Self-Taught Language Books / Developing a Language Resource

MikelMon · Post by **MikelMon** » September 29th, 2009, 2:29 am

Hey Ruth,
I see that you are willing to do the English part and I am willing to do the Spanish one, shall we pick up a book and start doing it together?

Since I am new here, it will be great for me if I could have some "coaching" from you and a colaborative work together would be the best way for me to start with LibriVox.

I would recommend a non very old book, because much of the grammar has changed in Spanish since XIX Century (probably in most of the languages).

So, lets see how this ends up.

MikelMon

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » September 29th, 2009, 4:19 am

MikelMon wrote:Since I am new here, it will be great for me if I could have some "coaching" from you and a colaborative work together would be the best way for me to start with LibriVox.

I would recommend a non very old book, because much of the grammar has changed in Spanish since XIX Century (probably in most of the languages).

Yes, I am happy to do that. How about http://www.archive.org/details/newfirstspanishb027296mbp (1916)? This is a scanned book, and it is not the best scan I have ever seen, but I think we should be able to manage OK.

Have you done a a short test recording yet, to make sure that your settings, volume etc are all OK? If not, especially as we will both be together on the same recording, it would be a good idea to do so.

Ruth

Nicholas19 · Post by **Nicholas19** » September 29th, 2009, 10:05 am

One thing that I have been wondering about though is that, at least in the Portuguese one, the first section or two will be this very long list of words. He starts with vocabulary, and only after that he starts with the grammar. I suppose that will be rather tiring for the listener. Also, he always gives the "pronounciation" beside the word - I think I will skip that. :p

Well... I've already recorded Persian Self-Taught, which has the exact same format. It could be tiresome for some, but then language learning is tiresome for some people. The vocabulary given are actually quite useful, and one can choose to listen to the recordings in any order one chooses. The vocabulary are particularly useful for revision for students of the language. You don't need to give the pronunciation. I didn't do that with Persian Self-Taught. Also, I read each word and phrase 3-4 times, like this:

panj five panj panj five panj

It's just a suggestion, but that's what I did in my recording.

I am also wondering what to do about the spelling. As Nicholas mentions above, some books have a "slightly out of date ortography"; out of the languages I know, Portuguese is the one that has undergone the more frequent ortography changes in the 20th century. Which means that a book from 1910 can have certain words written in a very different way. But oh well. I guess the best I can do is to warn people in the summary!

The spelling isn't heard, though, is it? What matters for the audiobook is the way it sounds, not the way it's written.

Nicholas

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » September 29th, 2009, 10:53 am

Nicholas19 wrote:[You don't need to give the pronunciation. I didn't do that with Persian Self-Taught.

I ignored the Franglais pronunciation suggested by the author, which was a bit hopeless in many cases, and I am trying to pronounce the words as close as possible to current pronunciation.

Also, I read each word and phrase 3-4 times, like this:

panj five panj panj five panj

It's just a suggestion, but that's what I did in my recording.

The way I am doing it is different. I am leaving a standard gap after each English/French pair of words so that the listener has time to repeat the French word if he wishes.

My main problem is lack of confidence

. I am still not at all sure that I am competent to do this, but I shall persevere.

Ruth

Post by **Leni** » September 29th, 2009, 12:42 pm

Nicholas19 wrote:The spelling isn't heard, though, is it? What matters for the audiobook is the way it sounds, not the way it's written.

Yes, the spelling won't matter in many cases, but, for example, when he mentions "the sound of ph", that's totally obsolete, since Portuguese dropped ALL ph's and substituted them for 'f' some 60 years ago.

I am glad to know both you and Ruth ignored the pronounciation, that's what I intend to do; also (and that's VERY interesting) I notice by his examples how the pronounciation of some vowels changed radically! Of course I will read as it is pronounced currently in Brazil - that's all I can do.

I don't know if I am competent either. If Ruth isn't... what about poor mortals like me!

Edit: I was looking for other Portuguese language learning books and found some others, very interesting ones. Should I add them to the original post? I will start one of those soon.

MikelMon · Post by **MikelMon** » September 30th, 2009, 8:00 am

Hey Ruth,
I'm happy to have the change to collaborate with you.

I also think that the book suggested is the most recomendable.

I'm still not sure about the quality of mi microphone. I send you a.s.a.p. a recording test.

I'm looking forward to start working with you.

MikelMon

Nicholas19 · Post by **Nicholas19** » September 30th, 2009, 8:42 am

Yes, the spelling won't matter in many cases, but, for example, when he mentions "the sound of ph", that's totally obsolete, since Portuguese dropped ALL ph's and substituted them for 'f' some 60 years ago.

Ah, true. That seems to have happened for a lot of languages, except for English for some reason. English as written in the 19th century is the same as the English of today. The main difference with 20th and 21st century English is the addition of thousands of new words for technical things. Even 17th century English is pretty comprehensible today, though there have been some minor changes of vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling since then. The King James or Authorised Version of the Bible is still very easy to understand and that was published in the early 1600's. One of the main changes in English since the 17th century is the loss of the rhotic r is most places in Britain, except the West Country, but the rhotic r is still retained in American English. The rhotic r used to be universal in England.

