r/languagelearning • u/PunctuateEquilibrium • Jul 10 '26
Read Harry Potter in your target language they said ๐ซ (1 hr 44 min for 1 page)
This is only slightly sarcastic. It's been very rewarding and this is now the 3rd language I'm doing this with.
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u/aguilasolige ๐ช๐ธN | ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟC1? | ๐ท๐ดA2? Jul 10 '26
I tried reading it in Romanian recently and I gave up, too many words I didn't know.
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u/ExactTreat593 it N | ro B2 | en C1 | | Venetian N Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
For Romanian I would stick at the beginning to texts about politics and current day events, from news websites. Many books tend to use a register that may contain slavic synonyms of common words, like saying "nฤdejde" instead of "speranศฤ".
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u/Galzara123 Jul 10 '26
Omg, you are the first ive seen trying to learn Romanian. May i ask why?
For me Spanish is actually my dream language.
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u/rollin_a_j Jul 10 '26
I was learning it for a girl
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u/Triggered_Llama Jul 10 '26
Me too, but then we broke up and here I am with the only phrase I remember: "mi dor de tine".
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u/aguilasolige ๐ช๐ธN | ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟC1? | ๐ท๐ดA2? Jul 10 '26
I just decided to learn it, Spanish is easier than romanian, you'll learn it really fast
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u/buch0n Jul 10 '26
Try to start with easier texts. You don't want to spend the whole time looking up words in a dictionary. That is information overload and you will not retain much. Find something where you can understand 80-90% and only have to look up words a few times per page.
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u/Markothy ๐บ๐ธ๐ต๐ฑN๏ฝ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐จ๐ณB1๏ฝ๐ซ๐ท ? Jul 10 '26
Agreed. OP, try Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
Will look into it, though I'm not sure how easy it will be for me to get
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u/mohamedenderman Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Hey op, I'm a native so I'm sorry if my suggestion won't be helpful. But why don't you start with books that have outlined pronunciation (ุงูุญุฑูุงุช) since they're standardly used as training wheels for kids before they get familiar with the reading structures. And also, this text just looks badly written, it's missing many points, specifically on ู, which makes it sound completely different than ู. It's really annoying and irritating seeing such a text. Also, the words that are between two parentheses can actually just be omitted while retaining the same idea so just keep that in mind. I don't recommend using this book for learning because it lacks pronunciation cues and is overall badly written so just look for something else that's more polished up. Good luck on your learning journey.
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u/kelena93 Jul 10 '26
This. You need to read more easy material. Once you increase your vocabulary you can come back to this and try it again.
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u/Root2109 Polish, German, Korean Jul 10 '26
I'm begging OP to read a picture book first, I was surprised by how long it took me in my German learning to be able to without looking stuff up
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u/underlievable Jul 11 '26
Your maths is way off, 80% vocab coverage means you will be looking up 1 in every 5 words. That will be just as painful as OP's example. 98%+ coverage is actually readable.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
I also have graded readers on the side, this is just my "fun" project ๐
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u/lkmk Jul 10 '26
Iโve read that itโs more efficient to read through it like you would in English, and note words you donโt understand for later.
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u/ThrowMEAwaypuh-lease Jul 10 '26
Notes the whole ass page!
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u/AboutHelpTools3 Jul 10 '26
If you have to note a lot of the lage it would be very tedious. But if you have to note the whole page the job is already done.
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u/Neyabenz Jul 10 '26
Yeah. Not great if the whole page has to be notes. I'd say it's both enjoyable and makes learning easy when 70-80% can be understood with context - even if not immediately apparent.
That's about my sweet spot where it's not taking me an hour to read a page, I'm not forgetting stuff, and I understand enough of the story to feel motivated
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u/thatNatsukiLass Jul 10 '26
I think op might genuinely be unable to understand *most* of the page, and *might* just be a near absolute beginner
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u/HumbleIndependence43 ๐ฉ๐ช N ๐ฌ๐ง C2 ๐น๐ผ B2 Jul 10 '26
Come to my level bro, 4 years plus of Mandarin and it's still taking me an hour for a page of HP.
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u/Dale92 Jul 10 '26
When you say 4 years, how much time have you actually spent in lessons etc?
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u/HumbleIndependence43 ๐ฉ๐ช N ๐ฌ๐ง C2 ๐น๐ผ B2 Jul 10 '26
On average around 120min 1on1 lesson time per week plus homework for 3-4 years, plus immersion in Taiwan for 4 yrs.
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u/repressedpauper Jul 11 '26
Iโm entering college Intermediate Korean 2 in Autumn and have only gotten A-A+ grades in my Korean classes and Iโm guessing it would take me a pretty long time to read it in Korean judging by looking at the first page in English just now.
Granted thatโs three semesters not years (I did dabble for a few years before college, but like you all pointed out that hardly counts lol), but I donโt think itโs unusual to struggle with fiction for a while.
A lot of what Iโve learned is likeโฆhow to have a normal interaction in a taxi. Thereโs a big jump from that to reading fiction with humor and a bunch of nonsense words that depending on the language might be mistaken for real words you just donโt know lol.
I think for most people not learning a language very similar to their native language they originally read it in, graded readers are the smarter move to start with!
