Recommend me something in your first language!

[Buffy Summers]

We have members here in our community from a large variety of countries - and as a language learner I’m trying to find some “easy” books and tv shows to help with my comprehension. So recommend those “easy read” and easy to understand books and shows in your own language. What did you read and watch when you were younger, or what have you found since that would be suitable for someone learning your language?

 

[famicommander]

Well, English was my first language but I took four years of Japanese classes in high school and while learning I found that it helped to watch media I was already interested in anyway without subtitles in Japanese. I love baseball and no matter what language the announcers are speaking I have a pretty good idea what's going on, so after watching a few games I started to pick up on what the commentators were saying. Same thing for Japanese pro wrestling, anime, TV dramas, and even video games.

As far as books, I never actually read any novels in Japanese but I did read some manga. I'd already read Dragon Ball in English so it wasn't too hard to pick up on the Japanese, even though the script wasn't necessarily a 1:1 translation.

 

[Buffy Summers]

English speakers can absolutely recommend things in English - plenty of people here whose first language is not English 🙂

 

[nightshade]

Not remotely easy, nor would I really recommend doing it, but for some unknown reason I started to read Les Miserable in French. I hadn't read it in English and yeah, not easy and I never got more than a few pages in, and I had only done high school French years earlier!

 

[Antho]

Not remotely easy, nor would I really recommend doing it, but for some unknown reason I started to read Les Miserable in French. I hadn't read it in English and yeah, not easy and I never got more than a few pages in, and I had only done high school French years earlier!

This is the edition I do have. Do you have this one you too ?

 

[Plasma]

Unconventional answer, but if any members are looking to learn English, I’ve read elsewhere that comic books are actually a great point to start with.

The characters’ body language usually conveys whatever they are saying, so it’s easier to understand phrases and words thanks to the visual reference. Character names also tend to stay the same across languages for copyright purposes, so if someone is pointing at a villain and saying, “Look, it’s (villain). Let’s stop him,” it’s easier to grasp than it would be in a novel or textbook format, since you know who the character is that is being referred to. They also aren’t so long that it gets exhausting for new learners, and they’re relatively cheap so it doesn’t cost much to begin.

🙂

 

[ILLYRIAN]

@Buffy Summers,
I looked at that cover (as above) but it seemed all wrong. Is that girls picture on the front of Victor Hugo?
I tried to read the cover of the book but couldn't do that either, then I discovered that it was a hard backed book and I was reading a dust cover. That explained it all to me as the dust was in Braille, imagine my dismay to discover the braille was French.

Should you want an easy to read book in my home language I would recommend The Oxford (Australian) Students Dictionary. Although I must agree with you if you describe it as not a fun read.

 

[Puppet]

I think Disney films are a good place to start, as they have been translated into most languages around the world. Personally, I'd say The Lion King to anyone wanting to learn Danish; the Danish translation of both the film and the soundtrack has been praised particularly.

 

[whatdBuffyDo]

Gülten Dayıoğlu has good books for children. I used to read them a lot. There must be many more authors I used to read as a kid but I need to check on them later.

I can’t remember a cartoon from my childhood that wasn’t made in a foreign country. So I’m just going to use this thread to suggest good cultural products. 😄

There is a good documentary named “Kedi” from 2016 that films Istanbul’s quirky people and cats with personalities.

I don’t know if this one’s language is easy but it’s on Netflix. “Bir Başkadır” also known as “Ethos” is a very good miniseries from 2021 which draws a pretty good picture of the society in Turkey. It has very good dialogue, nuanced speaking styles for different socioeconomic groups and ethnicities. Filmmaking is really good as well. But this series could be a later step in language learning process.

I can always recommend songs 😀

These are examples of Turkish Classical music, a genre that has its roots in traditional Ottoman music and is different from Western music in its instruments and musical system, sung by Zeki Müren, a prominent classical singer in 20th century. The language here is very clean.

Following are examples of Anatolian Rock, a genre that fuses folk songs with rock music and lots of psychedelic rock elements, by Erkin Koray, again a prominent representative of Anatolian Rock. Language is also pretty clean.

This song is more recent, by Manga, a favourite group of my childhood. This has a lot of idioms and expressions so understanding it could be a bit harder.

 

[whatdBuffyDo]

@Plasma No, I’m not 😄 Why are you surprised, is my writing so good or something, hehe? 😜

 

[sk]

For Swedish I would go for books by Astrid Lindgren.
Mostly aimed for kids but many of them brilliant even for adults.

Some of the best if you're older is "Bröderna Lejonhjärta" and "Mio min Mio".
Others might be easier to read perhaps, I don't really know... but those are good books for any age.

/SK

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Then there is The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchett. He was later to be knighted to be Sir Terry Pratchett.
You'll notice the spelling of color it was there to answer your question about recommending something in my language.