Louise A Reads: How I chose English literature and others things

Hello bookworms,

I thought I'd write about how, as a French Canadian girl, I put my foot on the ground and decided I would be reading all my books and watching all my TV shows and movies in English. It's not that big of a story but I thought it would be nice to share.

Back in the day, I was in my French bubble. I was watching what my parents were watching and I was reading some of the same books mom was reading. And books from my local library or the school's library. I would say it was easier but, in truth, I didn't know any better.

English was a requirement in High school, but aside from what the classes required, it never crossed my mind to go look for other books outside of that. So, for many years, I stayed in that bubble and I was fine with it. It was, dare I say, normal?

My interest in English really started with TV shows, funny enough. Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be more specific. I caught a rerun of season two's "Some Assembly Required" during the holidays the year it originally aired and I fell in love with the show. So I went looking for season one and found it on VHS tapes (I'm old, I know!!) and in French. I got used to both versions because of it and I was fine with it.

When it comes to books, I had started reading Harry Potter in French but when Order of the Phoenix came out, I wanted to read the story so bad that I didn't wait for the French version (which takes a bit before being released, by the way, because of the translation I guess) so I got it in English. Even my mom read it. Then, I took on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I had tried before in French but never got passed the prologue for some reason.

Maybe I was too young back then? I don't know. All I know is that it took many years before I picked that series up in between and, let me tell you how proud I still am to this day that I took on this difficult series in a different language than my own. Fact that I had seen the movies prior to that might have helped? I'm unsure.

What finally confirmed my switch was the Pilot episode of the TV series Supernatural, however. At some point in the episode, the character Dean Winchester is being questioned by the police and asked if he's got anything real. So he answers "My boobs!" and smiles. In French, he says "my boots".

That, my friends, is when I realized that many things were lost in translation and it didn't feel right to me. I mean, we all know translations are never 100% but still. It took only this tiny little thing for me to say nope to French. It's been 16 years since the switch and I have never looked back. It will happen, once in a while, that I will watch shows and movies in French and I will also read some books in French but I definitely prefer English now. 😄

School helped me with the basics and a bit more, of course, but having done the switch has been the best thing I could have ever done. I have learned so much by doing that and I am still learning today.

It's so much fun, too.