Bilingual paragraph-by-paragraph translationsSo you can learn or practice a language while reading the books you already want to read anyway.► Classical novelAlice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) tells of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children.Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the best-known and most popular works of English-language fiction, its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre. The work has never been out of print, and it has been translated into at least 97 languages. Its ongoing legacy encompasses many adaptations for stage, screen, radio, art, ballet, theme parks, board games, and video games. Carroll published a sequel in 1871, titled Through the Looking-Glass, and a shortened version for young children, The Nursery "Alice", in 1890.
► Parallel text (French - English)The original English version is aligned with the official French translation, "Alice au Pays des Merveilles" by Henri Bué (1869). The most common way to use these texts is to only use your native language when it's absolutely necessary for understanding what's going on in the text. This keeps you from just leaning on a language you already know. By only consulting the "teaching language" when absolutely necessary, you get the experience of extensive reading without the pain of having to do it in the normal way. This also means that all the input you're getting is comprehensible, which helps grow your vocabulary, grammar and other subtle aspects of the language.In the end, the goal of the parallel text books is to help you understand and learn at the same time by helping you when you need it and not helping you when you don't need it.If you can learn to use parallel text books correctly, they're incredibly powerful tools that can teach you a very nuanced version of the language you're trying to learn.
►How to Use Parallel Text BooksTo make the most of using parallel text books, follow these steps.
1. Don't read both languages all the time.This is the most important step on this list. Don't read both languages every time you read-your native language is just an aid for understanding the target language and should be treated as such.If you start reading both languages all the time, you're basically giving your brain the green light to always translate in your head. This is very important not to do because translating in your head is tiresome and only slows you down and keeps you from sounding natural when you speak.
2. Read often.Reading in a new language is just like learning to read again. You need to be reading as much as possible so you can grow as much as possible. Take in as many different types of books as you can and read them until you can digest and retain the information in them.Not only is reading often important to get used to the method of reading parallel texts, but it also just gets you comfortable around your new language and helps you begin to think in that language when you're using it.Essentially, the more you read, the better you'll speak, read and write in the language that you're studying.
3. Read out loud whenever possible.This will probably make you uncomfortable at first, because most of us don't regularly read out loud.However, it's very important to read books out loud when you're reading in a foreign language because it solidifies the information and grammar and helps you with things like pronunciation,