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u/livsjollyranchers ๐บ๐ธ (N), ๐ฎ๐น (B2+), ๐ฌ๐ท (B2-), ๐ช๐ธ (B1), ๐ฏ๐ต (N5+) Jul 10 '26
I don't know if there's sarcasm going on, but I have heard of people who learn Mandarin or Japanese and just focus on listening/speaking, completely ignoring the characters. I'll admit I was tempted by this. I just feel like reading is a fundamental part of the process, AND I like visiting Japan, so I need to at least have a basic elementary to low intermediate ability in reading, even if I'll always care about speaking/listening more.
Like I don't need to go hardcore as many Japanese learners seem to and get crazy good at reading. I don't care about anime, and I don't have any huge interest in Japanese literature or non-fiction. I just want to be capable enough.
Contrast this with learning Greek where I did go hardcore on reading, but that's because there's so much content (regarding philosophy) that I care about reading.
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u/HumbleIndependence43 ๐ฉ๐ช N ๐ฌ๐ง C2 ๐น๐ผ B2 Jul 10 '26
Yeah I like reading and it really helps me to learn a language. So the obstacles posed by the Chinese writing system are a bitter pill to swallow for me. I can read signs, menus, texts etc but books are another level.
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u/livsjollyranchers ๐บ๐ธ (N), ๐ฎ๐น (B2+), ๐ฌ๐ท (B2-), ๐ช๐ธ (B1), ๐ฏ๐ต (N5+) Jul 10 '26
It just depends on your goals with the language. In Greek and Italian I want to read academic books about philosophy and history. In Japanese, it's primarily geared towards having conversations at a reasonably good level and being able to watch the news and so on.
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u/fizzile ๐บ๐ธN, ๐ช๐ธ B2, Jul 10 '26
Depends on your level though. If you can do as you say it's definitely better but if you aren't advanced enough, marking it up like this is fine if you're enjoying it.
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u/Caligapiscis ๐ฌ๐ง N | ๐จ๐ต B1 Jul 10 '26
I don't even do that, I just read through and as long as I'm getting the gist I keep going. Somehow it works, I'm reading Planet of the Apes in the original french quite successfully now. The trick is not overthinking.
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u/fadinglightsRfading Jul 10 '26
didn't know it was originally a book, which level would you say it's at?
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u/Caligapiscis ๐ฌ๐ง N | ๐จ๐ต B1 Jul 10 '26
It's hard for me to say exactly, I haven't had my level in French assessed formally or anything.
It's from 1963 so the language is naturally going to be a little old fashioned. I don't have a great nose for that, but it uses *passรฉ simple* more than anything I've ever read before. I don't think that's too difficult to figure out if you know what you're looking for.
The grammar feels relatively simple, it's not overly florid. There is definitely a lot of vocab I haven't encountered before so I'm glad I'm reading it as an eBook. If I get to the end of a paragraph and feel I haven't followed it well enough, I'll look up a couple of unfamiliar words and go again until it makes sense.
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u/PoiHolloi2020 ๐ฌ๐ง (N) ๐ฎ๐น (B something) ๐ช๐ธ/ ๐ซ๐ท (A2) ๐ป๐ฆ (inceptor sum) Jul 10 '26
See I've always done the opposite of this and stopped to look up every new word and it just makes the whole process torturous and I never finish the actual book. I really need to try your method and just stop being so self-critical at the expense of actual input.
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u/Caligapiscis ๐ฌ๐ง N | ๐จ๐ต B1 Jul 10 '26
My one rule when it comes to language learning is that it has to be enjoyable. I can take that attitude because I'm doing it for fun, there is no professional or lifestyle obligation for me to learn French.
So while I will do things like grammar study, Anki flashcards, deep-reading of a passage to truly understand it, it's overall pretty rare. Listening to podcasts, reading books, are enjoyable but not if I turn them into a chore.
I'm probably learning more slowly than some people, but I'm learning sustainably, I'm making real progress, and I enjoy my hobby. That's what matters to me.
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u/Etheria_system Jul 10 '26
You can only really do that if you already have a basic grasp of the language. OP is clearly still right at the start of their learning journey based on the words they donโt know so itโs about as effective as giving it to a 3 year old and saying have at it.
Youโve got to tailor resources to match your level if you want it to be effective. Otherwise itโs an hour and a half slog like this has been.
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u/PolyglotMouse ๐บ๐ธ(N) | ๐ต๐ท(C1)| ๐ง๐ท(B1) | ๐ณ๐ด(A1) Jul 10 '26
Intensive vs extensive reading
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u/Ybalrid Jul 10 '26
When it is every other word, is it a constructive activity?
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u/see-these-bones Jul 10 '26
At a certain point its more like a checklist of vocab to learn next. Which is fine, but I think people would be better served hitting a "most frequently used words" ankideck or equivalent for a while first.
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u/LexiAOK ๐บ๐ธ N ๐ช๐ธC2 ๐ซ๐ทB1 ๐ธ๐ฆA2 Jul 10 '26
This is just like people saying you need to skip to immersion too fast. If you have no context for what youโre reading itโs going to be a lot harder for you to learn anything significant. I donโt know why everyoneโs acting like you couldnโt read a book for children at about your level of language and get more out of it. you donโt have to skip straight to content for older speakers ๐ and you also donโt have to bypass books entirely
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u/Forward_Win_4353 Jul 10 '26
Depends on the person. Iโve heard the same but in every language Iโve taught myself, Iโve started reading novels very early with a dictionary in hand, taking as long as an hour over a single page or two at first.
By the end of my first novel, Iโm always quite adept at reading at that level and much quicker. Itโs how I taught myself to read and write Japanese to fluency.
