Hello everyone!
This is my first post and I wanted to share some thoughts with you on learning new languages through reading.
I watched all of Robin’s videos on Extensive Reading and how the best is achieved with 98% comprehension.
I think this is mostly needed if we want to dive into a novel (even a simplified one). However I find that in my particular case I like to start reading very early on even though I don’t have the necessary vocabulary just yet.
My new language for this year (and the years ahead no doubt) is Korean. I only started learning in January so I can barely even call myself a beginner. However even now I try to get my hands on simple stories for langue learners and it gives me enormous pleasure to be able to read them. To be fair, the first time I read a new story, I need to consult the vocab list almost every second word. I actually like to write everything down in my notebook with additional grammar explanations (I check grammar book for reference) and so it takes me a lot of time even to go through a short 7-sentence-long story.
But the joy of being able to re-read it afterwards and really understand it, is nothing I can compare to any other learning method.
If I remember correctly, that was called sth like ‚Level of Pain’ in the extensive reading video. And yes, it is an awful lot of work but somehow it seems to be working best for me.
What do you guys think? When do you start reading in a language?
Interesting post! I also like to dive into books from the very beginning, normally I start reading graded readers or simplified texts, otherwise it's really hard to follow the story. Once I reach an intermediate level in my target language I opt for more complex books or novels. That's the approach I've been using with English and German.
Thanks for posting and for a great opinion. I personally start listening to audiobooks right away because I tend to focus more on spoken language than on written. I listen to books even when I understand only about 2% of the words (e.g. for me now in Mandarin Chinese). I also typically start reading as soon as I get to a point that I can understand about 1/3 of the words (way fewer than Robin recommended in his videos). I find that it helps me to start gaining comprehension, even if I can't actually understand the story. Often, too, I would begin with a translation of a book I already know into the target language.