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Another approach that can be interesting for advanced learners, i.e. you have taken classes for a couple of years[+] and are living in the target language country:

If you've enjoyed a non-fiction book in English, for example, pick up the equivalent translation in your target language. It lets you compare and contrast; and the experience can also be richer.

This definitely requires good discipline, but it is rewarding :-)

[+] using the reference "B2" or "C1" from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_R...



I heard that people used to use the Bible for this purpose. I pulled this trick with The Hobbit.

Be wary though, not all translations are created equal, there might be errors or divergences.

I remember the Russian version translated "I will go so far as to send you on this adventure" incorrectly as "I went all this way because of you" or some such. (And a number of other blunders of this sort.)

Also one of the Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books had "men-of-war" translated to Czech as literally "warriors".

It's a good approach overall though.


The Bible is commonly used because some Christians consider it a duty to ensure everyone everyone can read the word of God. That means they need to translate the Bible and make it available to people who often don't have money. If you want to learn one of the languages everyone else is learning (this is different in different parts of the world) there is no problem, but outside of that set of 5 there are few resources and many are bad. You can always count on a reasonable good Bible translation no matter what your target language is though. For the vast majority of languages (which are rare languages only used by a small number of people) the Bible is the only option.


Also, for Christians, the exact wording of the Bible is critically important. Well-used translations for any significant language will be scrupulous. The problem is the language used will be archaic, because changing the wording is a big deal.


Nowadays, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone should be a good option, with about 78 translations. There are often audio books too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_in_translation


Compare that to https://wycliffenz.org/about/our-work/bible-translation-stat... which claims 683 full translations, 1534 new testament (complete enough for language learning), and 3350 with at least something translated (maybe not enough to learn the language)




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