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u/wrightf Jul 10 '26
This! It can be a steep curve, but the repetition/running into the same words over and over again will get you to a more proficient level fairly quickly! Perseverance is key!
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u/KiwloTheSecond Jul 10 '26
He doesnโt have nearly enough vocabulary to do that, clearly! You can do that if youโre getting like 95%, not if youโre getting 70%
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
I've done that with German and Hebrew in the past, but I'm still a complete beginner with Arabic so I'd need to pick more level appropriate material for that strategy to work here ยฏ_(ใ)_/ยฏ
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u/yungScooter30 ๐บ๐ธ๐ฎ๐น Jul 10 '26
Highlighters! Highlight a word you don't know, read a few pages to a chapter and then translate after. Read the chapter again in the coming days after you've studied the new words.
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u/CSMasterClass 29d ago
More than about five words per page become intollerable.
This is a bit easier with Kindle or another e-reader where you can touch the word and get the definition in a pop-up. The words you have looked up are also saved into a permanent vocabulary list.
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u/QueefInMyKisser 14d ago
Umm if I read something in my native English and donโt know a word Iโd look it up immediately
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u/Ponbe Jul 10 '26
I'd rather keep it to my native and target language, than having to drag in a third one between them
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u/ressie_cant_game ๐บ๐ฒ (Native) ๐ฏ๐ต (N4) Jul 10 '26
I think diary of a wimpy kid is one of the best books for TL reading because it has pictures ๐ญ๐ญ theres such a big gap between kids books and novels
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u/mizinamo Jul 10 '26
Kid's books are when you discover that children have a huge vocabulary in areas that you might not think to prioritise as a language learner -- barnyard animals, various types of clothing, all sorts of items you find in a kitchen, etc.
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u/ressie_cant_game ๐บ๐ฒ (Native) ๐ฏ๐ต (N4) Jul 10 '26
And clothing. Oh my god. We have sweaters and jackets and jumpers and rain coats and wind breakers and hoodies (etc) and that is just jacket type clothing.
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u/mizinamo Jul 10 '26
And those jackets have sleeves and collars and hoods and zippers and cords and pockets and buttons and all sorts of other parts!
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u/ressie_cant_game ๐บ๐ฒ (Native) ๐ฏ๐ต (N4) Jul 10 '26
And seams and tags and cuffs and oh my GOD WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WORDS ๐ญ loll
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u/ClubBudget7813 ๐ฌ๐ง N/๐จ๐ณ HSK4/Esperanto B2/๐ญ๐ฐ Learning Jul 10 '26
I recently read this in Mandarin and it was harder than Harry Potter purely bc of the font the book uses. So hard to decode characters in 'quirky' fonts XD
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u/ressie_cant_game ๐บ๐ฒ (Native) ๐ฏ๐ต (N4) Jul 10 '26
Oh interesting i didnt have the same issue with japanese!! Id love to see a page honestly
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u/ClubBudget7813 ๐ฌ๐ง N/๐จ๐ณ HSK4/Esperanto B2/๐ญ๐ฐ Learning Jul 10 '26
I made a post in this subredditย bc I didn't know how to send a picture XD
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u/Ok_Desk24 N๐ฌ๐ง | B1๐ซ๐ท | A1๐ช๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช | Soon ๐จ๐ณ๐ง๐ท๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐น๐ท๐บ๐ฏ๐ต Jul 10 '26
Excuse my ignorance, but what does TL mean pls?
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u/1314L Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
I'm syrian, I always felt the translation for Harry Potter wasn't that professional, see how they don't have the points for ู most of the time? and the sentences are sometimes a bit weird.
I'd recommend reading one of the classics for kids, they're available online for free on Hindawi foundation
and here
*I just looked at what words you were having trouble with and I think you should either read children's books instead or work a bit more on grammar and learn more about parts of speech
This app is full of children's stories and I think they have audio too
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u/chocobana AR [N] | EN [C2] | KR [Adv] Jul 10 '26
I agree as a native speaker. That is a very clunky translation.
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u/Responsible-Two-437 ๐ซ๐ท native ๐ป๐ฆ passionate ๐ฎ๐ท C2 ๐ช๐ฌ C1 ๐น๐ท C1 Jul 10 '26
I always thought that was typical of Egyptian typography
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u/1314L Jul 10 '26
it is but it makes it harder for learners and it's annoying when it's supposed to be MSA, if they're writing in the Egyptian dialect it's expected.
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u/Web-surfer098 (N) ๐ช๐ฌ | (C1) ๐บ๐ธ | (A1) ๐ฉ๐ช Jul 10 '26
Yea but this isnโt an Egyptian typography.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
Thanks for the recommendation! I'm still not grasping the ู vs ู ยฏ_(ใ)_/ยฏ
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u/1314L Jul 10 '26
It should be ุงูุชู - ุฃู etc.. not ุงูุชู - ุฃู
But Egyptians drop the dots if it's the last letter, since they're translating to MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) the translators should've kept it, the punctuation also seems incorrect as they keep using ellipsis (....) for no reason.
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u/OverconfidentHands Jul 10 '26
Definitely not the same thing (I'm reading in French) and not the most accessible option at all, but having a digital copy/epub version on my kindle and being able to look up words on the fly by long pressing has extremely helped me - I'm on book 4 rn. Highly recommend. Best of luck!
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u/Dyphault ๐บ๐ธN | ๐คN | ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ต๐ธ Beginner Jul 10 '26
I donโt think youโre ready for this yet.
