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Henrik
Depth of the English language

I just wanted to start off by saying that I use the English language every single day, even more than I use Norwegian. Not because I consciously choose to use English, but rather by default because the amounts of information available and the quality of information tends to be much higher than what I can find in Norwegian. But recently I have started reading classics and what I noticed is that my language is actually very simple and "bland" and "colorless" in a way (atleast more bland than I initially thought it to be). Mind you, I have no trouble reading any mainstream English/American newspaper, media or any other modern litterature whatsoever. This made me come to the conclusion that reading, especially older litterature is nessecary, even for native speakers in order to broaden your vocabulary and apply a more colorful language in your daily speech aswell as in writing.

Apr 8, 2018 3:25 PM
Comments · 5

Hi again - Amir, I wish that i could read Russian, but am stuck with translations.  However, you guys :) have a great theorist on poly-vocalism and the 'carnavalesque' in literature, Doestoevski and Rabelais, among others:  Mikhail Bakhtin, you should check him out if you haven't already read his work, to read more into the text and poetics of your language!  For english, to combat the blandness ably illustrated by SHL, there is this, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/word-of-the-day - you can sign up for a word of the day from the OED, it's an easy way to go off on a word-idea meander right from the start of the day! 

Keep reading and talking about books!

April 13, 2018
Hei Henrik!  I agree completely, it feels sometimes that internet and tweeting are leading us from the attention required to comprehend long-reads into the boring land of short sound-bites.  If you want to write an effective mono-syllabic sound bite, you must use journalistic, telegraphic language that everyone will understand.  It's writing, for the lowest common denominator.  I read an article once in which the number of different words used in (i believe it was...) Trump's twitter feed is something under 300.   You can get very far (even, the presidency!) with a very limited vocabulary, but you can read the difference quite easily in the nuances in discourse between the New York Times and the US News, for example.  So do keep reading, and thinking about style, and the intent of language : Hemingway has clean, hard sentences, while Faulkner stretches out into run-ons that travel into the state next door.  Keep us posted!
April 13, 2018
Pia, okay. Thanks, I promise, I'll read it!
April 13, 2018
Hi, Henrik. I can't disagree with you. I think, everyone should read classic literature, because, as you said, it really improves our speech and understanding our language. However, I don't think that your language is too poor, you may be wrong. 
I want to boast, my native language is Russian, and I reckon it's a wonderful, colourful language, which has a lot of expressions. I am trying to read russian classics as much as I can, for improving my Russian, because even(a native speaker) I can't reach the pick of it.
April 13, 2018
English is the most bland language on the planet. 
April 13, 2018
Henrik
Language Skills
English, Japanese, Norwegian
Learning Language
Japanese