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gbarv · 07-17-2009, 12:19 AM

I'm sorry but I currently don't know any sites that offer parallel books for download, I did mine myself, just get the texts separately and use a word processor to make them parallel. It takes some time but you will only need them for the beginning stages, the goal here is to wean yourself off learning materials and translations as quickly as possible so that you can focus on native content. In my experience for related languages (e.g. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish, etc. for a native English speaker) you only need the translation of about 10 hours of unique content which you can repeat several times. If you don't want to make your own parallel texts you might as well use them separately, you read a paragraph in the English translation, then read the same in the target language and repeat until you can understand most of it.

If you are already at a point where you can understand at least some of the language just take the book with no translation and read, read, read, don't stop to think about grammar points or vocabulary, as long as you can understand (and especially enjoy) at least the gist of what you're reading you are fine just keep going. If you find you get bored either your level is not enough in which case you should continue using a translation or use easier content, or the content is not interesting to you so you're better off reading something else. Don't not read or watch or listen anything just for the sake of learning the language, use content you enjoy. Before taking any reading or listening material in your target language think if you would read it anyway in your first language.

About movies, we all have some we have watched so many times we almost know the lines by heart, use those in your target language.

I have some parallel books in made to learn French but, they're French-Spanish (my native language) and if you don't enjoy the same kind of book (embarrassingly, I love science fiction )you won't get far.

Anyway, some useful resources in French

French audiobooks: Litterature audio.com | Livres audio gratuits à écouter et télécharger
French ebooks:Ebooks libres et gratuits
French easy stories for children: Raconte-moi des histoires, l'integrale en téléchargement (Tirondin, Gobbolino, Grogre, Theo, avaleur de maitre)

07-17-2009, 12:19 AM	#21 (permalink)
gbarv Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 24	I'm sorry but I currently don't know any sites that offer parallel books for download, I did mine myself, just get the texts separately and use a word processor to make them parallel. It takes some time but you will only need them for the beginning stages, the goal here is to wean yourself off learning materials and translations as quickly as possible so that you can focus on native content. In my experience for related languages (e.g. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish, etc. for a native English speaker) you only need the translation of about 10 hours of unique content which you can repeat several times. If you don't want to make your own parallel texts you might as well use them separately, you read a paragraph in the English translation, then read the same in the target language and repeat until you can understand most of it. If you are already at a point where you can understand at least some of the language just take the book with no translation and read, read, read, don't stop to think about grammar points or vocabulary, as long as you can understand (and especially enjoy) at least the gist of what you're reading you are fine just keep going. If you find you get bored either your level is not enough in which case you should continue using a translation or use easier content, or the content is not interesting to you so you're better off reading something else. Don't not read or watch or listen anything just for the sake of learning the language, use content you enjoy. Before taking any reading or listening material in your target language think if you would read it anyway in your first language. About movies, we all have some we have watched so many times we almost know the lines by heart, use those in your target language. I have some parallel books in made to learn French but, they're French-Spanish (my native language) and if you don't enjoy the same kind of book (embarrassingly, I love science fiction )you won't get far. Anyway, some useful resources in French French audiobooks: Litterature audio.com \| Livres audio gratuits à écouter et télécharger French ebooks:Ebooks libres et gratuits French easy stories for children: Raconte-moi des histoires, l'integrale en téléchargement (Tirondin, Gobbolino, Grogre, Theo, avaleur de maitre)