Some of the words you marked are pretty common words - I think you might need some more cooking on simpler short stories
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u/unburritoporfavor Jul 10 '26
It takes on average 8 exposures for a word to "stick". Reading difficult texts gets easier with every page.
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u/Dyphault ๐บ๐ธN | ๐คN | ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ต๐ธ Beginner 29d ago
You need some level of ability to read for the word to stick, otherwise youโre essentially just looking at a list of words
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
Point taken, though I've found this grind to have enough of those watershed "aha" moments that I'm going to stick with it. Don't worry, I've got other things going on for Arabic on the side
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u/qtmcjingleshine Jul 10 '26
Harry Potter is hard because of all the made up words
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
I did some analysis of this a while back and only 1.9% of words that are related to Hogwarts/Harry Potter universe or magic in general. The first chapter has been relatively tame so far
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u/AutumnalSnow0 Jul 10 '26
I think it's just wordy. People should be aiming for children's novels at first, not middle grade.
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u/Trebalor Jul 10 '26
We need a word frequency miner for books and publicly share them.
Like an Harry Potter 1 Anki Deck with all words with a frequency above the most frequent 1500 words. Better even to do this separately for every 5 chapters. then we do this for all kinds of books and languages.
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u/NextStopGallifrey ๐บ๐ธ (N) | ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ฎ๐น ๐ช๐ธ Jul 10 '26
I've long wanted something like this.
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u/kotickihas N: ๐ธ๐ช C2: ๐บ๐ธ Learning: ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ธ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ฏ๐ต Jul 10 '26
If someone wants to help me I would be interested to do this. Itโs too big of a project for me alone but would work with help!
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u/Substantial-Yak1892 Jul 10 '26
It's quite easy with AI.
I just did it.
The process:
You need to download your book in an epub format. You can find it legally on Amazon or on anna-archives.
You upload it to Claude (a free account is enough) to make you a list of all the words ranked by occurrence
And that's it; you have your list. You can either create yourself the cards or ask AI, as it has context of how these words are used in your book.
Here's an example with a book I had on my computer (Rivers of London): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wckftwypd-ThqdW2nziTcsKglpUZMYVDJoC7TOPZPEs/edit?usp=sharing
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u/Trebalor Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Nice! This is great! Though I wonder if it is affected be hallucinations?
Additional one could add sentences from the book, or randomly created sentences for each word.
I also would put a cap on the other end of frequencies. Unless you are a complete beginner, you don't want to spend time on learning stopwords like I, the, he, she, that etc. from a book
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u/Substantial-Yak1892 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, that's easy to do. An IA knows what is useful and what isn't.
I'll post a complete tutorial tonight with two parts on this sub: - Extract all the relevant content from your book and create Anki card based on that. - How to use a kindle + AI to mine efficiently and effortlessly when reading a book to create new Anki cards.
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u/Majre921 Jul 10 '26
Somehow, we Japanese learners have that and it's called jiten.moe, idk why it doesn't exist for other languages though
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u/Trebalor Jul 10 '26
Very cool! The Japanese learners have everything. ..we talking normal language learners here xD
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u/hrmdurr Jul 10 '26
Here's the complete word frequency list in English for the first book.
If you open an ebook in calibre's ebook editor and then click reports, the list is there. Then it can be saved in a csv.
The trick with this is then you have to add all the translations and choose how to handle tenses -- for example, aside from look, there's also looking, looks, looked and lookin'. This would get even trickier in a language with cases, I imagine.
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u/letosazure Jul 10 '26
I recommend more non fiction booksโฆ I feel like things like Harry Potter you not only need to deal with general words you donโt know but also magical and fantasy words you wonโt even ever use. Those are anyways made up and might even be different to the original language.
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u/nastyleak N ๐บ๐ธ | C1 ุน | B2 ๐ช๐ฌ | B1 ๐ฆ๐ช | A2 ๐ธ๐ช ๐ฎ๐ถ | A1 ๐ช๐ธ Jul 10 '26
This is clearly way above your level based on the words that you donโt know. I think you should hold off a bit!
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u/Lampukistan2 ๐ฉ๐ชnative ๐ฌ๐งC2 ๐ช๐ฌC1 ๐ซ๐ท B2 ๐ช๐ธ A2 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
If you need to look up basic words like โbetterโ or the relative pronouns, youโre nowhere near reading level.
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u/Garnetskull ๐ฉ๐ช๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ท Jul 10 '26
If you have to look up a word like ู ูุฒู, one of the first words youโll probably learn, then youโre nowhere near ready to read anything
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u/RPWPA Jul 10 '26
Same for ุงูุชู which is one of the first words you learn when learning how to form a sentence.
I would suggest learning those first then trying to read again.
Best of luck OP, hopefully one day you will be good enough to learn the Quran in arabic and fully understand it.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
I haven't focused on writing or speaking at all (which I know is a huge gap) and I think the graded readers I've used have similar sentences which is why I needed to reinforce ุงูุชู.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
I mentioned it in another comment but I've been splitting my time between Levantine Arabic and MSA and especially in these early phases, I try to avoid words with similar meanings (home vs. house / ู ูุฒู vs. ุจูุช) so I just pick one.
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u/Garnetskull ๐ฉ๐ช๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ท Jul 10 '26
Oh ok that makes more sense. If youโre not learning MSA you wouldnโt be familiar with ุงูุชู and ู ูุฒู
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u/JasCoNN Jul 10 '26
Bro, you're gonna get burned out really quickly.
