What I get from J K Rowling

Pre Harry Potter, J K Rowling was once an ESL teacher. She knows a couple of foreign languages too. She's an active individual. She twits, or tweets, with regularity.

But of course, it's her writing that I have to thank her for. Harry Potter is the main thing that I got - or am getting - from J K Rowling. 

Not so much the books themselves, but the fact that they have been translated into (to date) 74 languages. That fact makes the seven-volume series a wonderful language-learning resource.

Thank you, J K Rowling (and sundry translators).

Language mix-ing it up

So yesterday I cycle down to the local Mac after tea with my 6-year old. We've lights for getting back in the dark. I order a small latte and she's satisfied with milk.

Anyway, at one stage I've got Harry Potter going in German--both audio and text. Following along nicely understanding most of it. For fun I open the Norwegian audiobook. Listen to it while using the German e-book to read. It's a blast!

The languages that I choose to do are to a large extent going to be determined by what resources are available. There's a lot of Polish and Swedish out there (torrents) not to mention Dutch and and a few others.

Next time I'll work out my initial starting points for the languages I've looked at so far. For example:

• Dutch: can understand 75%, can guess the other 25%
• German: understand 50%, guess another 25%
• Swedish: understand 15% guess 25%
• Norwegian: understand 10% guess 20%