Watch Your Language Blog

Reading foreign literature

Once you've reached a basic level of fluency in your chosen language and feel the need to challenge your comprehension and/or translation skills further, it's a good idea to start exploring foreign literature.

While it might be a little intimidating to read Goethe or Márquez in the original right from the start, even spending just a few hours every week reading a page or two from a foreign work can help develop fluency. Reading literature will not only expose you to different vocabulary and grammar, but also help you gain a cultural and historical understanding of a foreign country.

If you don't want to be quite so ambitious, bilingual texts are a good way to immerse yourself without feeling completely lost. A lot of foreign language texts exist with accompanying English translations, allowing you to read the work without hunting for meanings in dictionaries. A simple Google search for bilingual literature will give you many options to explore, both for adults and children.

However, remember to just use the English translations as a guide, and not as the reading itself. After all, what's better than the sense of accomplishment you feel after having understood a difficult passage in a foreign language without any (or much) help at all?

Tags: bilingual books, foreign literature, language, newsletter
May 21, 2008