Can you read better than a child?

For the most part, the kind of foreign language you learn is practical or theoretical.  The kind of things you’ll need to know to get around a foreign city, write a meeting agenda, or buy fruit at the market.  Getting into complex literature usually takes a pretty high language level, but what about kids’ books?  Surely they’d be much simpler?

High school student Charlie Anderson has written a great piece about reading her first piece of children’s literature entirely in French.  She discusses the very valid point that even when written for kids, literature has a totally different style and language from conversation and formal language.  Even if you know all of the individual words, sometimes the phrasing is confusing, or you may not have any idea what’s going on.

If you are finding yourself stagnating in your learning, or want an extra challenge, pick up a storybook in your target language and see how well you do.  It’s not as easy as it may seem!

Full article: Reading in a foreign language no ‘petit’ task.