Reading this right now, and just finished the first chapter. Spanish is my second language and while I'm able to talk with people and read everyday Spanish, this is my first undertaking of a novel.
While I'm able to understand the plot and most of the actions, a lot of the adjectives and a few verbs I have never seen. In fact, several of them have not even been in my dictionary. I would say there are probably 6-7 average words per page I have to look up, and it's detracting heavily from my experience.
Do you guys tend to ignore descriptors when reading in an unfamiliar language? I don't see how I could improve my Spanish enough to read this fluently, since I've never encountered these words in everyday life.
Most of the time i try to work out the words by the context. What kind of words did you have problems with? Im thinking that probably are regionalisms of some kind.
Noah Ward
Well, he is colombian. So he uses some words/slangs that you wouldn't know from your standardized spanish. This happens with every language, f.am,. don't worry.
Brody James
spanish is my first language and I dropped it because it fucked me in the head
John Cooper
eres una basca, mijo.
Chase Adams
I am usually able to do that as well, but I get whole chunks of sentences that I don't understand. Particularly, there are lots of nouns to describe common items that differ from what I know. I'm assuming it's because he's Colombian, and I learned Mexican Spanish.
Nicholas Gonzalez
Spanish or the book? Cien años de soledad is comfy Spanish is hell
Xavier Wright
Care to post some example? im curious, i never had problem understanding spanish, except the one from chile
Xavier Campbell
the book. picturing all the offspring the passing of the time, the implausable stuff scattered throughout the story. It's great and I appreciate it's value but it was overwhelming and made me kind of dizzy. Maybe that's exactly what the author is going for. I dropped it halfway, I should pick it up again someday r-right?
William White
I'm colombian. I have read the novel before, in addition to almost every GGM's work. ¿Would you mind posting a list of words you don't understand? I might be able to explain them in an easy way
Nolan Gutierrez
la trocha las tenazas la cazuela pollerines de olan turpiales y azulejos (guessing birds from Colombia) herramientas de desmontar (disassembling tools?) la ciénaga
Ethan White
>5277▶ > trocha: a dusty, rocky and irregular path, with usually found in the countryside where cement or some sort of "floor" is not available
tenazas: I think they're called tongs in english. Think of the tool you'd use to take something out of boiling steel or dry ice. In the book, if I remember well, they're use by Melquiades or Aureliano when practicing alchemy.
Brody Harris
I'm an illiterate from Argentina, I can only help you with the following:
>Tenazas crab pincer, or tongs
>Cazuela heh I guess it's some kind of pan where you put food into
>herramientas de desmontar (disassembling tools?) yes
>Ciénaga Pantano, swamp
Jace James
Cazuela: It may refer to a dish, or the plate you serve it in. In the book, if you're still in the beginning, when Aureliano installs his lab, it may also be a pan to boil things in
Hudson Rivera
Pollerines de olan: well, first, ollan is a kind of fabric. Pollera, or in this case, pollerines, is a type of underwear women used to wear in the past beneath they're skirts. They were basically a thinner, lighter and fresher skirt they wore to keep the tough fabric of the outer clothes away from they'r parts. Some gandmas still wear them, though
Turpiales y azulejos: yeap, birds.
The others are already answered, but keep posting
Liam Perry
All of those words, even the birds names, are well known in Mexico.
Michael Turner
I am not from Mexico; I learned "Mexican Spanish" from textbooks and speaking with other students. It's my minor from university.
Jonathan Brown
I can help, but I only know a few words: rice, beans, cheese and chips.
Caleb Ross
Ok, I get that, however works like "Tenazas" or "Cazuela" are some of the most mundane words in Spanish, don´t get me wrong user; I'm not trying to be offensive but it surprises me that you've never found those words in your interaction with the Spanish language.
Ryan Barnes
I meant "words", Sorry.
Benjamin Campbell
I know how to say the English equivalents in Spanish. But I've always used pinzas for tongs and sartén for a pan... never heard use of a casserole dish, and that's not even a word that's used outside of the midwest in English. I mainly have worked with translating English into spanish; that's how it is taught here. That's why my first attempt at reading a work that originates in Spanish is so difficult, I imagine
Anthony Bell
I see, I see. Haven't you read Juan Rulfo's work? Whereas it is as "regionalistic" as Márquez his works are shorter, his themes (in my opinion) are more complex and interesting than Márquez.
Gabriel Clark
Colombian here, ask me anything of vocab
Easton Wright
If you can't understand these simple words then you're better off reading an English translation. What kind of dictionary doesn't have something as common as « cazuela, tenazas, herramentas de desmontar, ciénaga » ? These are very common words that any Spanish speaker will understand, they're not even regional.
but Veeky Forums bullies me whenever I read translations
Adrian White
Argentine here I read it when I was a teen and loved it. I felt overwhelmed after the last page. IIRC the difficult thing about 100 years of Solitude is the family tree made of people with very similar or identical names. You can find family trees in google if you need some help.
Leo Hill
Don't be a nigger, they're all different
Wyatt Baker
Nigga, don't lie to yourself, you don't speak castillian, you write like i would expect tarzan to do.
Asher Harris
jaja eres retrasado?
Ryder Perez
find a english version and see those parts are translated.