Hello everyone ! Today I wanna talk about something I’ve been asked pretty often : why I’m reading in English. You’ve certainly noticed that it’s not my native language !
It started when I was 18. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows came out and I needed to read it ASAP. Since it was hyper hyped, the English version was available in every good book shop ! Picture me on my bed, this big book right in front of me and a French/English dictionary next to me. I devoured it, finishing it in less than 24 hours (to avoid being spoiled by a so called friend). I realized then that I enjoyed reading it English and that it wasn’t that complicated after all.
But I never picked another book in English until several years later. I have read several YA books that were really badly translated in French. I felt it was rushed, and justified by “oh well it’s YA. Young readers won’t notice.” I HATED it. Spoiled my reading.
At that time I also started to think about what is now my life goal : moving to London and work as a community pharmacist there.
Which means that I needed to improve my English ( I felt like watching TV show in their original version wasn’t enough)So I started to read more in English. The Fault In Our Stars, TMI series, Ruby Red etc… And I realized that I preferred the original versions to translated ones because they were the author’s words, after all.
A few months later I got introduced to the bookish community thanks to Booktube. Which means that I found out about books that weren’t published in French yet. So I tended to buy more English books than French ones.
And now here I am, reading almost exclusively in English except for books I’m sharing with my parents, or from French authors !
flowlessbooks.wordpress.com 
A similar thing happened to me actually haha.
I used to read in french exclusively until the hunger games came out and I needed it like yeeesterday so I picked it up in english. It was kind of weird adapting at first but that was a point of no return. Now, I only read in french books that are originally written in that language.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same thing, for the point of no return
LikeLiked by 1 person
I recall exactly when I switched to English. I owe my passion for the language to an awesome teacher who started lending me his books. I never stopped reading after that. Everything is better in English so I have a hard time reading in French, even though we’re supposed to have a beautiful language. I cannot connect to a story the same way. I tried to read one French book a month when I started blogging but it clearly was a bore and I could not bring myself to keep doing it.
LikeLike
My native language is German, but I’ve always had a knack for English. I adored the language from the get go!
I had this cassette as a little kid and I think that really coined me for it. I spent a semester in the US when I was 15 and I went to dual-language school here in Vienna, having all classes in German and English. At some point I stopped reading German books altogether unless they were originally written in that language.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lucky you ! I would have loved to gobto a dual language school !
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was tourism oriented, so that was the reason 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My native language is English, but I’ve always wondered why readers, if English is not their first language, would not just read books in their native tongue. I never knew that there were these issues in poor translations and such. I say if you feel more comfortable reading in English, then I say go for it 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha so now you know why 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m also not a native English speaker, but I started reading translated YA books when I was in high school and I was so mad at how bad the translation was. So, when I entered college, I decided to buy English books and read English books and it has been a very good experience and practice from me. Now that I’m used to reading English books, I find it hard to read books in my own language haha 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally understand haha
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great post! As you know, I’m French just like you 😛 but I read almost exclusively in English, because I wanted to read the author’s words, I was too impatient to wait for sequels, and because I just love English so, so much. It’s crazy how diffeerent a story can be, depending on the language you read it in! 🙂
LikeLike
Great post! English is my first language, and I’ve always been mildly curious about how translations turn out in other countries. I think it must be so weird as an author to have your book come out in , say, 15 other languages and have no idea what they say and just hope people translated your words right! Really interesting that you thought some translations weren’t well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My first language is English but reading this post was eye opening! I always wondered how true to form translations are. Sorry that some book were translated so poorly when you were younger but KUDOS to you for finishing Harry Potter in a day while translating! You’re the real MVP 🙂 lol
Great post!
http://www.quiteanovelidea.com
LikeLike
I can totally relate with this post! English is also not my native language, and I find reading in English really improve my skills. The problem is, sometimes there are things that sort of lost in the translation or have different interpretation when it’s translated. And also it took like YEARS for the publisher to translate a certain book (especially if it’s a series. the waiting in between books could take YEARS). I prefer reading in English, except when reading classics because I still have difficulties with the language 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I totally understand ! Classics are more difficult !
LikeLike