Recommend me a second language to learn

[Mystes]

I guess it all depends on how much you want to learn Chinese...

It's not my priority. My priority is get into college.

[Doraneko]

Spend 30 minutes a day transcribing a decent Chinese novel (eg. any of the four classics). It won't affect your chances of getting into college and 30 min a day certainly isn't too much of a commitment. But your kanji writing will be much better.

Btw I am now going through "French for Reading". Better to have some idea of the language before deciding on whether I should commit myself to it. It is amazing that I can already roughly understand more than half of the stuff on the front page of the French Wikipedia.

Somehow British English in relation to French and German is kind of like Japanese in relation to American English and Chinese.

[Mystes]

In case you want to read some French classic novels, the Alexandre Dumas' works are great. Especially the count of Monte Cristo.

[Doraneko]

In case you want to read some French classic novels, the Alexandre Dumas' works are great. Especially the count of Monte Cristo.

Still need a bit of time before I can fully appreciate the classics. But thanks for your suggestion.

Btw too bad that there is no French works in the public libraries here (same for all other languages except the two official ones here) . Even in the university libraries there are only a few dry academic works scattered around different sections and take immense amount of time to locate. Maybe I have to join Alliance française just for gaining access to its tiny library room. :/

[ainsoph9]

In case you want to read some French classic novels, the Alexandre Dumas' works are great. Especially the count of Monte Cristo.

That will take him forever.

[Mystes]

Have you already read this in English?

[ainsoph9]

I have not, but I know someone who did, and I "watched" him read it. If I remember correctly, it was in the thousands of pages.

[Mystes]

yeah. Though it wasn't bad.

[ainsoph9]

That is what my friend said.

[Mystes]

However, no happy endings.

[ainsoph9]

That is literature for you. I have heard that some Spanish literature is worse, especially Latin American stuff.

[rpapo]

That is literature for you. I have heard that some Spanish literature is worse, especially Latin American stuff.

I've only really read two Latin-American authors: Ricardo Palma (from the mid 1800s) and Isabel Allende (current day). Both are interesting and reflect their respective cultures (Peru & Chile). In the case of Palma, I read it in the original Spanish. Allende's books are available in English. Though she is quite fluent in English (living in California), she does all her writing in Spanish and lets others translate it. Palma's books are in an antique style of Spanish, and I've never seen them in English.

If one is fluent in Spanish, though, one very entertaining read is "Don Quixote de la Mancha", especially if you have some familiarity with the kind of 1500s romance novels that it is trying to spoof. It is far better in the original Spanish than in the translation. I was caught by surprise, and found myself laughing hysterically.

[ainsoph9]

I have heard that Spanish literature is good, but some of it suffers from being overly fatalistic. For example:

Pedro was a nice little boy who obeyed his parents and was loved by the villagers as he always did things as he was told and was honest and a good worker. He and his family were poor, so he could not afford school, which left him always working out in the fields tending the cows in the pasture for his somewhat richer uncle. One day, he was out in the fields as usual, minding his own business and doing his job with great enthusiasm when he was suddenly gored by a bull and killed on the spot. No funeral was held for Pedro; his family and friends did not even mourn him. Life just simply went on as usual. The only "noticeable" change was that Pedro's uncle thought it "odd" that one of his bulls had suddenly gained another 20 kilograms or so.

[rpapo]

I have heard that Spanish literature is good, but some of it suffers from being overly fatalistic. For example:

Pedro was a nice little boy who obeyed his parents and was loved by the villagers as he always did things as he was told and was honest and a good worker. He and his family were poor, so he could not afford school, which left him always working out in the fields tending the cows in the pasture for his somewhat richer uncle. One day, he was out in the fields as usual, minding his own business and doing his job with great enthusiasm when he was suddenly gored by a bull and killed on the spot. No funeral was held for Pedro; his family and friends did not even mourn him. Life just simply went on as usual. The only "noticeable" change was that Pedro's uncle thought it "odd" that one of his bulls had suddenly gained another 20 kilograms or so.

The fatalism is part of the culture. Most people cannot change their lot in life, no matter how hard they try. The "system" is built to keep the poor poor, and the rich rich. That kind of environment encourages people to think they cannot change things, so why try?

[Doraneko]

During my high school years, one of the works of Isabel Allende was a required reading for the English class. The writing was fine. But I simply could not bring myself to finish the story precisely because of the overwhelming fatalistic aspect. I can't exactly describe why, but I found the story extremely tedious and tiring to read due to its "dryness" towards life. Of course being forced to read something I genuinely couldn't enjoy contributed only to further worsen my impression of it.

After I graduated I tried to donate the book to the local library. However the staff told me that they had already received too many donated copies of the same book (guess why ). So the book, which costed me almost USD20 (shipping inc.), ended up in a reclamation site. To-date I still hate myself for wasting $20 (two light novels...) on that book when I could have made a reservation in the local library.

I guess I need a certain degree of maturity to appreciate such kind of story, which embarrassingly even as of now I am lacking of. That is probably why I am still stuck at watching anime and reading light novels, where it isn't uncommon for ambitious kids to take over the world .

Alternatively, maybe real life here is fatalistic enough. So naturally it is more fun to read a fantasy as an escape, instead of wasting my precious leisure time to be repeatedly lectured on how feeble man is in front of fate. It probably isn't unlike how toilet comedy works with local politicians portrayed as retards outsold well-written tragedy works during the year when the economy here almost collapsed.