At last. It was about time! - English-Thread #1

[BDraw]

I tend to stick to whatever language I read the book or watched the movie in first, simply because it makes it easier to understand references. The last time I noticed that was when I read the last volume of Harry Potter. Due to the great localization in German, I recognized next to none of the spells or made-up words at first. (Even though "to disappear" made a whole lot of more sense than "disapparrieren". Well, duh.) ._.
However, I prefer Sitcoms in their original language. Especially the ones like How I met your Mother oder Big Bang Theory, because there are so many puns that are hard to translate that they tend to get lost in the process of localization, even though I think that the dub is actually quite good.

What seems to be a big problem in adapting movies, book, whatsoever to anouther country, is the fact, that most of the voice actors just try to copy the style of the original voice. While some succeed, most of them fail - for example (female) german voice actors who try to copy the japanese ones. It just dont work out.

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That's something I only found in anime localizations thus far. I think it wouldn't be so bad if they chose a certain style and stuck with it at least, but in a lot of cases, every voice actor pronounces names differently. :/

By the way, did anyone of you read Eragon in English? I noticed that the last volume had a few chapters that sounded really odd in German, as if someone translated them simply word-for-word without paying attention to the style. I'd really like to know whether it really was the translator's fault or simply Paolini's writing being beyond words. :/

[Olman]

By the way, did anyone of you read Eragon in English? I noticed that the last volume had a few chapters that sounded really odd in German, as if someone translated them simply word-for-word without paying attention to the style. I'd really like to know whether it really was the translator's fault or simply Paolini's writing being beyond words. :/

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I read parts 1-3 in English. Haven't bothered with the latest volume yet though. Would you recommend reading it?
I usually make a point of finishing a series of novels once I've started it, since otherwise all the time spent on reading (and, in my case, re-reading the first volumes) seems wasted if you don't find out how it all ends. But in the case of Inheritance, I'm not keen on reading it if it turns out to be a total let-down, as some people have said...

[BDraw]

If you're really keen on knowing how it ends, then read it. I wouldn't recommend buying it for any other reason, though. :/
Well, it's vastly different compared to the series' beginning, mainly because of Roran getting lots of action and Eragon doing nothing. It's a bit like volume 3: Lots of war and tactics, but only little interaction between the main characters. If you enjoyed Brisingr, there's a good chance you'll like this one as well.
However, the ending is easily the most anti-climatic thing I've ever read. So if you're mainly interested in just how Eragon will manage to finally defeat Galbatorix and don't care about the rest - stay away from the book.
Just about every single plottwist was also beyond bad. Deus Ex Machina seems to be the author's middle name.
Angela plays an important role, however, and she's great. Stupidly broken in terms of power and completely irrelevant to the story for the most part, but great none the less.

Angela: "Oh noez, these bloody shackles are unbreakable! But incidentally, I've got this totally awesome sword with me that can cut through virtually everything except it's own scabbard! My, aren't we lucky today!" *ca-tching!*

[Turgon]

The only book I read in english, was the fourth book of "The Runelords", because the first three were published in german, but the fourth not.
So I had to read this one in english to know how the first saga ends.
I also read the the first "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"-Comic and Watchmen, which are really good!
If you like the Watchmen movie, you like the comic too, I think, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is completely different to the movie, but also a lot of fun to read.
Well ok, I had to use an online dictionary very often, but it was worth it

[Glannaragh]

First book I read in English was "Lord of the Rings"... during my English advanced course, while wie were made watching movies in German. Best A-level preparation imaginable . Well, my teacher was a bloke. Honestly.

[Turgon]

When I read Lord of the Rings in german, I thought it's hard to read(well I was pretty young then).
So I don't want to know how difficult the english version is^^'
A friend of mine watched the movies in english in preperation for his english abitur.

Edit: Well I have to add that those three books, I mentioned, were the first books I read by my choice.
Which book was the very first I dont remember. The only thing for sure is that it was some boring book, we had to read in the english class...

[Glannaragh]

When I read Lord of the Rings in german, I thought it's hard to read(well I was pretty young then).
So I don't want to know how difficult the english version is^^'
A friend of mine watched the movies in english in preperation for his english abitur.

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Not that hard in English. But I've always had a love for the English language that not even several bad teachers could spoil (yes, I've never had a good English teacher, though the last one was the worst. Luckily, teachers in literally all other subjects were at least all right and planted a a kind of interest in what they taught in my mind). I should have read a couple of other novels for English classes, but, to be honest, I never completed one of them. Turned out it wasn't necessary to do that to pass tests well .
Second novel I read in English (or American English) was 'Hannibal' by Thomas Harris. You know, Hannibal the cannibal. At least, I think you know the movie "Silence of the lambs" with Anthony Hopkins. They made a movie off the Hannibal novel too, but I didn't like that. But I remember, it was a big deal and nearly scandalous when it was shown across cinemas... I think more than ten years ago .
Anyways, that was tough to read in the beginning. Concerning language, definitely not what one learns at school .

[Auratus]

When I read Lord of the Rings in german, I thought it's hard to read(well I was pretty young then).
So I don't want to know how difficult the english version is^^'

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Same happened to me with Harry Potter. German version was quite smooth to read, then I got english version from my cousin and found some adjectives I have never seen before >_< Thank god I got some years ago a dictionary, "over 55 000 words and sayings". That really saved my butt.

[Ave]

I think it is good and necessary to read books in english, but I would never start with Harry Potter or something like that. I really hate it to it to look up every second word in the dict. It destroys the feeling and you can't follow the plot. The last book I've read in english was "Thirteen Reasons Why". A book about a girl who commited suicide and left some cassette tapes, talking about the 13 people who destroyed her life. The protagonist is one of those people. It's really a great book and everybody should have read it once in his life! - At the moment I'm reading " The Kite Runner" a very difficult book to read. The vocab is very hard and you need knowledge about the background in afghanistan. My english teacher forced me to read it, what a lucky fellow I am. /:

[Auratus]

Well, my cousins thought was "You know the story already, so now you can improve your english a little bit." Well, after 20 pages, I had definitively enough.

And my condolence, Aventor. You should ask him why he chose this book.

[Turgon]

Good Morning Vietnam!
Well, it's me again ressurecting this thread
Tonight is a party, but I dont know if I should go. Why? The problem is, I know just one person, who goes to the party, and this person knows many others. So I'm pretty sure most of the time I'm going to be either alone and drinking or standing by many people I don't know and drinking^^"
So what would you do? Go to the party or stay at home?

[kate@net]

That depends on the party. What are you doing there? Is it only drinking and talking? Is there a motto? Or anything intresting...
And you can always meet new people. You don't have to be shy, because you don't know anybody there yet.

[Turgon]

It's a public party. So it's all about talking, drinking and dancing, I think.
It's true that I don't have to be shy, but I'm shy, don't matter what I do Up to this time I couldn't get rid of being shy, although I try^^