The PH spelling might be irrelevant now, but it would help people who want to read 19th century Portuguese works, right?

Edit: I was looking for other Portuguese language learning books and found some others, very interesting ones. Should I add them to the original post? I will start one of those soon.

Sure!

Nicholas19 · Post by **Nicholas19** » September 30th, 2009, 1:27 pm

Hi Nicholas,
I am new to LibriVox and still do not know much about how to colaborate.
In any case, you just pointed out a very interesting goal for audiobooks, which is to enable people to learn languages by listening to grammar books or easy tales.

Hi Mikel! Sorry I didn't get back to you directly earlier, but it seems your questions have already been answered.

I also think that the book suggested is the most recomendable.

I'm still not sure about the quality of mi microphone. I send you a.s.a.p. a recording test.

I'm looking forward to start working with you.

Good luck and best wishes!

Nicholas

Post by **Leni** » October 1st, 2009, 3:50 pm

I added six books for Portuguese, and I am adopting one of them.

Nicholas19 · Post by **Nicholas19** » October 2nd, 2009, 12:04 pm

I added six books for Portuguese, and I am adopting one of them.

Just had a look at your project. It seems to be a great book! I hope you enjoy recording it.

Including Esperanto, Persian, Arabic and French, this makes Portuguese the fifth language in our project!!! Persian Self-Taught is still in the process of being proofread and Arabic Primer will be catalogued shortly.

Nicholas

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » October 8th, 2009, 10:37 am

MikelMon and I are underway with the New First Spanish Book at http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21771

I have marked it adopted in Nicholas19's post. (I found a better scan at this link.)

Wish us luck!

Ruth

Kelly.W · Post by **Kelly.W** » October 9th, 2009, 1:00 am

This is such a good idea, languages are key to open minded life and they enable us to travel the world, communicate with more people and broaden our horizons. I think this is a really great project, but what an undertaking Nicholas!

Having just graduated with a Classics degree I will try and attempt the Latin texts, and my fellow Classics student has offered to do the Greek (Ancient Greek was never my forte!)

Also, my Mother is Polish and has taught me well so will definitley take on a Polish text as well! Really looking forward to it, and am glad that my rather unusual degree will come into some use at least!

Thanks for starting this up Nicholsa, I don't think many other people would be brave enough!

Nicholas19 · Post by **Nicholas19** » October 9th, 2009, 3:41 am

MikelMon and I are underway with the New First Spanish Book at http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21771

I have marked it adopted in Nicholas19's post. (I found a better scan at this link.)

Wish us luck!

Best wishes to you and MikelMon! This is wonderful!

This is such a good idea, languages are key to open minded life and they enable us to travel the world, communicate with more people and broaden our horizons. I think this is a really great project, but what an undertaking Nicholas!

Dear Kelly, thanks for your enthusiasm!

LibriVox itself is a mighty undertaking -- to record all books available in the public domain. This initiative is to make sure that we make all the best language learning books available.

Having just graduated with a Classics degree I will try and attempt the Latin texts, and my fellow Classics student has offered to do the Greek (Ancient Greek was never my forte!)

Also, my Mother is Polish and has taught me well so will definitley take on a Polish text as well! Really looking forward to it, and am glad that my rather unusual degree will come into some use at least!

Latin, Greek and Polish! That will be excellent!

Have you decided which books in particular you want to work on yet?

Have you read all the notes on how to set up a project, recording, etc? http://librivox.org/volunteer-for-librivox/

It seems that you'll be setting up solo projects, so you should probably read these:
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13513
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=717

You'll have to post your project in the New Projects Launch Pad, which can be found here: http://librivox.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=28

Thanks for starting this up Nicholsa, I don't think many other people would be brave enough!

I'm just doing my bit (currently having worked on Esperanto, Persian and Arabic) and encouraging others to help out as well.

Best wishes and keep us updated,

Nicholas

Cassiane · Post by **Cassiane** » October 11th, 2009, 7:15 pm

I'm interested in taking on Wyatt's Anglo-Saxon Reader; however, I think I should get a bit more experience with other projects first before taking on a whole book, so I'll put off officially adopting it for the moment.

neckertb · Post by **neckertb** » October 12th, 2009, 11:08 am

Nicholas19 wrote:Greetings LibriVox!

There are many old textbooks available online. Of course, one could download these textbooks and work through them oneself without listening to a recording, but there is an important point about language learning that needs to be emphasised. Language, properly learnt, does not begin with the written word. It begins with the spoken word! Language learning begins with listening. Speaking follows listening and then reading and writing come last of all.

Hi everyone

i think it is a great idea! have you considered including in the recordings the link where people can dowlnload the e-book from? Reading is also a part of learning and in some cases actually helps people remembering what they heard...