I'm from Germany and call me zweiundzwei. I discovered the books when I was nine, read them when I just turned 10 and now I am 17.
Growing up with the books. I distinctly remember being in a car with my mom and she told me about this book that was very popular over there and I sure would like it. I disagreed even though I had no clue what it was about, but what my mom recommends Can't Be Good. That was 99. My best friend in grade school got the book for Christmas and loved it. Somehow, I got it pretty soon then. My mom read it to me - my parents read LOTS of books to me - but then it was too exciting, so I continued on my own. I got CoS immediately afterwards and then catched up with my friend. That's when the great times of Harry Potter theories started. We had many and we would walk around on the school yard and talk about them, our personal mini-fandom. :) I distinctly remember reading PoA insanely often. Around that time, more of my friends started reading HP. In 2000, I started secondary school and that's when HP really started shaping my life. But before I went there, I went to London with my dad. It was exciting not only because I saw my first living statue, bought toe socks and was incidentally at the Buckingham Palace at Queen Mum's 100th birthday, but also because I specifically went to King's Cross to go to Platform 9 3/4. It felt very important. GoF came out in German in October and the months before were spent finding out who at my school liked HP, too, and who had older siblings/parents who'd read the book already and making promises to go see the movie together. I had my first encounter with real fandom at the release party which took place at a hotel that was wonderfully decorated, complete with framed golden pages from the Harry Potter books and bats and pumpkin juice. I also had my first real English classes, which was exciting, but I was pretty bad. And then in 6th grade my aunt gave me PS in English for Christmas, despite the fact that I barely knew any English yet. I was really determined to read the original though, and after quick introduction into the different tenses in the English language I actually read the whole thing. [my dad: You don't know what "did" means? What are they doing in your English class? That's do in past tense. Those words with -ed at the end are past tense, too.]
I suddenly was good (sixth-grade-good) in English. This would come in handy when I discovered there were whole websites on Harry Potter and some of them were in English and so interesting that I just had to read their theories. I think I read the RedHen articles pretty early on, but understood virtually nothing. I've never really read articles or books with a dictionary in my hand, but me and an internet friend of mine did when we tried to understand what the changeling hypothesis was all about. Apparently my English was not good enough, as I still don't know.
Anyway, I read more and more HP-related articles and fanfiction in English, which later would enable me to have conversations with real English-speaking people who are now my friends. They aren't necessarily HP fans, but I very much doubt I'd know them that well otherwise. I visited one in Ireland last summer. Next week, I'm going to meet a French girl in Toulouse who only can speak English because of HP, too.
I started reading about a ten-year old Harry when I was ten, and I'll finish the series when we both are 17. Inbetween I stuffed my brain with loads of ridiculous knowledge about HP, reread the books lots of times and learnt a new language. Pretty cool.
does this even answer the question?
Growing up with the books. I distinctly remember being in a car with my mom and she told me about this book that was very popular over there and I sure would like it. I disagreed even though I had no clue what it was about, but what my mom recommends Can't Be Good. That was 99. My best friend in grade school got the book for Christmas and loved it. Somehow, I got it pretty soon then. My mom read it to me - my parents read LOTS of books to me - but then it was too exciting, so I continued on my own. I got CoS immediately afterwards and then catched up with my friend. That's when the great times of Harry Potter theories started. We had many and we would walk around on the school yard and talk about them, our personal mini-fandom. :)
I distinctly remember reading PoA insanely often. Around that time, more of my friends started reading HP. In 2000, I started secondary school and that's when HP really started shaping my life.
But before I went there, I went to London with my dad. It was exciting not only because I saw my first living statue, bought toe socks and was incidentally at the Buckingham Palace at Queen Mum's 100th birthday, but also because I specifically went to King's Cross to go to Platform 9 3/4. It felt very important.
GoF came out in German in October and the months before were spent finding out who at my school liked HP, too, and who had older siblings/parents who'd read the book already and making promises to go see the movie together.
I had my first encounter with real fandom at the release party which took place at a hotel that was wonderfully decorated, complete with framed golden pages from the Harry Potter books and bats and pumpkin juice.
I also had my first real English classes, which was exciting, but I was pretty bad. And then in 6th grade my aunt gave me PS in English for Christmas, despite the fact that I barely knew any English yet.
I was really determined to read the original though, and after quick introduction into the different tenses in the English language I actually read the whole thing. [my dad: You don't know what "did" means? What are they doing in your English class? That's do in past tense. Those words with -ed at the end are past tense, too.]
I suddenly was good (sixth-grade-good) in English. This would come in handy when I discovered there were whole websites on Harry Potter and some of them were in English and so interesting that I just had to read their theories. I think I read the RedHen articles pretty early on, but understood virtually nothing. I've never really read articles or books with a dictionary in my hand, but me and an internet friend of mine did when we tried to understand what the changeling hypothesis was all about. Apparently my English was not good enough, as I still don't know.
Anyway, I read more and more HP-related articles and fanfiction in English, which later would enable me to have conversations with real English-speaking people who are now my friends. They aren't necessarily HP fans, but I very much doubt I'd know them that well otherwise. I visited one in Ireland last summer. Next week, I'm going to meet a French girl in Toulouse who only can speak English because of HP, too.
I started reading about a ten-year old Harry when I was ten, and I'll finish the series when we both are 17. Inbetween I stuffed my brain with loads of ridiculous knowledge about HP, reread the books lots of times and learnt a new language. Pretty cool.