Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Harry Potter und der Stein Weisen

I'm sure I've mentioned this before - I'm reading Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (German edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
1 in German. Well, now I've been reading it for a lot longer. It's really slow going, because I translate with the English book either line by line or paragraph by paragraph. I've made it to Chapter 5, page 49 in the English Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone
and page 70 in the German book. At first, I was really surprised just how hard it was to read. I remember the first time I read the book (in English) it took maybe a day, and I've heard of people doing it a lot faster. I've been reading this one for a couple of months (admittedly off and on with a novel and books on the West Coast Trail). I think the first 10 pages took me a week. I feel like I'm making some real progress. I'm understanding more and more of the German, which makes the storey flow a lot more. Don't get me wrong, it's still very slow. Sometime I won't understand any words in a whole section, but most of the time I'm getting at least a few words. I'm even getting some sentences right. I usually try to read the German first and then the English, but sometimes I get tired and do it the other way around - much easier.

I'm also really enjoying the story. I remember almost scanning parts of the story the first time I read it, to advance the plot faster. The first one really is a kids book, so not that much happens. Because I'm forced to slow down, I'm appreciating both the story and details that I might not otherwise have noticed. I don't have anything specific. I think I've seen the movies enough that I've skipped a lot of the details of the book in my memory. The books are so rich with detail compared with the movies (don't get me wrong, still love the movies too).

Chapter 6, here I come.

Unrelated: I was going to do a write up of Saskatoon, but if you'd like to hear about that, read the Sills post on it at http://www.thesills.net/. Oh, and the hotel had a water slide. Funsies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Heather, I felt EXACTLY the same when I read the first one! Glad that you are understanding more and enjoying it! When you're ready for 2-7 let me know.

Bridget