Reading different material in different languages

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As a Chinese Singaporean, I read English and Chinese. English is our working language, so I read the English papers and magazines like Time and Reader's Digest for current affairs. Most of the books I read are in English too.

As for Chinese, I tend to read more entertainment magazines (because I follow Chinese music and TV) and translations of Japanese books. There are some Chinese authors whose works I enjoy reading as well.

There are two types of Chinese text - traditional Chinese that is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese communities outside Asia, and simplified Chinese which is used in China, Singapore and Malaysia. The Chinese I learnt to write in school is simplified Chinese, with fewer strokes. But because a lot of Chinese entertainment news comes from Taiwan which uses the traditional script, I learnt how to read it by checking the dictionary a lot (simplified Chinese dictionaries also indicate the traditional forms of those words which were simplified).

If I happen to come across an interesting looking Reader's Digest in traditional Chinese I usually can read it. But once when I was feeling stressed and tried to read one of those issues to relax, I got overwhelmed by trying to decipher the characters and went to find something else to read.

What's the situation like for others here who also read in more than one language?

Some stuff I read in English, some in Dutch. I follow news websites in both languages. My university gives subjects in both languages. The only special thing I have is that I feel the need to keep everything in the same language: if a subject is in English, then I want to write my notes in English and I want to do the test in English.

I find I prefer English, though, especially in books (I prefer to read books in the original language). I think English is a beautiful language and I seem to have a better 'feel' for it than for Dutch.

^ this exactly.
for some reason, i started to also think in english, though being raised dutch.

i am also one of the only ones i know that can switch seamlessly between dutch and english.
often, if i'm speaking in one of the two languages and hear only a single word in the other, i switch to the other language almost mid-word, without even realising. this happens mostly dutch->english, but it does occur the other way around.

i can also have a perfectly gramatically correct dutch conversation while typing in english, without mistakes in my english as well (providing i can concentrate to multitask and prevent swapping to speaking english that is.)

My language learning ability is not the best (to say the least), as I sometimes struggle to express myself in my native language too, although I do it far more easier using my native than in any other languages I've learned to a degree. Learning languages, particularly English is fascinating to me, that's why I keep posting here even though sometimes I feel like I should give it up and withdraw into my shell. Nevertheless, I like to read the posts here on WP, though I don't have the time to read them all. Usually I read into the linked articles and essays too.

I also started to read books in English, and it's a pleasure to me to understand them reasonably well after the efforts I've made. I've already read Oliver Twist by Dickens, Look Me In The Eye by John-Elder Robinson, The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. Currently I'm reading The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Temple Grandin and Sean Barron.

The most challenging so far was Oliver Twist, with Dickens' charming although rather difficult early-Victorian language. I'm very much attached to his protagonist, so it was a must for me to read the original.

And yes, sometimes my thinking switches into "English mode". This language is easy to learn on one hand, because its grammar is relatively simple, and its structure is relatively logical. The challenging part on the other hand is that the usage of expressions and the meanings associated with words are quite different in nature and their commonly accepted contexts from the language I speak natively. For example, If I had had learned German instead of English probably I would have had less difficulty with the concepts behind the words and much more with the grammar and rote memorizing the words. Since my ability to rote memorize is far inferior to my ability to learn new concepts for words, I seem to be far more apt when it comes to learning English than seemingly any other language I know of.

This is so me. I think in English as well (and even a little in Portuguese, which is probably my third language despite having only learned it for half a year). And I can switch seamlessly between the two languages as well.



This is a little less me. Then again, I just can't multitask worth anything. Conversation+Typing is really difficult for me. I can easily chat with two people in two different languages at the same time, though. I guess that's more of a switching thing, which I can actually do.