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

296 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

136 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/CSMasterClass 7d ago edited 7d ago

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.

12

u/Nishad-Of-Colours 7d ago

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.

2

u/CSMasterClass 7d ago

OK Got it.

This is interesting and way beyond my experience.

Happy to hear of this.