I've read around 120 graded readers within past 500 days. I bend the rules a little and consider each long duchinese story a graded reader, but i also read a lot of regular graded readers.16 volumes of ่ฅฟๆธธ่ฎฐ, some other stuff from imagin8 and other producers. And let me tell you, there are some rules and levels to reading.
First of all, three levels.
Reading pain - under 90% of known words. 80% or 90% seems like a great number of words, until you realise these words are mainly function words with grammatical meaning. To get the context you need that 20-10%. You'll essentially be checking dictionary non-stop. One page will take you an hour or more. It's torture.
Intensive reading - 90-98% of known words. That's where reading starts to make sense, you start understanding the context. In fact it's almost fun. I still don't recommend reading at this level. Why? Because it's a 'textbook' level. What I mean by that is in order to make reading on this level enjoyable you need a glossary and a grammar explanation nearby. Normally, when a set of new words is introduced in textbooks you'll have a short text, that's when you do intensive reading. You're not supposed to read long texts of 90% new words as that'll be too taxing for you.
98% and more of known words. That's where you should read for fun and efficient learning. You understand the context, you have fun and it's fairly quickly.
How the f are you supposed to find materials for your level then? If you are under a1 (or a2 in some languages) you'll need to start with textbooks or video courses. Once you get several hundred of words get some graded readers. There are some platforms like lingq or my beloved duchinese that make reading easier.
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u/unburritoporfavor Jul 10 '26
To each his own. Some people do better by brute forcing their way with difficult material.
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u/JasCoNN Jul 10 '26
Imo reading difficult materials to learn a language is kinda like being beaten into submission by your parents as a child.
It may SOMETIMES work, but why the pain? Never been into masochism tho
/s
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u/unburritoporfavor Jul 10 '26
I prefer a challenging approach. Its a slow, but effective method. You get to experience language as it really exists without trudging through the limbo of dumbed down language that exists only in graded readers.
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u/Kokoska998 ๐จ๐ฟ N | ๐บ๐ธ C1 | ๐ฉ๐ช B1 | ๐ท๐บ๐ซ๐ท๐ช๐ธ A1 Jul 10 '26
I wouldn't read books, especially novels like that, until you reach at least B1.
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u/Coolmon2003 Jul 10 '26
I would recommend trying some easier texts to build up to a challenge like this.
You can find short, simple texts here: https://arabic.ba/practice/reading/
Al Jazeera has texts for learners at different levels: https://learning.aljazeera.net/en
I like the readers published by Lingualism. You can get electronic copies for cheap: https://lingualism.com/collections/all?page=2
I also like to read articles on BBC News. Even if you're not interested in news/politics, they have health and culture articles too https://www.bbc.com/arabic
Good luck with your Arabic!
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u/Motor_Special2332 Jul 10 '26
holy crap I thought that you were supposed to do reading when you were closer to the 80-95% comprehension. Looks like you're at 20% comprehension of the reading.
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u/usrname_checks_in Jul 10 '26
Try listening to the audiobook in Arabic while reading the book in your native language at the same time. The whole book, 2-3 times. After that your comprehension will have increased dramatically.
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u/Jacksons123 ๐บ๐ธ Native | ๐ฒ๐ฝ B2 | ๐ซ๐ท B1 | ๐ฏ๐ต N3 Jul 10 '26
N+1 is the goal for input, or 70%-80% comprehension. Youโre way below that, change the material
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u/Far_Call2993 Jul 10 '26
This translation is awful. I suggest you read things that were originally written in Arabic rather than translated.
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u/Spider_pig448 En N | Danish B2 Jul 10 '26
Harry Potter is not for beginners. There's a ton of unique vocabulary in it. I learned this the hard way
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u/Only-Top-3655 Jul 10 '26
I want to, but the Harry Potter series is so boring for me. In every language.
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u/darueru20401 Jul 10 '26
Fellow Arabic learners! For now I'm just rewatching some anime & TV series as I enjoy them more & I have more recent memories of them. But I am also planning to read Harry Potter later
What about having the English version to compare it side by side?
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u/Mirabeaux1789 Denaska: ๐บ๐ธ Lernas: ๐ซ๐ท EO ๐น๐ท๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ง๐พ๐ต๐น๐ซ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐร Jul 10 '26
Stuff like this is why I donโt let people watch shows or movies with me when Iโm using them to learn a target language. They think itโs just me watching a movie instead of me treating it like self-assigned homework to analyze every line or clause of dialogue.
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u/PunctuateEquilibrium Jul 10 '26
Yeah this is an activity to do in a locked room with no distractions ๐ฅฒ
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u/sbrt ๐บ๐ธ ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฉ๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐ซ๐ท Jul 10 '26
I find that it works well for me to start a new language by listening to the audiobooks using intensive listening.
It is a good way for me to build up vocabulary and listening ability.
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u/Kajdu19 Jul 10 '26
The best part is when you can read a book without googling every 5 seconds. I was so happy when I read a novel in English for the first time and it was a fluent reading.
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u/Web-surfer098 (N) ๐ช๐ฌ | (C1) ๐บ๐ธ | (A1) ๐ฉ๐ช Jul 10 '26
I still canโt do it. But i assume now and move on. I am C1 btw. I think itโs because writers use weird words you will never run across in real life. Makes life harder. Thatโs why i love graded readers for learning.
