Hey Veeky Forums, I have a language related question. How long would it realistically take an individual to be able to read a book in a foreign year? As in, how long it takes to acquire the necessary skills to be able to read smoothly in a different language.
I've been studying French for about a semester. However, I did not try that hard, usually just taking the classes and not studying at home, so I didn't really learn a lot from that. However, for the past week, I've been devoting 2 hours per day to practicing grammar, solving exercises and whatnot with a grammar book I've bought long ago but never used. So, if I keep it up, what do you think'll take me to be able to read something like The Stranger? I don't mean to be capable of understanding every single word, but like, with the help of a dictionary. That's all, thanks lads.
If it helps, I'm fluent in english and in portuguese (mother tongue).
Reading really isn't too difficult, I'd say it's probably the easiest out of reading, writing, and conversing.
t. someone who reads French fluently but struggles to buy a baguette.
Zachary Robinson
Well, guess I might be a brainlet. I'll see a year from now if I'm capable of doing it.
Samuel Bell
My advice, start reading early. Even if you're just understanding half the stuff that you're reading its the best way to pick up the language without having someone to speak to
Tyler Lopez
French is pretty close to Portuguese isn't it? Vocabulary should be fairly easy and basic grammar can be learned in less than a year.
Christopher Lewis
Don't listen to them lol. I'm french, and moved to the US as a teen (so I spoke and wrote in english all day long). I could 'read' books by the end of the first year but DEFINITELY NOT on a level where I would flow through the pages and enjoy what I was reading. Now French is about a 100 times more 'literary' than english so don't expect results like the bullshitters. I also have a 150iq (actually tested by a psychologist) so take that as you wish, but I'm certainly not dumb or slow.
Samuel Hall
I mean its all about your own standards for reading in the end of the day. If you want to be able to read Racine getting all the same wit and nuance as a native of course its going to take longer but if you just want to graze through Camus with a dictionary at hand its a very different story
Mason Green
Camus and Céline are pretty simple to read. If you want to decipher Mallarmé you'll have to read bit longer, all depends on what you want to read
Asher Cook
it all depends on how hard you try, really i suggest doing something in french everyday if you don't feel like studying, watch some youtube videos (vlogs are great) look for the french discord server, there are some nice people there who can help you, specially with speaking SPEAKING that's very important btw i know you want to read but the thing is that if you speak the language a lot you will learn words faster and then build more vocab and be able to read the books you want so yeah: use the language everyday, speak as much as you can, even to yourself, and get used to the sounds
Anthony Howard
Thank you all for your advice. I'm not only studying french to be able to read in it, I also plan on moving there someday in the future. In my classes we do a lot of speaking exercises, and I'm trying my best to be aquainted with the phonetiques of the language (although I do feel it's incredibly hard, especially when listening to native speakers talking). I'll just keep at it, 2 hours a day studying grammar and trying to listen to music/see videos etc etc to learn more. Again, thank you for the advice, mes amis.
Isaac Hughes
Goodluck my man, keep at the little steps and you'll be amazed where you end up in no time. Keep mixing up the formula too, languages benefit great from hitting all angles
Jack Harris
Céline is not easy to read for a foreigner what are you talking about? You won't learn argot in french classes
Jace Brooks
That just requires an online dictionnary.
Tyler Turner
Six months. I went to DLI in the army, and learned French. That was approximately the time it took for fluency. Granted it’s 8 hours of French a day, but it’s a reasonable timetable.
Landon Lopez
He's Portuguese so the similarity should make it go a lot faster.
Oliver Foster
I read that book in high school, found it cool as compared to the rest of the shit I had to read (Madame Bovary I'm looking at you). Probably understood nothing of the underlying philosophical message back then.
I don't know about how long, that only depends on you. What I can say is that you learn a language for reading by doing exactly this: reading. You don't need to learn a lot of grammar or be able to converse with people, you need to read until you get better.
