Doppeltext is an excellent resource for bilingual e-books—particularly if you enjoy works by famous authors or well-known pieces of literature. Books are available in French, German, Russian and Spanish, and translated text fragments appear in English. No matter what you encounter in life, there are six questions that are invaluable: what, when, where, who, how, and why.

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. First, while looking at what’s out there, consider all types of books. Don’t limit yourself to just one “scholarly” source or even a language learning text. With bilingual e-books, all reading genres are represented. Choose something that piques your interest. Start slow Alice Hoffman was right that “books may well be the only true magic.” They transport and transfix—and they teach. 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. Italian language learners will fall into the rabbit hole with Alice in “Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie” (“Alice in Wonderland”)—and have no problem at all understanding every bit of the adventure! I doubt Lewis Carroll could have imagined that this beloved tale would ever be available in a format that provides both English and Italian text side-by-side.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. Eric Partridge was the leading English language slang lexicographer of the 20th century. His Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English appeared in 1937 and editions continued to appear until the posthumous edition of 1984.

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. With dual language or bilingual books, you can actively learn your target language and enjoy a good story at the same time. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World (Hardcover)Because bilingual resources make stories in your target language way more accessible and hassle-free, they’re truly an ideal tool for language learners. He has been described as an eccentric, and occupied the same desk at the British Library every day for 50 years. Slang does seem to attract some interesting characters.

Well, the sky’s the limit, really. You could simply use dual language books to tell a story in one language or the other. You could cover up the target language, leaving the more familiar words accessible, and ask the reader to retell the story in his or her own words. You could single out individual words or phrases, or particular word groups, like nouns or verbs, and encourage the learner to memorise them. You could cover up the more familiar language, and ask the learner to translate from the second language (often, but not always, English). Or you could use them as a bedtime or afternoon story, to help and comfort new arrivals to a country, particularly when so much around them might be confusing and unfamiliar. 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. 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-booksSlang 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. Your final book is not as crude and vulgar as the title might suggest. There can’t be many words that have whole books written about them. 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.”