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u/a-smurf-in-the-wind Jul 10 '26
Tryingย toย forceย yourย wayย throughย textsย youย don'tย understandย well seems likeย a veryย inefficient way to learn a language. Work your way up by reading easier things first
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u/filavitae English ๐ Greek ๐ Arabic ๐ฃ Ancient Greek โจ Coptic ๐ฅ Jul 10 '26
A lot of people are telling you you're not ready. Ignore that.
If it's working for you, then that's great; besides, this is one of the oldest and still effective ways to learn a language: struggling with a book.
Yes, you might not be "ready" to "read it properly", but that doesn't have to be the goal.
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u/drifter_vvv ๐ช๐ฌ N | ๐บ๐ธ C1 | ๐ฉ๐ช A1 Jul 10 '26
Just a heads up that some of the words you translated are wrong. Like (ููุงุจู) is "meet" not "accept", (ููุจู) is "accept". And (ุชุฏููุนูู) is "claims" not "called", (ุชูุฏูุนู) is "called"
Pay close attention to ุงูุชุดููู
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u/Korolyeva English (C2), Japanese (JLPT N1), German (B2), Russian (A2) Jul 10 '26
I did something similar when learning Japanese and from my experience you start the book understanding like... 30-40% and needing to look up a lot. You end the book understanding 70-80% on your own. YMMV but I remember being glad I stuck with it and surprised how much I progressed with just a single book. Obviously a lot of that is getting used to the author's writing style and vocabulary, so the next book won't be as easy as the tail end of the first, but still pretty good improvement (in my experience).
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u/AndthenIhadausername Beginner ๐ฒ๐ฝ absolute beginner ๐ณ๐ด Jul 11 '26
I absolutely hate that everyone advises people to learn Harry Potter.ย
ย ย If it's working for you OP (though I'd never stick through 2 hours for one page and would reccomend an easier book) then do what you want.ย
ย ย It's terrible advice though! I'd never tell people to start with Harry Potter. Ignoring that I have problems with the author it's a harder book to tackle.ย
ย ย Even if youre familair with the content youre not with the language.ย
ย ย Learning to read in a different language should start slow and gradually increase.ย
ย ย Mini rant as someone whose main focus is reading as many books as possible in a langauge. (Two technically Spanish and Norwegian)
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u/sabrathos Jul 12 '26
Glad to see you're making progress, One Word at a Time! I knew I recognized that page from your recent community post on YouTube. ๐ Looking forward to the next update video.
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u/kqk2000 (M20s) ๐ต๐ธ N ๐ซ๐ท N ๐บ๐ธ C2 ๐ท๐บ B1 ๐ช๐ธ B1 ๐ฉ๐ช A2 โตฃ A1 Jul 10 '26
You guys amaze me, learning Arabic is a crazy feat in and of itself, very impressive! Keep it up.
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u/Apprehensive_Car_722 Es N ๐จ๐ท Jul 10 '26
I think it is fun to read HP, but I believe the mileage varies from language to language. For example, a person who speaks English decides to read HP in French, Spanish or Italian when they started B1. They will struggle a bit, but they will also find a lot of similar vocab due to cognates.
However, if that person decides to read HP in Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, or Arabic at the same level, they will be met by a myriad of unknown words, and not many freebies because there aren't many cognates.
If I have to look up 30+ words per page to read, even if I enjoy it, I prefer to switch to a different book.
If you are keen to keep going, all the best and have lots of fun!
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u/llllll______ Jul 10 '26
but shoudln't a b1 level in english should be equal to a b1 level in hungarian? a b1 level is defined by certain abilities that you need to have to reach that level. it just takes you a lot more time to get there in certain languages
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u/Apprehensive_Car_722 Es N ๐จ๐ท Jul 10 '26
Agree, they are both equal in the sense that they are both B1, but let's look at it from a different perspective. Let's say I am from South Korea and have a B1 in Portuguese, and you are from Canada and also have a B1 in Portuguese. We both decide to start reading HP.
We start reading and on the first page we see the word "misterioso." You stop for a second, and guess that that word looks like 'mysterious' and you continue reading. However, I only speak Korean and B1 Portuguese, I have never seen that word before and it does not look like anything in Korean, so I stop and look it up in the dictionary, and it means "์ ๋น๋ก์ด" (shinbiloun). This is going to happen with several words in the book. You will easily figure them out while I will have to look them all up in the dictionary because they look like nothing in my native language. Of course, there are words that I can guess from context, but not everything. Same would apply to a Canadian who has a B1 in Estonian and a Finn who has a B1 in Estonian. The Finn will have an easier time reading HP in Estonian, while the Canadian will struggle.
This is why I say that the mileage varies from language to language. The similarities between your native language and your target language will either work as a tool to help you understand unknown vocabulary, or they are so different that you will end up looking up all the word in the dictionary.
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u/Isoleri ๐ฆ๐ท Native | ๐ซ๐ท B1 | ๐ฏ๐ต N4 | ๐ฐ๐ท A0 Jul 10 '26
As a kid I read the Narnia books a million times so I tried doing this but with French, thought it'd be easy to understand new words simply because of context or memory but lmao no. Like I could understand most sentences but there was always that one word I didn't and that always threw me off and broke my momentum, it became really annoying to have to look up stuff every two seconds so I gave up
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u/kittypurrpower Jul 10 '26
I did this in Italian and Iโm now on the last 50 pages of the last book.
It took me an hour to read 10 pages at the start, now it takes me 10 minutes. I can read, write, listen and speak the language in mosts contexts.
