Reading in English

Reading in English

Hello flowery readers!

today I'm going to talk about my experience with reading in English.

I mostly read in Italian and I also read in German, but I'm a slower reader in this language. I've started reading in English a few years ago, choosing it by myself; I simply wanted to start reading in this language as I was studying it and wanted to widen my vocabulary, but also because the translations always take so long, that I would have an advantage by reading them in their original language. 

However I was very doubtful about my level, I was frightened of not understanding anything or choosing a book that was too difficult for me. I then discovered that this was only due to my self-criticism, I'm very strict with myself and so I have a distorted perception of my abilities, but then, when i try and see the positive results, I end up thinking that I was so wrong. So, I finally decided to read something very easy, a contemporary by an author that was said to write in a very simple way, and by that I mean Rainbow Rowell with "Fangirl". In reality I wanted to start from "Eleanor and Park", but they didn't have it in the bookshop where I went, so i picked this one up instead.

I spent three days reading it and I was shocked by the fact that I was reading so fast and understanding most of the story. I had some problems with vocabulary, in particular for body parts, nevertheless I was able to follow the story.

I then took an involuntary break from reading in English, only because I didn't know how to continue and where to find books. But then my English teacher gave us two books to read during the summer and I was so happy. They were "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift and "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe. I liked the first one a lot, it wasn't particularly difficult to understand and the story was fascinating, I annotated it and took it with me everywhere for a month or so. However the second one was a struggle for me, I had tried to read it before in Italian, but I was so bored that I put it down, so having to read it in the original language wasn't very exciting for me. It was so difficult and so slow that I gave up after a few chapters. I felt guilty for doing it, but i was finding it so hard, that I couldn't do anything else. We then analyzed some passages in class and everything became more clear, but I'm not going to continue it, for now.

My reading journey continued thanks to a project created by my native-language lector, who asked us to choose a book to read all together during the school year. We decided fo r "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and it was a wonderful choice. Reading it was so calming, I don't know why, but i remember that it gave me a sort of relief from everything when I read the assigned chapters. I found the story captivating and the all setting of the story was so interesting. I really need to read the sequel. As for language it was a medium level, I'll say, because of the slang used. I started underlining the words I didn't understand and writing their definition on separate pieces of paper, divided by chapter, but then I got bored doing it, I didn't have the time nor the dedication.

I then had a chance to read more during my trip to Dublin with my classmates and my English teacher. There I discovered this wonderful book shop, called Eason, where I picked up "State of Sorrow" by Melinda Salisbury, an author whose works aren't available in Italy. I read it in two times, with a long pause in the middle, but I found it quite easy from a linguistic point of view. The story itself was okay, but I expected it to be better.

I then read 5 books during the summer of last year. Four of them were suggested by my English teacher and I liked them all and one I chose myself. The four recommended books were "1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, which I liked a lot, the first one more that the second one and they were easy to understand, then "The Picture of Dorin Gray" by Oscar Wilde, which is one of my favourite books, I already read it in Italian a few years ago and re-reading it in the original language was extraordinary, nothing difficult for the language and finally "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was the only one that i found difficult, there were so many terms that I didn't know and th style itself was so complicated, but I liked the story. The only book i got to choose was "The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway, I enjoyed the style, but I didn't get the story, i found it boring and didn't understand its meaning.

Then this year I read "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, in an edition that my father used during one of his courses in university. It was a challenging read, but I'm happy to have done it, because i enjoyed the story and I was able to follow it despite the difficult metaphors and vocabulary.

Finally I read "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells for a book project that I presented at my exams. It was a medium level, the language was very repetitive and this made it easier, but it was a little bit annoying and there were some technical terms, that I simply deduced the meaning of. The story itself was interesting and it gave me lots of things to reflect upon.

So, this is the end, for now. I like reading in English, I usually find it quite easy and reading something in its original language always adds something to the readeing experience. If I stopped under estimating my own abilities I could try more difficult works, but I think that little by little I'll be able to do it.

And you? Is English your mother language?

Do you read in other languages too?

How was your reading journey?