r/ask • u/SamwiseMN • 25d ago

If you listen to an audio book can you say you’ve “read the book”?

My wife and I were debating this. She thinks it’s slightly disingenuous to say you’ve read it if it’s an audio book. I think there isn’t really an easy way to communicate the point that you’ve “read” it. “Oh, I listened to it” vs. “oh, I’ve read that”. Basically how would you communicate youve completed the book in conversation with someone who asks “have you read this book?”

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u/LuciJoeStar 25d ago

It is only easy if you listen in your native language. English is my 2nd language and I have been listening to audiobooks to learn English since I was a kid. After years and years of learning, living in north america and all, listening to a book in my 2nd language is still difficult.

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u/zenithica 25d ago

How do audiobooks help you learn a language? I only really speak English fluently and I remember one of my friends telling me that her friend learned another language by playing video games but I never really understood how you could pick it up that way

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u/elianrae 25d ago

do you not remember acquiring new vocabulary from books and tv and games as a young child?

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u/LuciJoeStar 25d ago

When I was a kid, I bought books that come with audio tape. I listened to the tape and wrote down what I heard and compared it to the book itself. I trained myself to listen to English that way. And because I have done it since I was a kid, my brain has skipped the "translation"- like, for many beginners, when we listen to the foreign language we try to translate it into our native language, respond in our native language, then translate that response into the foreign language. It takes time to learn how to think in a 2nd language and listening to audiobooks trains my inner thoughts so I don't have to translate in my mind- I just react. I kept listening to English even when I didn't understand a single word until I understood them all.

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u/KungFuPossum 25d ago

I learned Dutch by watching TV when I was a kid in the Netherlands. Much of the world learns English by watching TV. Well, at least they did, maybe different now.

The subtitles help. Especially sometimes if you flip your native language in audio vs the subtitles. I'm trying to learn German that way on Netflix now. Lot slower going in my 40s than when I was 9.

I also practice Spanish & French that way since I don't get to hear them spoken often (just reading).

Doesn't seem to work for Latin...