Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe

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Whatever your situation, dual language books offer a bridge between cultures, generations and divisions. No matter what you encounter in life, there are six questions that are invaluable: what, when, where, who, how, and why.

He has been described as an eccentric, and occupied the same desk at the British Library every day for 50 years. Slang does seem to attract some interesting characters.This e-book also allows readers to highlight passages, take notes and search the book. I actually have this book on my Kindle—and I love it. It’s impossible to dog-ear e-books, but believe me, this one has been read and enjoyed more than once. Spanish Bilingual E-books Mantra Lingua’s own patented PENpal technology also means language teachers, parents, guardians, librarians and storytellers can all add sound to the texts of dual language books, increasing the levels of familiarity for readers or listeners. For language learners, anything that increases the potential for trouble-free reading is a resource that needs to be explored. You can even use the same bilingual approach for other types of media in your target language.

And dual language books are no exception. Anyone who’s ever had to learn more than one language knows how much easier it is to remember new words, phrases and syntax when you can relate them to something you already know. So if you already know your own version of, say, Cinderella or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, it makes a lot of sense that a dual language edition can help you acquire new vocabulary in your new target language. Japanese learners will be impressed with the stunning drawings in “Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll: The Adventures of a Blind Japanese Girl Who Saves Her Village” because they beautifully portray the sweet story. The tale is told in English with the Japanese kanji directly below the corresponding text. French Bilingual E-books She touches on the general fascination that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries with criminals, and writes at length about the language they used. Why is that?Are some languages worse than others? The question might sound silly, but in this entertaining exercise in “language tourism” (the book’s original Dutch title), the author isn’t frightened of making judgments. He thinks lenition – the habit in Welsh of “changing a word’s first letter for no apparent reason” – is just “mindboggling”, and generally that “Gaelic spelling is flawed … wasteful, arcane and outdated”. The “ludicrous” variety of cases in Slovak amounts to “chaos”, while Breton’s system of naming numbers makes mental arithmetic unnecessarily difficult. Well, the sky’s the limit, really. You could simply use dual language books to tell a story in one language or the other. You could cover up the target language, leaving the more familiar words accessible, and ask the reader to retell the story in his or her own words. You could single out individual words or phrases, or particular word groups, like nouns or verbs, and encourage the learner to memorise them. You could cover up the more familiar language, and ask the learner to translate from the second language (often, but not always, English). Or you could use them as a bedtime or afternoon story, to help and comfort new arrivals to a country, particularly when so much around them might be confusing and unfamiliar.

Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount. First, while looking at what’s out there, consider all types of books. Don’t limit yourself to just one “scholarly” source or even a language learning text. With bilingual e-books, all reading genres are represented. Choose something that piques your interest. Start slow Let’s turn to your first book, Jon Camden Hotten’s A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words. This was first published in 1859 – why is it still relevant today? Next up is Julie Coleman’s A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries. This is a substantial academic work published in four volumes by the Oxford University Press.Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in this Russian-English bilingual volume is a snap to read. The individual paragraphs are translated, so going between languages requires minimal work. Reference the corresponding paragraph if there’s a question, and then continue reading! Italian Bilingual E-books