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I must say "Thank you". Thank you, Asimov, for my language skills. I started reading Asimov in my native language (Latvian) until I run out of it. It was late
by laacz 10y ago
I must say "Thank you". Thank you, Asimov, for my language skills.
I started reading Asimov in my native language (Latvian) until I run out of it. It was late 80s. Then I had to work on my Russian reading skills in order to read everything else USSR had to provide from Asimov. Then I read everything libraries in Riga had on sci-fi.
And when 90s arrived, I accidentally got a hold of few Asimov books in English. I remember vividly the nights I spent with his book on the left side and English dictionary on the right one. Underlining and writing words and page numbers of words I coulnd't find just to return to them later when context would be much cleaner. Ever so funny struggle with idioms and cultural references I couldn't possibly understand. There was no internet to look that stuff up.
So, yes. Thank you, sci-fi in general and Asimov in particular for motivation and opportunity to learn one of basic life skills - ability to read and understand foreign language better than school could teach.
- endgame 10y agoIt's certainly paid off. You write well.
- leonroy 10y ago> I remember vividly the nights I spent with his book on the left side and English dictionary on the right one. Underlining and writing words and page numbers of words I coulnd't find just to return to them later when context would be much cleaner. Ever so funny struggle with idioms and cultural references I couldn't possibly understand. There was no internet to look that stuff up. I salute your perseverance and skill - that's incredible. We take for granted how easily we now obtain the information and literature we want today (tailored to our preferences at that!) thanks to the internet. In some ways I feel we had to use our brains more before technology and data became so universal and cheap!
- TeMPOraL 10y ago> In some ways I feel we had to use our brains more before technology and data became so universal and cheap! Maybe. Funny thing is, we have more opportunity to use our brains better now, and yet it seems we're not taking it. For instance, books. Many people say that they don't read much books anymore - even though today you have access to much better selection of books than before. Issues like being an adult = lots of bullshit errands aside, it's easy to be distracted by blogs and other short-form texts today. I have to constantly remind myself to keep reading actual books. Today you can literally just Google "best book on X", browse several discussion threads and pick out what is possibly the best resource whole humanity has on topic X. It's that easy. But for some reason, it's not an obvious thing to do. It wasn't for me until recently.
- wccrawford 10y agoI'm learning Japanese, and I often wish I could find literature in that language that's both slightly above my level and something I want to read. It's really hard. But part of the problem is that finding things I want to read in my native language is hard, too, so I'm probably just too picky. I've tried to learn Esperanto and the complete lack of entertaining books that aren't translations from another language is depressing. I just couldn't get anywhere with it because of that.