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Post by Charlotte on Sept 4, 2022 15:30:42 GMT 1
I sometimes wonder if pony books were/are only popular in English-speaking countries? I've absolutely no idea, but, as for Europe anyway, should think there are probably some in German (they have as strong an equestrian tradition as Britain does, produce many Olympic riders), French, or Spanish, to name 3 languages. Are there any in Cyrillic (Russian and several other languages), totally inaccessible to most English speakers, including me? I doubt it, even now. In any former communist countries, ponies would likely have been seen as capitalist and privileged. I suspect there could be one or two Greek ones (also different alphabet), who knows. I tried to learn Greek in Germany on my year abroad, didn't get too far. The university had the classes in the beautiful Residenz (palace), in Würzburg, Bavaria. I have a feeling we once went on a mule trek on a family holiday in Greece, sitting on a wooden saddle-type thing or something, can't remember. I'm sure mules or donkeys get a look-in in some books, in whatever language.
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Post by Charlotte on Sept 4, 2022 15:53:33 GMT 1
I just saw that Claire's book index covers European pony books as well. How do you find all that stuff out, I wouldn't know where to start!
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Post by susanb on Sept 9, 2022 21:28:02 GMT 1
When I started collecting, I was surprised by how many books from the US had been translated into German. Some that were really expensive (Paul Brown's for instance) were so cheap in the German editions, it made me regret taking Latin
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Post by Claire on Sept 11, 2022 11:19:53 GMT 1
Interesting discussion. Pony books are popular in Europe, I would say particularly so in Germany. Many pony UK and some US pony books have been translated into German, probably more so than any other language. The pony books specialist publisher Stabenfeldt (now sadly defunct) primarily published in Germany and other European countries as well as the USA and Canada. The German and other European authors were translated into English for the USA market. I think the main difference between the European and Brit/USA books is that their popularity seemed to peak much later than the books written in the English speaking nations. Although I would have to do more research into this area - something for the future! As for Russia, the only pony book I know in Russian is Jumper by Nicholas Kalishnakoff!
They are quite a few books featuring donkeys and mules dating back quite a ways. Yes, often in a work role, but often with a relationship between human and donkey as friends overlaying the work angle. I have sections on donkeys and mules in my breeds page. Maybe another area to expand when I have time to do the research - be nice to have a full page devoted to them as I have a soft spot for the critters!
Charlotte can you speak German? I spent a year in Spain but I'm still not too great at Spanish, but then I have never been good at languages. I find Greek quite a hard language to pronounce, can just manage the basics lol. But going back to the German, there are a few pony books that are only available in German and also, as Susan says, some rare books (such as Sheila Chapman titles) which are easier to find and cheaper in the German editions - so it's a bonus if you can read it. Once again I have a spattering of Deutsch but not enough by far to read a full book!
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Post by Charlotte on Sept 14, 2022 10:21:09 GMT 1
When I started collecting, I was surprised by how many books from the US had been translated into German. Some that were really expensive (Paul Brown's for instance) were so cheap in the German editions, it made me regret taking Latin
You're lucky, I would have liked to learn Latin at school. For me, taking German frustratingly meant no Chemistry, due to timetable clashes. It's really not that hard to learn German if you'd like to read books, many of the words are closely related to English words. But my school didn't offer it, though they had done before my time. They couldn't even manage to keep on teaching the somewhat related subject, ancient history, IIRC it was cancelled after only one or two lessons. Don't think they ever said why. I could post volumes about my numerous issues with the school such as severe bullying etc, and have done elsewhere. Glad it shut down many years ago. But I won't bore anyone with that too much, on here.
Some people did their Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award expeditions on horseback (it's a famous award scheme for young people that was started by the queen's husband). I would no doubt have envied that, it would have been like a real life pony book adventure. I walked the expedition in the Scottish mountains, but never quite got the Gold Award, long story. The queen's death reminded me that I would have met the duke at the presentation ceremony, so I regret it perhaps.