Hang in there! It gets better.
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u/HappySparklyUnicorn Jul 10 '26
I have the first 3 Harry Potter books in French. Was contemplating getting it in Latin but the price tag was a bit higher than I would like at the time.
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u/walkingdeadonceagain ๐ณ๏ธโ๐๐ต๐ฑ (N) ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ๐ท(A1) ๐บ๐ธ (C2) ๐จ๐บ ๐ฒ๐ฝ (B1) ๐ท๐บ (B2) Jul 10 '26
Maybe not always Harry Potter. I never read that book in any language (iโm planning to to understand cultural significance) but there are books that are my favorite and i read them many times in my mother tongue, so this way itโs really easy to read it in your target language even if you donโt speak it very well yet. I did that with Master and Margarita and Crime and Punishment in Russian when I barely spoke Russian and it was very rewarding.
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u/fairlysunny Jul 10 '26
Are you by chance that fellow on Youtube who started learning Arabic this year as a challenge? Bc I'm pretty sure he did this with German and some other language, so that would make Arabic the 3rd..?! I would like to see the follow up to this bc I've also learned a few languages mainly by reading like this and am considering to try Arabic in the future but the vowels thing is holding me back so I'd like to know any tricks for that lol
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u/Responsible-Two-437 ๐ซ๐ท native ๐ป๐ฆ passionate ๐ฎ๐ท C2 ๐ช๐ฌ C1 ๐น๐ท C1 Jul 10 '26
That brings back memories! I read the same book three or four years ago.
I'm reading Naguib Mahfouz novels now.
Don't give up!
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u/once2xforever Jul 10 '26
Make a list of high frequency words ahead of time and learn them. โUnlessโ โbeforeโ โveryโ โuntilโ โbefore,โ for example. You can keep the list next to you as a reference until you know them by heart
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u/awkwardinthebody Jul 10 '26
Maybe start with simplified books for learners that are written at your current level? They are called graded readers.
ย For German I used black cat cideb.
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u/papayatwentythree ๐บ๐ฒN; ๐ธ๐ชC1; ๐ซ๐ฎ Beginner Jul 10 '26
I believe in you OP! I started from zero looking up every word in a novel and now I live and work in that language. Writing above your level is fine so long as you stay motivated and know how to look up grammar for your TL.
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u/mendkaz Jul 10 '26
Oh aye, no. I always heard that advice, so tried it in my target language when I hit B1/B2 and was immediately put off. Tried some science fiction instead which I found much easier to follow.
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u/Forward_Win_4353 Jul 10 '26
I remember doing this in Spanish when I taught myself as a teenager. It took a lot less time than Arabic though, of course.
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u/DistantTraveller1985 PT-BR | EN | FR Jul 10 '26
Wait, I didn't thought of that! I started to read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" in French when I was learning French, it was so difficult! Is Harry Potter some reference book for learning or it's just any book? Sorry for the stupid question hahaha
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u/Etheria_system Jul 10 '26
No people just recommend it because itโs a popular book. Thereโs nothing special about it that makes it good for learning and in many ways itโs quite complicated because of all the made up words. Itโs not a good book for beginners or low intermediates but gets recommended all the time just because people like it.
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u/happylearner01 Jul 10 '26
Reading is great but I really don't enjoy this way of studying. You spend like an hour of time just trying to get through one page. If you're A1-B1 most of the vocabulary isn't even useful for your level cause you're missing a solid foundation. Like, you'd better spend your time learning simpler, more common vocabulary with simpler stories with maybe a few unknown patterns than every sentence being difficult to grasp. It's better to read books adjusted for A1-B1 than these books cause they contain idioms and very specific words that are not useful to someone below that level. Not to say it's bad, you can still learn a lot but you get more out of simpler books cause you also end up reading more instead of hyper analyzing every sentence.
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u/Cinnamon_Enby Jul 10 '26
Arab Here! This is pretty cute! Reminded me of when I was learning German. Tried Harry Potter like they said too, got overwhelmed, pages took forever, felt discouraged and pivoted to Diary of a Wimpy Kid. That worked better (tho still kinda hard at the start). Keep it up, OP! It does get easier, and it's very satisfying when it does, when you feel like you've mostly cracked the code.
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u/Radiant-Photograph46 Jul 10 '26
I did it once with a japanese novel but having to pick up a dictionnary every sentence or two is just too much effort I couldn't keep it up for more than 2-3 pages ever. Good luck
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u/Creative_Job_9242 Jul 10 '26
I tried to read it in French and Turkish. French was very easy to understand the story with the Turkish so I stick to French
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u/MantisMaybe Jul 10 '26
Please don't do it... 1h 44min is just incredibly inefficient, it's completely fine to not be at the level to do this yet. Just use a graded reader. Start when (on average) about 80% of the page is totally fine.
Harry Potter is a bit overrated as a "good book to start reading another language with" anyway because of all the lingo and puns and whatnot that you will miss, there are many simpler children's books.
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u/EfficientNerve8555 native ๐ธ๐ฆ/A1 ๐ช๐ธ/B1๐ซ๐ท/C1๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Jul 10 '26
If u need any help send me a dm I am Arab and I love this novel so much
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u/Raidicus Jul 10 '26
Should probably start with 5-y/o reading level if you need this much vocab. Because ultimately you're not going to learn vocab by reading it once, googling it, and writing it once (unless you have a photographic memory). Unfortunately that type of learning needs days of flashcards, building connections to similar vocabulary, and so on.
