inkell
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Post by Inkell »

ShiNeko wrote: July 13th, 2022, 10:53 am
Oh, the third English one is already occupied but no can do if you're outside the US, I'm a generous one and just let you record it. :lol:
Oh right, well if it's already taken I guess it doesn't really matter, I just thought it would be interesting to compare and it's the only one for non-US people. Maybe some other week, I can still do the Spanish one
ShiNeko
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Post by ShiNeko »

Inkell wrote: July 13th, 2022, 11:04 am Oh right, well if it's already taken I guess it doesn't really matter, I just thought it would be interesting to compare and it's the only one for non-US people. Maybe some other week, I can still do the Spanish one
I am deeply emotionally attached to this poem, so I won't really mind if you record another English 3. That rule is mostly created so that other languages won't be flooded by English because there are much less volunteers here for them.
~Anastasiia
Multilingual Monthly Poem like Weekly Poetry but for all languages🗺
Сборник рассказов Л. Андреева
"Кобзар" Шевченко several short roles: "Гайдамаки", "Великий льох" 🎭
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

I minored in Spanish in university and was conversationally fluent in the late 1990s. In 2001 I lived for 3.5 months in Mexico and could converse with Mexicans. Around 2004-5 I didn't have any more Spanish exposure anymore.

When I started LV in 2008 (err, started recording in 2009), I attempted to record a short story in Spanish, and I gave it up. I found I had lost my fluency, and while I could pronounce the words, I couldn't understand what I was reading enough to give it any kind of expression. I was about as good at reading Spanish as old computerized voices. :roll:

My advice: if you cannot understand what you're reading enough to give it correct expression, don't record in that language.

(Somewhat irrelevant side note: in the late 1990s, while I was conversational in Spanish, I could NOT understand Puerto Rican Spanish while doing my student teaching. The accent! :shock: Fortunately, I was teaching in an English school, but when I was in the teachers' lounge, I couldn't understand the conversations going on around me. I went to a play on a field trip with the students; I didn't understand what was going on in the play. My student teaching experience is not a very pleasant memory.)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Inkell
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Joined: July 10th, 2022, 2:52 pm

Post by Inkell »

TriciaG wrote: July 13th, 2022, 5:58 pm I minored in Spanish in university and was conversationally fluent in the late 1990s. In 2001 I lived for 3.5 months in Mexico and could converse with Mexicans. Around 2004-5 I didn't have any more Spanish exposure anymore.

When I started LV in 2008 (err, started recording in 2009), I attempted to record a short story in Spanish, and I gave it up. I found I had lost my fluency, and while I could pronounce the words, I couldn't understand what I was reading enough to give it any kind of expression. I was about as good at reading Spanish as old computerized voices. :roll:

My advice: if you cannot understand what you're reading enough to give it correct expression, don't record in that language.

(Somewhat irrelevant side note: in the late 1990s, while I was conversational in Spanish, I could NOT understand Puerto Rican Spanish while doing my student teaching. The accent! :shock: Fortunately, I was teaching in an English school, but when I was in the teachers' lounge, I couldn't understand the conversations going on around me. I went to a play on a field trip with the students; I didn't understand what was going on in the play. My student teaching experience is not a very pleasant memory.)
Oh right, so you think I should give up? Because I also kind of already agreed to try ShiNeko's multilingual poem.

(Somewhat irrelevant side note: wow, I had no idea Puerto Rican Spanish accents were so strong! I've actually had kind of the opposite experience with a teacher, she was either Welsh or Scottish and her accent was so strong that most of the class couldn't understand what she was saying and it was frustrating for her too because she thought we were ignoring her when we just didn't understand. Also if it makes you feel any better about not understanding the play, in high school I was in a Shakespeare play and we went to a showcase of two other schools doing Shakespeare plays, I only understood the ending of Romeo and Juliet because it's so famous, didn't understand what was going on in Macbeth at all and didn't even understand what was going on in my own play despite going to every single rehearsal, I didn't even understand my own lines and when I had tried asking the teacher just told me it was obvious so wouldn't explain so... um yeah, I can definitely relate to you there).
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Well, the multilingual poetry is a bit different, since multiple people do it. :)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
ShiNeko
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Joined: June 5th, 2013, 9:35 am
Location: Pearl near the Sea

Post by ShiNeko »

TriciaG wrote: July 14th, 2022, 5:35 am Well, the multilingual poetry is a bit different, since multiple people do it. :)
I agree. While recording in German, I feel at ease because someone already recorded the poem. :lol: And my German seems the same as Spanish for you because I fail to understand the poem without analyzing and translating some words in it. But it seems I have such problem with poems especially, because I still can understand people's conversations even if not fully. :hmm:
~Anastasiia
Multilingual Monthly Poem like Weekly Poetry but for all languages🗺
Сборник рассказов Л. Андреева
"Кобзар" Шевченко several short roles: "Гайдамаки", "Великий льох" 🎭
Inkell
Posts: 1178
Joined: July 10th, 2022, 2:52 pm

Post by Inkell »

Okay, I guess I'll finish my commitments and be done with it
pablo34r
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Joined: February 15th, 2022, 6:25 am

Post by pablo34r »

Hi, I think that it depends on the difficulty of the phrases that uses author. Sometimes you can understand well everything when reading books, even if your level is B2.
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