Reading George Orwell's works by the ESL faggot

What's up, native dunces. I'm from Russia and my knowledge of English is indescribably shitty. However, having lately freaked out due to longing for a good English read and having not as yet endeavoured to read something, I said to myself, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! So I decided on taking a stab at reading that fucking Orwell first. To tell you the truth, the very first chapter of 1984 was so bloody hard to read! I've scored over 100 unknown words aside from phrasal verbs along with not quite understandable sentences. Now my passion's dying down slowly and I'm beginning to feel so devastated. What do I need to do, choose something way much simpler or try to memorize those words and reread chapters over and over again till I get a hang of them? Do native speakers consider his novels as difficult read? Incidentally, I've been studying English only for 1 year and 7 months by now. Naturally, all by myself.

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>Do native speakers consider his novels as difficult read?

maybe if you're 13 years old. It probably is not the best for a beginner.

>tfw you want to kill yourself

Try his essays, they are all online and there is even a site with russian translations so you could read them side by side. His non-fiction is better than his fiction.

as for non-fiction I have Veeky Forums

why don't you try Animal Farm by Orwell?

Your English seems pretty decent judging by this OP. I wouldn't even think of writing such a thing in French and yet I am slogging my way through L'Etranger, a few pages each day. It's the only way to learn if you want to read literature. Start with something you've already read and are familiar with, maybe read The Brothers Karamazov and finally help us decide what the best translation is. Good luck.

The first english book I read was Diary of Anne Frank and it was somehow easy. I think Siddartha is also a good choice. It's lot much easier to read with E-readers like Kindle since they have built-in dictionary and you get the meaning of words with just a click.

What you are experiencing is totally normal. Don't give up.

The key to learning a language is that, for every "conscious" roadblock you encounter, stumble over, or struggle to understand or memorize, your unconscious mind is learning a hundred other things.

The frustration comes from thinking that you read a relatively simple book (for a native speaker) and hit a hundred roadblocks in the first chapter. But in learning those bumps, your mind was unconsciously surveying the surrounding terrain of the English language in ten thousand other ways, and you didn't even notice.

Immersion works. You won't notice that it's working, but it's doing a lot. You will gradually have epiphanies about nuances of grammar that you formerly only understand in a technical way. Gradually, things you had to "hold" in memory will become muscle memory.

Also, most native speakers WOULD have problems reading even basic novels. Most people do not read very much. When they have to, they can "get by," at best. In the long run, you will have a better understanding of their language than they do, though you might always retain a few quirks (and English speakers just find those charming).

>You will gradually have epiphanies about nuances of grammar that you formerly only understand in a technical way

"You will gradually have epiphanies about nuances of grammar that you formerly only UNDERSTOOD in a technical way."

I probably shouldn't fuck up the grammar in my own post if I'm talking to someone doing ESL.

Is Moby-Dick hard to read for a native speaker without resorting to a dictionary?

Very. It's not the exciting tale about chasing a whale that you may think it is.

But I meant rather in terms of vocabulary.

try the first paragraph:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.

I understood everything except for the phrase 'bringing up the rear' which I've already looked up.

why learn English if it's so primitive and simplistic?

OP should have chosen Spanish instead. English is too dumbed down for a language you could enjoy.

Hey, a thirteen year old has been learning English for 13 years

it can't be equivalent to foreign learners' timing actually

I decided I'd much better stay speaking Russian. English can't satisfy my sophisticated mind brought up on Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

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Neckbeard. You speak English way too well for a self taught year and a half. Nice try pleb