Comments on: Peru’s reading culture

By: Reading in Peru « eric spoelstra

Reading in Peru « eric spoelstra — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:03:20 +0000

[…] reading a blog on Peru’s Reading Culture, it confirmed many of my thoughts on the general approach to reading in Peru. One exception is the […]

By: Stuart Starrs

Stuart Starrs — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:36:56 +0000

Thanks for your insight Jude.

By: Jude

Jude — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:26:47 +0000

My friends in Lima are of a similar age, and class, as my English friends. We’re all 30ish and in grad school or professionals. So I know biologists, archaeologists, dentists, lawyers, engineers, etc in both countries. Without exception all my English friends read, and read widely, while for the most part the Peruvians just don’t.

It’s certainly not a matter of economics (if your family has a beach house in Asia you can damn sure afford books), nor intelligence, rather it’s a lack of interest. If anything it can seem a bit suspect to spend too much time alone with a book. A friend told me he was widely teased while studying at la Catolica because, along with his math texts, he used to read poetry.

By: Stuart Starrs

Stuart Starrs — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:56:16 +0000

I had noticed the poor writing but thought it was mostly due to less than adequate education, particularly of the younger generations through periods of time such as the 1st Garcia administration. But yeah, if people would read a little more, they’d likely write a little better.

That said, older people seem to be an exception when it comes to writing, just like I mentioned they were when it comes to reading. Most people over 45 I know write like they are giving a speech.

You may be right about the availability of books. There are used book stores in Lima too. Kids though need new plastic-coated shiny colorful things to get them into reading, and if they don’t pick up the habit then, it doesn’t matter how many used books are available to them when they are older.

Great comment, thanks Colin.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:18:48 +0000

I agree 110% that Peruvians generally don’t read. However, I’d take it further and extend it to all of Latin America. Latinos in general don’t read much.

I’d point out a consequence I think you missed. They can’t write! They’re horrible. Most Latinos I know are professionals. One guy emailed me something that was like five lines of words – it was all one sentence! One long sentence separated by commas. And this guy was as corporate as it gets. You’d recognize the company name. All of them email stuff like that.

In my experience, is not unique to Peru or even the Spanish language. I knew a lot of Brazilians in college and they did that too. And does this look familiar:

jajajajajajajajajajajajaja!!!!!!!!!!!!
colin, i miss youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
WrItInG lIkE tHiS aNd WhAtNoT

That last girlfriend of mine in Peru – her email was something like carinosaaaaaa@hotmail. it had 6 a’s. 6!

I’d disagree that economics play as much of a role as you say. There are used bookstores in Arequipa and Bogota – they sell great books dirt cheap. For the price of lunch, I got Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Un relato de un naufrago. 6000 pesos, or about $3 / 9 soles. And that wasn’t among the less expensive options.

I think they don’t read in large part because of culture. Partying is more important. They’d rather pick up a guitar than a book. God bless ’em

By: Ward

Ward — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:39:59 +0000

Take it for what it’s worth, in a teacher’s seminar I was told Peru ranks among the lowest reading countries all of the Americas, right above Haiti. Sounded credible to me at the time.

Even where I teach ESL there’s very little reading. Call me sarcastic, but it seems like giving our students a book report assignment doesn’t bring in as much revenue as extending our curriculum by umpteen more months.

Finally, higher education doesn’t seem to put much emphasis on liberal arts / soft skills but more on tougher academic subjects.