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Bilingual books | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7174 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes  7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 6 01 March 2006 at 7:45am | IP Logged |
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I have been looking through some old posts and have found recommendations by Ardashcir than one should rely on bilingual texts a lot when one starts reading literature in the language. I think this might be a good idea for languages which are fairly close to the teaching language. However for chinese I wonder if it is such a good idea. I have some bilingual books in chinese and I have noticed that sometimes the english sentence is very different in structure from the chinese. I am right now working my way (very slowly) through a chinese novel (To live). Since I don't have the english version of this book I am left with reading the chinese one and looking up all unknown words. I also have the audiobook which I use in conjunction.
Are there any opinions on this? Have any other people succesfully used bilingual books where the languages are structurally very different? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 2 of 6 01 March 2006 at 8:47am | IP Logged |
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This doesn't really answer your question but I dislike the use of bilingual texts full stop when reading whatever in the target language.
I find there is a tendency to "sneak a look" at the source translation instead of actually concentrating on reading and understanding the target language. It's definitely worse when attempting to work out idioms where there isn't necessarily a simple relationship between the two, so where the structure is radically different, I imagine the same would apply. Andy 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| souley Senior Member Joined 7232 days ago 178 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 3 of 6 01 March 2006 at 9:26am | IP Logged |
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I personally believe that bilingual books should be used as a learning tool in the very very beginning, as to grasp the languages contour.
Beyond that, I think one should rely on reading the books in the target language only. As long as you can follow whats happening, even though you might be missing the details, you're on your way. The hardest part of reading in a new language is in the beginning when you hardly understand anything, it's not even fun to read, just words after words, quite honestly pretty excruciating. And it is here I suppose bilingual books helps one get started and keep motivated. Edited by souley on 01 March 2006 at 9:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7179 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 4 of 6 01 March 2006 at 9:31am | IP Logged |
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I find that readers are much more useful than bilingual books. I have one for Russian, and I must say it is quite helpful. Every time there is a rather obscure word, idiom, curious gramatical structure etc., it has a footnote giving its meaning. Then for the rest of the words, you get to try and infer the meaning from context, or just look it up. All in all, it gets you reading in only your target language without having to use a copy of the text in your native language as a crutch.
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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 5 of 6 01 March 2006 at 10:00am | IP Logged |
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The main problem with bilingual readers that I've run into is that of discipline, trying not to look up the translation until I've tried to puzzle it out on my own long enough.
My solution was to use an opaque piece of paper to cover the translation, read as best I could the whole page (or the whole paragraph, or at least a complete sentence) a few times, looking up the new words in the glossary at the end of the reader first, and only if necessary in a dictionary. After trying long enough on my own, I would look over the translation, first just the sentences I didn't understand even while supposedly knowing the words, then read over the whole translation to spot shades of meaning (or the whole meaning!) I got wrong. With a bit of discipline, bilingual readers can be fine and even preferable in the beginning, but discipline can get tiresome, of course. Edited by frenkeld on 03 March 2006 at 12:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7174 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 6 12 March 2006 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
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Just wanted to add that I have now found the english version of the book I mentioned above so I have modified my studying methods slightly. Actually I must say that I find this method pretty good. I will generally listen to the audio book while reading the translation first. When I have a pretty good idea of the meaning of what I'm listening to I switch to reading the chinese version while listening to the audiobook. Only after these two steps do I go through the passage and look up the unknown words. I actually think this is a very good method because I honestly don't like puzzling over sentences. If I have the translation I can instantly find out what a sentence means. I don't have to go look for my grammar book. Edited by maxb on 12 March 2006 at 10:28am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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