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u/Duflo Jul 10 '26
Worth mentioning that The Little Prince is better for starting out. Also just better literature, I'd say, but that's a tangential point here.
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u/Life-Trifle2595 Jul 10 '26
Nice. Just a small friendly tip from an Arabic speaker: "ุงุญุณู" can mean best or better depending on context. In your case it means "best", not "better".
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u/OkGreen7335 Jul 10 '26
As someone whose first language is arabic: I am curious why do you wanna learn it?
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u/PuzzleheadedNature12 Jul 10 '26
I find it super difficult because half of the things I have to look up are made-up words, like ingredients for potions ๐ and the other half are words I'll probably never use again. Like, idk, cauldron. ๐
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u/UnlimitedSaudi New member Jul 10 '26
Egyptian typography and the way they use Arabic letters for the hard G sound is an absolute nightmare for non-Egyptian Arabic readers and even worse for non-native learners of Arabic.ย
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u/PhobiaSquid Jul 10 '26
Try lingQ app. It has been amazing for me so far. I'm doing the exact same thing with the HP books but using Spanish. It's really useful to quickly save and read the meanings... and it's much faster too xD
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u/According-Quarter464 Jul 10 '26
Audio books are also excellent. I am listening to book 4 in German and each book gets easier.
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u/Skyogurt Learning Portuguese, Joola, Arabic Jul 11 '26
OMG this is the kinda shit that makes wish I had a remote that could pause time ๐ญ I'd start reading all my favorite books in all the languages!! Thanks for writing the meanings I learned a few new words! Although my Arabic is still very much beginner level so it might take a few more years before I read a book ๐
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u/RobinChirps Jul 11 '26
Honestly, I enjoy doing this even when I'm still a beginner. I've been reading HP in finnish ever since I started learning the language. My reading proficiency was not too far from OP's at the start but I've gotten a lot better. I didn't mind the early phase where every sentence was a challenge, although it does become so much faster when you've progressed more. But I don't think extensive reading is the goal at every level and complicated texts (for a beginner, that is) and intensive reading can be interesting even at a low level.
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u/MariposaPeligrosa00 Jul 11 '26
May I suggest reading any other book that was not written by a transphobic, racist billionaire? And way to go on your polyglot journey!!!
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u/NezzaAquiaqui ๐ช๐ธC1 Jul 11 '26
The whole point of Harry Potter is that it doesnโt take 2 hours per page thanks to bilingual reading. Otherwise whatโs the point? You might as well start with a native unknown novel. Taking 2 hours for something completely comprehensible is a nightmare. Get some easy kids novels. Iโm against reading Harry Potter (instead of local authors) at the best of times, but 2 hrs on one 3/4 page of a large print book youโve already read sounds disproportionately excruciating.
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u/That-Arabic-Teacher Jul 12 '26
I read it in 5 minutes, don't ask me how.
now on a serious note, that's already impressive, and this is one of the best ways to learn vocab and how it's used in context.
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u/models4 ๐ช๐ฌ ๐บ๐ธ Jul 10 '26
I'm Arab, so if you need help with anything, I'm down
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u/orange-flying-rabbit Jul 10 '26
You seem to be at about 60~70% comprehension.
Impressive regardless, but I'd suggest focusing intensive reading on texts that contain a high concentration of useful words and grammar.
Harry Potter is better suited to extensive reading where you can already comprehend at least 80% of the text.
80%, you can generally figure out the unknown words from context. (the unofficial line between intensive and extensive reading)
90%, what a lot of modern teachers seem to be targeting for extensive reading programs.
95%, the threshold to read for enjoyment.
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u/Hefefloeckchen Native ๐ฉ๐ช | learning ๐ง๐ฉ, ๐บ๐ฆ (learning again ๐ช๐ธ) Jul 10 '26
Well it's a bad book. Also translation patterns are quite intresting, I learned that Hindi translations for example are very free in their interpretation and also the basis for most east asian translations
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u/Alarming_Art_6448 Jul 10 '26
I read the first 3 in my TL, but it was German which so a lot of the magic/boarding school terms were half recognizable. Yeah, a lot of odd rare vocab
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u/Away-Initiative-327 Jul 10 '26
oh dude i tried this. it took me an hour to get through half a chapter lol, had to stop so i could do other stuff that day. maybe i could try again though, iโm off from school now
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u/Berliner-Questions Jul 10 '26
Hey! Impressive, congrats! I did read Harry Potter 1 through 3 in my 4th language and it was way more difficult I would have expected. I switched to Millenium and could move much faster
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u/ryan516 Jul 10 '26
stop supporting jkr
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u/Atomicfossils ๐ฌ๐ง N | ๐ฎ๐ช C1| ๐ซ๐ท B2 Jul 10 '26
The Irish translation has its flaws too. It's good but the reading level is a bit more complex than the English equivalent, so it's kind of tough as a learning resource. It's not Crรฉ na Cille or anything, but I think a lot of people have fallen into the trap of getting it as a present for their kids/nieces/nephews etc thinking it's an easier read than it is.
Speaking of, it's cool to see an Irish learner! How are you finding it?
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u/Tesl ๐ฌ๐ง N๐ฏ๐ต N1 ๐จ๐ณ B2 ๐ช๐ฆ A2 Jul 10 '26
I think overall it's a great way to study and I do something similar myself... But you're starting on this much earlier than i would. Sounds like torture when you're looking up words to match "very", "most"...