My senior year of high school I spent an entire semester trudging through Francisco Jiménez’s autobiographical novel, Cajas de Cartón. Though the book was middle grade fiction, my English-speaking mind had to take its time moving in this new language. Sentence to sentence, the new vocabulary padded around in my brain, each phrase a new net of meaning that gave these words a context much beyond my Spanish textbook’s vocabulary chart.
Reading in a foreign language quickly proved to be one of the best ways for me to gather new language, the novel serving as a portable vacation where I became immersed in the language and culture of the story. Writer and translator Lydia Davis explores this idea in her essay, “Learning Bokmål by Reading Dag Solstad’s Telemark Novel,”[1] where she chronicles learning Bokmål through reading. Her method is extreme. She forewent any help from a dictionary or an online translator, and instead used context clues and cognates to piece together the meaning of a sentence. In her experience, any word she could not initially piece together soon reveals itself in later pages, and as she journeys through Solstad’s historical Norway, her proficiency with the language snowballed until she finally was reading with ease.
Though most readers (including myself) do not have the linguistic chops of a professional translator, Davis’s method for language acquisition and translation is certainly worth a try. Reading in a foreign language is greatly beneficial for increasing vocabulary, grammar, speaking proficiency and language comprehension.[2] Using a story to learn language allows for both the wonder of learning new words and the playfulness of romping through a good story. Instead of being stuck in stuffy conjugation charts, verbs rather leap off and race around the page, introducing themselves to you in their natural habitat rather than in an isolated context. In learning vocabulary and grammar outside of the flashcards and quizzical conversations of the language classroom, the inherent connection between language and culture becomes more apparent.
Then, translating a story from language to language becomes an exercise in flexibility, the expert translator having to match meanings as best they can and make the leap from unfamiliar to familiar, connecting two formerly separate worlds. Translating a text helps to create a multicultural understanding[3] where meaning can be expressed in several different modes of speaking, writing, and knowing.
Though I still have a long way to go in learning Spanish, reading Cajas de Cartón, was an essential step in proving to myself that I too can take these steps toward comprehension and understanding of something foreign to me. Translation and reading in a foreign language are skills to be built and developed just like any other practice, and by the end you get to see things brand new.
Publishing Solutions Group knows the value of translation, and is readily available to assist with translation needs. Here at PSG we take pride in connecting a multicultural market of readers, making it easier for these stories to move between communities. Be sure to choose Publishing Solutions Group for your next translation needs!
[1] Lydia Davis, “Learning Bokmål by Reading Dal Solstad’s Telemark Novel” from Essays Two.
[2] https://lingtuitive.com/blog/5-reasons-reading-is-the-fastest-way-to-learn-a-language
[3] https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu/scolina/chapter/chapter-3-why-translation-in-the-language-classroom/
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