Do wish I had pushed to carry on riding with school longer, I did get a rosette as most improved rider or something, and would probably have got a little better still. I might have got to cantering, or even galloping stage. But disliking the school heavily, meant I wasn't always motivated to do everything I could have done.
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Post by Charlotte on Sept 14, 2022 11:04:40 GMT 1
Interesting discussion. Pony books are popular in Europe, I would say particularly so in Germany. Many pony UK and some US pony books have been translated into German, probably more so than any other language. The pony books specialist publisher Stabenfeldt (now sadly defunct) primarily published in Germany and other European countries as well as the USA and Canada. The German and other European authors were translated into English for the USA market. I think the main difference between the European and Brit/USA books is that their popularity seemed to peak much later than the books written in the English speaking nations. Although I would have to do more research into this area - something for the future! As for Russia, the only pony book I know in Russian is Jumper by Nicholas Kalishnakoff! They are quite a few books featuring donkeys and mules dating back quite a ways. Yes, often in a work role, but often with a relationship between human and donkey as friends overlaying the work angle. I have sections on donkeys and mules in my breeds page. Maybe another area to expand when I have time to do the research - be nice to have a full page devoted to them as I have a soft spot for the critters! Charlotte can you speak German? I spent a year in Spain but I'm still not too great at Spanish, but then I have never been good at languages. I find Greek quite a hard language to pronounce, can just manage the basics lol. But going back to the German, there are a few pony books that are only available in German and also, as Susan says, some rare books (such as Sheila Chapman titles) which are easier to find and cheaper in the German editions - so it's a bonus if you can read it. Once again I have a spattering of Deutsch but not enough by far to read a full book! Oh right, thanks for all the information. Yes I can speak German, up to a point. Because despite winning the German prize at school and having a degree in it, it's still far from perfect. Originally I was going to do German and Italian, but I changed to straight German (with Italian) because those who hadn't done Italian at school had to go to Italy in the 2nd year, not the 3rd as is normal. I really didn't want to do that and don't regret not studying in Italy. Germany is a safer, much more organised kind of country. My mother has been to Italy a lot, wish I'd visited it though. My Italian has all but disappeared, never really sank in.
I think you really need to have lived in a country for quite a while, in order to be near-perfect. Of course, like all language students I had the year abroad at a German uni (so stupid how Brexit has ended the Erasmus programme for British people!), but the downside of that was speaking English a lot with other Brits, Americans, Irish. Understanding German radio fully is tough, because of accents and how fast they speak, a pony book would probably be easier. I've rather given up on expanding my German knowledge much further.
TBH, I have actually vaguely been trying to learn Spanish for quite a while. But as with reading itself, and many other things, it's infuriatingly hard to get round to it, there are only so many hours in the day. I used to get a lot more reading and other stuff done, somehow. So that's pretty useless, really. I don't think it's an easy language, Spanish radio is hopelessly fast compared to German. Knowing French and the odd bit of Italian helps, but not that much. Many of the words are totally different and alien from either, all the grammar seems pretty complex.
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Post by Claire on Sept 15, 2022 0:32:02 GMT 1
Thanks for the info Charlotte. I did do German at school, along with French, but wasn't very good at either. I preferred German because I liked the sound of mnay of the words, and some I found quite funny. Maybe one day I'll have a go at taking it further. I don't think Spanish is massively hard to learn, quite a lot of similar words to Italian and French but (for me at least) very difficult to understand. They do talk ridiculously fast at times, even compared to Italian. I have come to the conclusion that this may be because there are very few long vowel sounds, which somewhat slow down a language like Italian. To be fair to myself there are Brits who have lived there for 5 or even 10 years who are worse than me! But yes, you're correct Charlotte, one tends to mix with other Brits a lot and so still speak more English than the foreign language. Did pick up quite a few Spanish swear words from the natives mind you.
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