Reading ASOIAF in English(for non-native speakers)

[WilliamWesterosiWallace]

I'm no native speaker either, and my recomendation to you is: If you can watch the main series without subtitles, you can read the books. The medieval words might take you to google once in a while, but otherwise it's fine.

[Good Guy Garlan]

Go for it. There's nothing particularly difficult about the prose or style in asoiaf.

I've never read the series in Spanish, despite it being my native language, but that's just because I mistrust translations on a general basis (which is ironic because I'm a translator myself, but c'est la vie)

[Ingelheim]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w43__wzPItg

Colombianas have the best accent, I have to admit.

Wow. That's beautiful.

The accents too :cool4:

[Esa1996]

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. :)

Your writing is decent and reading is by far easier than writing so you should be fine. For me (I've been speaking English somewhat fluently since I was 4) there are words that I have never heard and words that I can't remember the meaning for ("Dais" being a prime example. I was already on my first re-read before I bothered to check out what it means :D ), but I have no problems whatsoever in understanding the books. Martin isn't addicted to using insanely complex words and sentence structures, so his text is fairly easy to understand.

[klemenko]

I fully agree with what was said before. Don't bother with translations; the original will always be better and the language of Martin isn't particularily challenging.

I'm not a native speaker either.

[King Tyrion I]

I fully agree with what was said before. Don't bother with translations; the original will always be better and the language of Martin isn't particularily challenging.

I'm not a native speaker either.

Welcome to the boards! :cheers:

[Hodor's Dragon]

Really, I think that the biggest problem will be how long it will take, assuming you will have to employ your dictionary fairly frequently. What you should bear in mind, I think, is that about 5,000 pages have already been written. If you're willing to commit to 5,000 pages of dictionary-assisted reading, have at it. As others have said, this ain't no Finnegan's Wake, i.e., it's not particularly difficult, language-wise.

[Moondancer]

OP,

Go for it! While the extent of one's vocabulary is important, it's the intuitive aspect of the reading experience that matters - in order to get a feel of a scene, metatextual atmosphere or an idiom - in that sense, one would have to be advanced second language reader (note that advanced speaker doesn't have to equate to advanced reader).

Don't be annoyed by the need to look up the words/phrases, native speaker or not, we've all been there, that's how you learn the language.

cervantes mother tongue has the richest pool for bad lenguage :)

I see you Spanish and raise you Serbocroatian. On both sweary and medieval grounds. :D

[Moondancer]

Really, I think that the biggest problem will be how long it will take, assuming you will have to employ your dictionary fairly frequently. What you should bear in mind, I think, is that about 5,000 pages have already been written. If you're willing to commit to 5,000 pages of dictionary-assisted reading, have at it. As others have said, this ain't no Finnegan's Wake , i.e., it's not particularly difficult, language-wise.

I think it's Finnegans Wake. ;)

[LordManderlyAsDragonRider]

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.

Yay! Another Danish person in here:-) Skulle have gættet det fra dit navn!