8 replies to this topic

[Lyeder]

I am a very new member to the forum, but I think I am not the only one who is not a native speaker of English and would be interested in the origin and the languages of other non-native spaekers.

So, I am in fact Swiss, German origin, living in a French speaking part of the world. I also read LOTR, the Tuesday Next series and various other books in English, but I have very little occassion to speak.

What are your languages and origins (and how do you get along with reading in English - not only this series, but in general?)

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Well I'm not who you're looking for, as I'm an American with English as mother tongue (obwohl ich Deutsch kann (not the way you speak it in Switzerland though)), but welcome to the boards. It's a very diverse group, with people from all over Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia/New Zealand. I don't personally know of any boarders from Africa but I'm sure we have some.  

(null)

[Seli]

I am from the Netherlands, speak and read Dutch and English with enough proficiency to enjoy reading in either language. My German isn't good enough for that and my French near absent.

But there are plenty of people from all around, with the normal internet biases of course.

[Baitac]

Hi! I was born in Puerto Rico, U.S.A. I learned Spanish, then English, then French. I minored in French Language and Literature in College, but I'm down to conversational French now, sadly. I am totally bilingual with Spanish and English, though. I read the series in English, and I have issues with the way they have been translated into the Spanish language, vis a vis the proper names of locations and characters. Welcome to the forum!

[Queen of Spades]

I'm French, and generally read in english because I love the language and it fits fantasy so well (and fantasy is basically all I read).

As for ASOIAF, I began to read it in French (because my boyfriend had bought the books) but was so reppelled by the translation   I quickly bought the original version.

I also used to be quite fluent in German but that was some years ago, and I guess I couldn't read in German anymore...

[Kynokephalos]

German here. Been reading English novels since the age of fifteen and at least some knowledge of the language seems to have rubbed off. I quite like English, it is somewhat more compact and charming than my native German. And emotional statements seem less corny.

[Errant Bard]

Another French here, there are quite a few of us around, I'm always surprised by it. 80% of the SFF I read is in English, no problem with it. Speaking is another matter. It all comes down to practice. There was a thread about that not too long ago, and it appeared a lot of us learned the same way: not school, but videogames (a good part being MMORPG.) Funny thing is that now, when I start devising an argumentation in my head, my brain switches to English (only, without actual correct sounds)

Anyway, what the null badger said, it probably would be faster to count the countries from which there are no boarders posting. sub-sahara Africa seems somewhat absent, but for the rest of the world I think it holds.

[DirePenguin]

I'm from Thailand. Been reading English novels since grade 7 or so. Had to use dictionary for almost every words back at that time. Been reading a lot of Tom Clancy's. And all time favorite was Marley & Me. Nowadays I'm able to read through most modern books just fine with occasional words I need to look up. Some more classic literature are still too hard for me. Lord of the Rings and Mythology for example.

[Stone Crow]

I live in Republic of Moldova, russian origin. I have two mother languages which are russian and romanian, however, beside this I study english and german. I like reading all the books in their original language so that's why I chose to read ASOIAF in english but after reading all five books, I realized that I feel more comfortable reading in english so I switched to reading british/american literature such as Fight Club, Ender's Game, The Hunger Games, David Copperfield etc.