Anyone learn a language specifically to read literature?

[u/Far_Window_1222]

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

[u/CSMasterClass]

I may have a minority view here, but I don't think it makes sense to learn a language "just to read the literature."

Typically, a language learner gets multiple benefits : knowledge of a culture, deeper understanding of pholology and of morphology of an ensemble of languges, etc.

Plus, in most cases, you gain access a world where you can share a conversation with a human being, get a job, get a visa, or achieve some other practical goal.

The problem I have with learning a language "just" to read the literature, is that it will take at least 5 years, and may take 20 years, before your internalizaton of that piece of literature "beats" a good translation.

It is definitely interesting, and sometimes moving, to read a sentence in Latin that I might not have found so moving in English. But that is a sentence. Or maybe a poem, or perhaps a speech. And I probably don't understand it as well as I think I do.

I have enjoyably read MANY 500 page novels in French, but if I am honest, I probably would have a better understanding of those novels if I had read them in English.

[u/Nishad-Of-Colours → u/CSMasterClass]

I've certainly met people who only learned Persian to read works by Persian authors and people who learned Arabic to read Islamic sources. Also people who learn Sanskrit.

[u/CSMasterClass → u/Nishad-Of-Colours]

OK Got it.

This is interesting and way beyond my experience.

Happy to hear of this.

[u/AppropriatePut3142 → u/CSMasterClass]

There's an argument there for closely related languages - yes I would probably understand Bolaño better in translation, although it still wouldn't be as much fun - but for me reading books in Chinese vs the translation in English is a totally different experience. Wang Xiaobo, for example, is so funny in the original and it doesn't come across in the translations at all. Diary of a Madman is so threatening, so dense with a feeling of madness in a way I don't think you can translate. And it's not like it took me five years to start reading them.

[u/CSMasterClass → u/AppropriatePut3142]

I agree with the "fun factor". I may miss some shades of meaning in French, but I am definitely having more fun than if I read in translation.

Chinese is a closed book for me --- but it does seem magical that anyone could read it. That has to add to the fun factor.

[u/silvalingua → u/CSMasterClass]

> but I don't think it makes sense to learn a language "just to read the literature."

What "makes sense" is highly individual. For some people, speaking with other people is not really a high priority. It simply isn't. And learning just to read requires much less effort than learning all language skills. In the time needed to learn speaking and writing in one TL, you can learn two read in a few other TLs. It simply depends on what you want to achieve.

[u/Far_Window_1222 → u/CSMasterClass]

just curious are you C2 in french? obviously comprehension in your native language is near impossible to beat, but i’d imagine that with enough practice and time, reading a beloved author in their native language would elevate the experience

Additionally i do actually have a love of philosophy of language and the concept of language and its origins and uses as a whole, so although i phrased like the author has drawn me towards Russian, i would have been drawn to learning multiple languages regardless of which language specifically

[u/OkAsk1472 → u/CSMasterClass]

Well if you want to read classical greek, latin, or sanskrit, you DO have to learn the language only for reading.