"Czytamy w oryginale - wielkie powieści" - great material for learners of English or Polish
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Wojtek - a reader of my blog who regularly comments - just sent me an e-mail about a very interesting product which matches the learning methods I describe in my ebook very well!
Wojtek writes: (translated from Polish - see the original here)
I'd like to inform you about some excellent materials for learners of English and even those wanting to learn Polish.
„Czytamy w oryginale – wielkie powieści” ("We're reading in the original - great novels") it is a recently republished series of simplified novels (graded readers) for learners of English. So far 2 parts have been published - in total 10 classic stories. Today I just received my copies in the mail. The price for one part is 19.99 PLN (around $6).
They're intended for intermediate learners but thanks to the fact that on one side we have the text in English and on the other in Polish - even beginners will be able to find their feet!
What's more: you can buy the audio and a workbook seperately. The audio version is read by a professional British voice actor and is done at the highest quality! Simon Messing - because he is the voice actor - is the greatest pleasure to listen to!
Because this is a republished series, you can expect that at least two more parts will appear because originally 19 little books were published. The audio version normally doesn't last longer than an hour so it's just right!
You can find more information here:
http://sklep.rp.pl/produkt/czytamy-w-oryginale___.php
(the books can be purchased in many bookstores in Poland)Regards,
Your faithful reader,
Wojtek :)
Czy znasz te książki albo podobne? Jakie było Twoje doświadczenie? Napisz komentarz!
English
Polski
A few days ago, an English native – don’t know if British or American one, asked David a question about materials for learning Polish. When I received my copies I thought they are perfect for him and other learners.
I hope they’ll come in handy for you guys! Now, I’m off to the balcony to read and listen to one of the novels. Moby Dick this time. :)
cheers!
Yup, that's called a parallel text or a "reader", e.g. "First Spanish Reader", they're fantastically useful for learning a language, only problem is that there aren't too many of them so you don't really have much choice. I'd kill for a Harry Potter one.
The next best thing to do is find a book you want to read that's available in both your target language and your native language (e.g. Harry Potter which is available in 60+ languages) and then buy a copy of both (e.g. the Polish version of a Harry Potter book and the English version). Then you just use the English version as a contextual translation to help you learn the Polish used in the other version.
Cheers,
Andrew
The problem is that the version in your native language is kind of, how to put it, poetical? artistic? You know – it is localized. Sometimes it uses the language, the words that I use very seldom.
At my current level I have fun with the original version, and my own ‘translation’. So I’ve not figured out yet how to go about dealing with two versions. What would you suggest?
Would you advise me to first read one page in Polish, or to read an excerpt and then the translation?
The way I do it is to use the English version (or whatever your native language is) as a last-resort sort of reference. I personally will look up any words I don't know, any grammar I don't know, and try to figure out what they're saying based on that. If it still doesn't make sense to me then I'll refer to the English language version which usually results in "Ah-ha! So that's what they're saying!". See what I mean? Just knowing the definitions of all the words they're using doesn't mean you can understand what they're saying due to idioms and expressions and slang and such, so if I can't figure it out on my own after having looked up all the words, then I'll refer to the English version for help.
Cheers,
Andrew
I see. Thanks. :)
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