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Radiobooks (short stories) 4 langs + rare

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iguanamon
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Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5247 days ago

2241 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 1 of 6
16 May 2015 at 5:39pm | IP Logged 
I've posted these links before, but as time passes, a new generation of forum members comes along. An older generation matures in their respective languages and seeks native material. Sites get updated or go down. Some of us just enjoy a good, well-written and narrated story. That's what I was doing when I went back to this site (below), just looking for some stories in Spanish for listening.

Radio Nederlands Wereldmoroep has a series of radiobooks (short stories) by Dutch and Belgian authors available in Dutch, French, Spanish and English. There are around 90 in Spanish and English, over 100 in Dutch, and about 30 in French. Each short story contains a short biography of the author. The radiobooks last about a half an hour on average and are free to download in mp3. There are no transcripts.

So how do you use them? Well, listen. Most have been translated into English. It's possible to listen first in English (French, Dutch or Spanish) and then to TL and/or vice-verssa. If your listening skills are advanced enough, then there's no problem just listening in TL, even if you have to do it more than once and using the English as a check on comprehension.

The stories are quite well written and are a glimpse into the Dutch and Flemish literary scene for those of us who do not speak Dutch. You get about 45 hours of clear, professionally read, Spanish audio, about 15 hours of French audio and around 50 hours of Dutch audio. Having each story as a self-contaianed half an hour unit is perfect for a commute.

The site also contains six radiobooks in Afrikaans with English and Dutch translations. In addition there's a Radiolivres pour enfants section with seven each in French and Dutch. Oddly, three are read in Berber.

So, you can put a new spin on reading and listening by listening and listening. This is not for beginners. High intermediate learners and up can benefit from this.

Edited by iguanamon on 16 May 2015 at 10:48pm

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Serpent
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Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 2 of 6
16 May 2015 at 5:54pm | IP Logged 
Wow thank you, these should be great for my Dutch, and nice for Spanish too. And you make me want to give Afrikaans a try heh.

Edited by Serpent on 16 May 2015 at 5:55pm

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iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5247 days ago

2241 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)

 
 Message 3 of 6
16 May 2015 at 8:37pm | IP Logged 
I just followed the link on the home page to city-books.eu which has similar, free to download, short stories relating to various cities across the world. This one has text and audio with a free mp3 and epub download as well as on-screen text that can be copied and pasted into a two column table in a word/open office doc for a homemade parallel text. The stories are fiction and not city travelogs.

The languages almost always include audio and text in English, French and Dutch and the original language of the author/city. Have a scroll and see if there's something useful for you there. Some of the languages include Georgian, Romanian, Polish, Armenian, Albanian, Macedonian, Iberian Portuguese, Spanish, German, Slovenian, Afrikaans, Indonesian, Italian, etc (more Afrikaans is on the home page).

For some languages it can be difficult to find resources to make a bilingual text with TL audio. I even found six stories in Georgian for Expugnator. Most of the treasure here is for French and Dutch learners. Hours of modern stories with audio and translated text are available. I'm just sad that there's no Haitian Creole or Ladino. Still, there aren't too many resources to make a parallel text with audio of Afrikaans paired with Albanian. :)

citybooks wrote:
About citybooks
citybooks : tell me a story

citybooks are short stories about cities written by famous authors and up-and-coming literary talents. Perfect for on your e-reader, or for a lazy listening session on your mp3 player. Let the power of imagination carry you all over the world!

The Flemish Dutch House deBuren invites international authors and photographers to take part in a two week residency with one of the local partner organisations in various interesting cities.

The resulting citybooks (stories, essays, poems) are unique city portraits that can be read, listened to and downloaded for free on this website. In addition to the literary city portraits, a photographer produces a collection of 24 photos as a visual portrait.

Every citybook is available as a webtext, e-book and podcast (audio book, mp3) of thirty minutes in Dutch, English and French, and the local language of the city. For example: the citybooks about Lublin are also available in Polish, listen and read about Stellenbosch and Grahamstown in Afrikaans, about Graz in German and about Jakarta and Semarang in Bahasa Indonesia. The podcasts are read by the author in the original language, the translations are read by actors. Travel without moving!


Edited by iguanamon on 17 May 2015 at 12:23am

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Teango
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Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
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United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 4 of 6
16 May 2015 at 9:47pm | IP Logged 
Great links, iguanamon! These should prove really useful for my French. :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
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 Message 5 of 6
17 May 2015 at 12:47pm | IP Logged 
Thanks! I'm going to have so much fun indulging my wanderlust!

Edited by Elenia on 17 May 2015 at 12:47pm

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 6 of 6
17 May 2015 at 1:11pm | IP Logged 
Wow. Thanks, iguanamon! Those links are bookmarked.


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