Tremond Snow Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Hello everyone, I want to read the books, but in moment I don't have the access to read in my native language. What do you think? Which level of English is required? I'm wondering whether I can understand the books or not. I'm especially asking to those who speak English as second language. Thanks in advance. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Game Of Thrones Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Not very high like Dickens or something. Once you understand the faux-medieval words you'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evermind Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I'm not a native speaker, and my English skills aren't that high, but I'm able to read ASOIAF just alright. Of course I use dictionary, because you'll stumble upon new words in every chapter here and there, but it doesn't really distract me from reading, and this way I'm able to learn new words, so it's all for the best. I'd say go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Lucious Left-Foot Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Not very high like Dickens or something. Once you understand the faux-medieval words you'll be fine. Yup, what that guy said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Equilibrium Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I think you need to be pretty advanced to get to the nuances of the story, to comprehend all expressions and to get most of Martin's somewhat deliberately archaic style. I enjoyed it immensely, it was so much better experience then reading the translated version. I you are confident in your knowledge I implore you to give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkel Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Please do give it a try in English. I don't know what your native language is, so of course I don't know the quality of the translation, but generally, translations are - by their nature - going to be pale imitations, it can't really be helped. Judging from your post, I'd say you'll do fine, and many of the nuances and hints that you may miss as a non-native reader are probably lost in translation anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Selig Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I'd say it's pretty average for a fiction book, nothing too hard, in fact it's a really quick read for the most part. There are some "ancient" words and expressions thrown in here and there, but few and far between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Game Of Thrones Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 How do you translate something like"Fuck you, dwarf.""That's Shae's job."Into a language like Japanese or Arabic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowCat Rivers Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Surprisingly easy. Very smooth syntax with short sentences for the most part. Vocabulary is mainly a problem only in descriptions, but with a dictionary you'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ygrain Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 If you're advanced enough to come to these forums, you'll manage the book just fine. Worst-case scenario, you miss some nuances of food description :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nastydream Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Hello everyone, I want to read the books, but in moment I don't have the access to read in my native language. What do you think? Which level of English is required? I'm wondering whether I can understand the books or not. I'm especially asking to those who speak English as second language. Thanks in advance. :) Nah I'm greek and it was fine.And i'm not that good in english either.So you'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiasyd Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I recommend the effort. If you're able to read it in digital format - Kindle app for instance, you can easily get the dictionary definition or wikipedia link just by tapping the word. Give it a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookiesbane Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 If you can read and comprehend the fan theories on this site you can read and comprehend everything written in the English language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferocious Veldt Roarer Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Hello everyone, I want to read the books, but in moment I don't have the access to read in my native language. What do you think? Which level of English is required? I'm wondering whether I can understand the books or not. I'm especially asking to those who speak English as second language. Thanks in advance. :) Have you read other novels in English yet? If so, you should be fine, the language of ASOIAF isn't particularly challenging. If AGOT is going to be your first book, on the other hand... well, we shall see. Can't make any credible predictions. I was going to suggest going to George's page and trying a sample chapter, but if you haven't read the series yet, and those are from Book 6, it would be a terrible spoiler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Reaver Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I would very much advise you to read it in english. I am a non-native english speaker as well, and I have some friends who read the translated books. Frankly, even though it's fairly good, it still misses quite a few points, and the names are....not so good. So I agree with everyone else who have said to try and read it in english. Personally, I would prefer to read any literary work in it's original language, but that gets kinda tricky. I tried reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in german once....ouch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikkel Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I would very much advise you to read it in english. I am a non-native english speaker as well, and I have some friends who read the translated books. Frankly, even though it's fairly good, it still misses quite a few points, and the names are....not so good. So I agree with everyone else who have said to try and read it in english. Personally, I would prefer to read any literary work in it's original language, but that gets kinda tricky. I tried reading Also Sprach Zarathustra in german once....ouch. I agree, I know a number of languages (with varying levels of proficiency), but English is the only (non-native) one I'm fluent enough in to read actual books. But whenever possible, I try to get the original language version of books. Thankfully, that's almost always the case, as literature in my native language is rarely good, and foreign literature is almost always written in English, or if not it's the very first translation. The only exception is Scandinavian literature (such as it is), which I will often prefer in my native Danish because its closeness to the author's language and culture often makes for a better translation. From what I've read on this board from people who read ASOIAF in other languages, the English version is much preferable, more precise (naturally) and with fewer toe-curlingly bad name-translations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baela of Pentos Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 How do you translate something like"Fuck you, dwarf.""That's Shae's job."Into a language like Japanese or Arabic?I think most languages would have the equivalent of "fuck", "bastard" and similar profanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Reaver Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 I think most languages would have the equivalent of "fuck", "bastard" and similar profanity. Not neccessarily. In Northern Europe, for instance, curses are less sexual in nature, and more about profanity. So the equivalent expression to "fuck" in my native tongue isn't the word directly translated, but rather "faen", which means literally "the devil". Thus, the example given above would be very, very strange indeed, unless the translator either changed the words to represent the meaning, or changed the meaning to fit the words. I imagine there are similar differences in many languages, and sadly, translators aren't always aware of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingelheim Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Not neccessarily. In Northern Europe, for instance, curses are less sexual in nature, and more about profanity. So the equivalent expression to "fuck" in my native tongue isn't the word directly translated, but rather "faen", which means literally "the devil". I imagine there are similar differences in many languages, and sadly, translators aren't always aware of them. In Spanish you can't translate "fuck" literally as a curse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Reaver Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 In Spanish you can't translate "fuck" literally as a curse. Yep, that's pretty much what I meant. If you just translated it literally, it would look very odd indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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