Reading novels.

tianfeng
July 27, 2007, 11:47 AM posted in General Discussion
Is anyone here to the point where they can actually sit down and enjoy reading a real  Chinese book? More than news papers that are written for information or children's books with simple stories but a book that you can actually appreciate the writing style.  I am still at the point where it seems like so much work and confusion to sift through a book. I read 鲁迅‘s 呐喊 but the right had English and the left had Chinese.  I couldn't have done it with out the English.   I read at about 1 page every 15 minutes and it really tires me out.  Speaking and listening are so much easier.  I have been this way for a while and I really wish i could get past it. I know there is so much great chinese literature out there to read and I really want to enjoy it. 
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rich
July 27, 2007, 07:02 PM

I read the Bible in Chinese, usually without an English translation, and I feel the Chinese brings so much more meaning, both to the stories and to what the words like grace, mercy, etc. for self-application mean, as they tend to lose their meaning in English these days. So that is somewhat fluid for me, but probably more only because I know and understand the Bible and context in English already. I'm currently trying to read a book that the "Curse of the Golden Flower" movie (with Gōnglì) was a take off from, actually a story in the early 1900's in the town of Tianjin I've lived in for four years, which is probably why I took interest in it. It is called 雷雨léiyǔ Thunderstorm. But children books were probably which helped me the most in being able to just sit and read, not focusing so much on each character but just grab the context. I have read a children's version of Alice in Wonderland in Chinese, and that was great... and even reading the English version is hard to understand/imagine! -Rich

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dima
July 29, 2007, 02:45 AM

Any suggestions on where (online) to get (simpler) Chinese books to try reading them?

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rich
July 27, 2007, 09:05 PM

When talking about books, "takes place in the city of..." just doesn't have a story feeling to it. Okay, you're right.... CITY OF TIANJIN. Actually, my dad likes to tell people I just live in a suburb of Beijing, Beijing having 20 mil, Tianjin just 10 mil... just a suburb. :P

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maxiewawa
July 28, 2007, 12:27 AM

I'd like to bring the conversation down a little by telling everyone my reading habits. I just finished Deception Point by Dan Brown, I'm reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban right now. I agree with Tianfeng; if I wouldn't read it in English, I won't read it in Chinese. I don't know much classical English literature good, why me read Chinese?

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man2toe
July 28, 2007, 02:12 AM

Hi TianFeng, I admire your accomplishments,aspirations and goals, as I do your's Rich. Keep up the good work guys! On the thread topic. The first full book that I was able to enjoy reading in Chinese was, The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. The sentence structures seemed much more like English, making it rather easier than tackling the newspaper. I found that having read the English version also enhances the understanding of contexts, and helps in the anticipation of up coming vocabulary. (knowing how to say something in Chinese, but not really totally familiar with the characters, but knowing what the concept should be, knowing how to say it, therefore helping with the flow of reading.) As maxiewawa points out, reading books that where translated from English seems to be where I am at. Not the ideal place I want to be, but...........

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henning
July 28, 2007, 06:45 AM

I try to read novels in Chinese, but while my progress scale in in English is "pages" it is "paragraphs" in Chinese. Add on: I still only read Chinese novels if I get them electronically, to effienciently use online dictionaries (at least 2 times a sentence - on average).

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tianfeng
July 27, 2007, 08:45 PM

I have started my copy of 水浒传 like 5 times and I can never get past the first 10 pages. I feel like I spend more time in the dictionary than I do in the book. As for the bible, I don't read it in English so I don't see my picking up a Chinese copy any time soon but that was neat that you were able to do that. Can you really classify Tianjin as a town?? hehe. I live in a "city" of 60, 0000 here in Canada. I think that have that on one block in Shanghai.

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trevelyan
July 28, 2007, 01:37 PM

I really like 三毛 (the Taiwanese writer, not cartoon character). Her essays are funny and enjoyable.

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barto
July 28, 2007, 02:06 PM

I've read a bunch of 鲁迅's short stories, 张爱玲's 倾城之恋,张小娴的爱上了你,猫空爱情故事,原本的孙子兵法,余华的活着,余华的兄弟,吻所有女孩,暗恋百合香,孔子的论语,红高粱,妻妾成群, and a lot of short stories and some other novels I can't think of at the moment. I started studying Mandarin about 18 months ago. So, with a little work I think it's totally possible to read fiction in Mandarin without looking at the dictionary so often very quickly. For me personally, the process of learning to read fluently had 2 essential parts: 1) spending 3-4 months grinding through my first 2 books with a dictionary. At the end, my recognition vocabulary had increased 20 fold and I could get through most texts. It's a matter of sticking with it. 2) They won't tell you this, but most authors worth reading in Chinese (even modern ones) use a good deal of 文言文 style grammar, sentence patterns, references, and vocabulary. After I took a linguistic class dealing with classical Chinese grammar for a year (Using Michael Fuller's excellent textbook. I really recommend it; he's a professor here at UCI and he's really quite knowledgeable.) I felt as if my eyes had been opened for the first time as exactly what was going on in Mandarin grammar. It's really quite a kick, being able to understand cheng yu the first time you see them....because they're basically just little classical Chinese sentences most of the time. Anyway, that's my take on it. With a little hard work, anyone can read Chinese in a year.

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tianfeng
July 28, 2007, 02:20 PM

Barto thanks a lot. I ordered that that book by Michael Fuller moments after reading your post. It seems to be exactly what I am looking for.

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TaiPan
July 29, 2007, 01:59 AM

Bazza, I think both of those books would be a lot better if I only understood every other word. TaiPan

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bazza
July 28, 2007, 07:57 AM

I have the bible (which I wouldn't read in English but it somehow cooler in Chinese) and the Da Vinci Code but they're both too difficult for me at the moment.