What is your process for reading a book in another language?

>>8936853

In Classics there are good vocabulary tools that can generate a list of, say all words in a given author used more than once. I've always found it's best to grind through a few thousand words and know them inside and out rather than going in "blind". I don't know if such resources exist for French. I wouldn't memorize every single word you look up. You can actually remember many words by re-reading what you've already read several times. Eventually you reach a point with a language where you're looking up <50 words for every 30 minutes of reading and at that point you can start memorizing everything you look up but at the start that's probably too many words many of which you might not see again for months or years.

>>8936853
Depends on your fluency, and depends on the type of book.

The best thing to do (to improve your proficiency) is to stop every time to search the word; or at least to write it down in a text file, then search for the meaning later. But, indeed, it will impede the flow if there are too many unknown words.

In my experience, it's okay to break the flow if it's an essay, less okay with a novel, and not okay at all with a play or a long poem (whose aesthetic effect works on the fact you don't disrupt the flow). So, if you're not fluent enough, read essays rather than poetry. Short aphorisms work well too (La Rochefoucauld, Vauvenargues, La Bruyère, Chamfort, etc.).

Also, consider e-readers with an internal dictionary. You click on the word, the meaning is shown, done.

>disclaimer: I'm French and what I do applies to what I read in English

>start reading Proust in French
>struggle miserably
>too far in to just quit

>>8936892
It was too ambitious for your power level. But the Moncrieff translation is really good. You don't lose a lot IMO.

File: vocablmao.jpg (189KB, 1917x902px) Image search: [Google]

189KB, 1917x902px

>>8936886
>The best thing to do (to improve your proficiency) is to stop every time to search the word; or at least to write it down in a text file, then search for the meaning later.

That's pretty much what I've been doing, but it gets really tedious after a while. I think you're right though, maybe I should focus on shorter works.

Stopping to search every word you don't know is the worst thing you can do.

You're trying to learn how to read in the language, not be a walking dictionary.
Take the book, sit down, and get comfy. Just like when you read a book in your first language, it takes a minute or two to get in the zone and get absorbed in the book. You can't get in the zone if you are putting down the book every time to search a word.

If you literally can't understand what you're reading because of your vocabulary, then what you're reading is too hard for you and you need to find something else. Otherwise you should be able to get most of the meaning from context.

>>8936919
From what I see, yes, you'll be good with short stories (Maupassant...), aphorisms (La Bruyère is the most varied), and short poems (including little prose poems: Baudelaire, Lautréamont...).

Another nice thing to do is to take an English book you know well, and read a French translation.

>side note: "ravir" also means "to abduct" in formal register

>>8936853
I usually just power through. If I don't understand something in the next line and I'm getting lost, or if the word is used again I will look it up.

Ereaders are fucking amazing for reading in foreign languages though, definitions AND translations of words on a tap of the finger

This is more efficient (for english at least) https://www.vocabulary.com/

>>8936853
Only look up what is absolutely necessary. If you look up every word you will just get frustrated and end up reading at a snails pace. I have found it useful to write detailed summaries (in french) every now and again of the most recent chapters I've read just to be sure that I really understand everything.
Careful selection of works can make things easier too. Start with babby stuff like Camus, then work your way up e.g. Maupassant, Zola, Balzac, Voltaire etc. -----------> Céline, Proust, other harder shit much later down the track.
If you start with Proust you will just hate the French language forever.

>>8936886
>Also, consider e-readers with an internal dictionary. You click on the word, the meaning is shown, done.
Fucking this. It's so much more convenient when learning a language.

>read chapter (or ~20 pages) once, looking up shit i don't recognize on wordreference or linguee and compiling it into a word doc or notebook
>if there's no direct english equivalent or it translates into a word you don't recognize, draw it
>reread later

If I'm pressed for time, I don't reread it. If it's an easy enough text and I only have to worry about a few words, I just power through. Sometimes one read suffices for me to understand the mood and series of events in a given chapter. It's also important not to pace yourself as you would in your native language--if you normally read 60 pages per day, set your goal at half of that.