Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe

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Moving on to your second book, Eric Partridge’s Slang To-day and Yesterday which was published in 1933. Whatever your situation, dual language books offer a bridge between cultures, generations and divisions. For me, of course, Partridge is the great mentor. I may not agree with everything he did, and as his successor I have naturally tried to improve on his foundations. But without his example I would have never even considered that slang was something to which I could enthusiastically devote my professional life. Partridge begins by offering a discussion of the linguistic phenomenon that is slang. Then he puts forward his own opinion on the etymology of the word “slang”, and suggests what constitutes a slang word – he gives 17 qualifications – as opposed to a colloquial or standard English one. He follows these theoretical chapters by a succession of chronological ones, in which he lays out both the major slang lexicographers from the 16th century onwards and the authors who up until the date of his writing had made the greatest contribution to the recording of slang vocabulary. Your next book is something quite different. Set in the 1990s, it’s a true account of a West Baltimore family destroyed by drugs, co-authored by David Simon who went on to create the critically acclaimed HBO drama The Wire. Why did you choose this book?

No matter what you encounter in life, there are six questions that are invaluable: what, when, where, who, how, and why. A Whale Who Dreamt of a Snail” is the ideal beginning dual-text Portuguese story. The illustrations are charming, the story is encouraging for both children and adults and the text appears in both English and Portuguese. Chinese Bilingual E-books Domke, L. M. (2018). Probing the Promise of Dual-Language Books. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 57 (3). https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol57/iss3/3 (accessed 16 June 2019) 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 For many years, the “immersion” theory of language learning was held up as the most appropriate; but no one learning technique works for everyone and recent research shows that the dual language approach is very effective. Much of the research in this area has been carried out for English language learning, not in languages other than English. Most of those who translate dual language books have a good understanding of the nuances and traditions of both languages and in many cases are writers and storytellers themselves. Rather than translate directly, word for word, with no interpretation, dual language translators take into account the cultural and linguistic differences and similarities all the way through. Dual language books can act as a bridge between cultures, a context-sensitive way to translate and transpose stories and instructions, a way for parents, teachers and guardians to bond with children, and a comforting reminder of home for those who might find themselves displaced.Gordon, D. (2018), Using dual language story books to foster biliteracy, EAL Journal Blog, 12 November 2018, https://ealjournal.org/2018/11/12/using-dual-language-story-books-to-foster-biliteracy/ (accessed 16 June 2019) For instance, FluentU pairs short videos by native speakers with bilingual subtitles. Instead of pausing to look up words in a dictionary, you can also just hover over the subtitles to see the meaning of any word. There are transcripts for each video, and you can save new words in flashcards for later review. Six titles that have proved hugely popular with primary and secondary schools. A mix of fiction and non-fiction titles were selected especially with refugee children in mind, featuring positive stories and non-fiction with a wide appeal that avoids potentially triggering subject matter. These books are expertly levelled and use simple short sentences and controlled language — ideal for language learning.

Bilingual families and multilingual families, those teaching multilingual classes and learners, librarians with multilingual and bilingual collections and library users – all would benefit from having access to dual language 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.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. Dual language books are useful in all kinds of situations, including learning both native and target languages, settling into a new location, helping children gain literacy skills, and simply encouraging readers to understand the joy of language. They’re useful in the classroom or other language learning arena; they’re useful as an addition to a child’s bookcase (or an adult’s collection, come to that); and they’re useful as an aide-memoire. They’re an excellent next step up from a simple dictionary or vocabulary chart, and a great stepping stone to reading longer texts in the target language.

And while everyone has their own language learning style, and some people may prefer hearing a story to reading it, dual language books are an essential tool in our bilingual language learning virtual cabinet.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. 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 The book is set in Baltimore. If you went to another American city where there are people selling drugs on corners, would the slang be radically different? One of this book’s simplest but most reliable pleasures, by contrast, is the suggestion of one or more words in each language for which English doesn’t have an equivalent, but might benefit from. Dutch, for example, has uitwaaien, which means to “relax by visiting a windy place, often chilly and rainy”. Dorren adds, characteristically: “Since the British, like the Dutch, display this peculiar behaviour, the word would be useful.” The Cornish word henting, which means “raining hard”, is, the author gently suggests, “useful for a Cornish holiday”. We might also want to adopt omenie (“a Romanian word for the virtue of being fully human, that is: gentle, decent, respectful, hospitable, honest, polite”), or, from Channel Island Norman, the evocative Ûssel’lie, which names “the continual opening and closing of doors”. The running joke is capped by the one language in which the author can find nothing enviable: “No Gagauz words have been borrowed by English and none that I’ve come upon seem especially desirable.” All the titles are beautifully illustrated, many by artists who work very regularly with the publisher and have extensive experience in the teaching and caring professions.

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

Slang is difficult because everything about it defies simple classification. Nobody knows the etymology of the word slang. If you take slang to a linguist they try to define it within the boundaries of what they know as linguists, and very soon they discover they can’t find a specific register into which it falls. Since many dual language books are picture books, you might think that they are mainly aimed at children, but that isn’t always the case. A picture, so the saying goes, is worth a thousand words, and dual language books have also been used in recent years to disseminate information on agricultural techniques in Papua New Guinea, for example. Many parts of the NHS also produce dual language resources to help patients access healthcare services in the UK.