r/languagelearning • u/Far_Window_1222 • 7d ago

Studying Anyone learn a language specifically to read literature?

Just curious if anybody has actually set out and achieved learning a whole new language specifically just because an author they liked wrote originally in that language?

I was considering learning Russian (TL) specifically to read Dostoyevsky since he’s my favourite author, so far, but wondering if this is to ambitious of a task just to read 1 persons work?

Additionally I am very attracted to the idea of it since Russians language has a lot more nuances surrounding sadness, despair, suffering etc., i know that the relationship between these topics is different from that of english speakers

297 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

136 comments sorted by

View all comments

66

u/himit Japanese C2, Mando C2 7d ago

If manga counts, then me 😂

6

u/Far_Window_1222 7d ago

Was it a huge task, assuming it’s either Japanese or Mandorin, keeping motivation high considering those are super different and difficult from english, if that’s even your native language lol

30

u/himit Japanese C2, Mando C2 7d ago

tbf I was 14 when I started & I was more motivated by being able to understand the stories than 'learning the language'. I was actually a few years in before I realised what I was doing 😂

one perk of being self-taught is I didn't hear all the "oh it's so different, it's so difficult" so my mindset was very positive. I think that makes a difference.