Storytime

January 20, 2019 12:33 PM

The Fable Cottage - classic fairytales retold in modern English, French, Spanish, Italian and German, with native-speaker audio and other nice features for language learners.

Bonus Link 1: A less reverent version of Aschenputtel
Bonus Link 2: Otto sings Hansel and Gretel Variations

posted by Wolfdog (3 comments total)

This is pretty awesome. One of the things that put a stop to my progression in Spanish was a lack of access to accessible-yet-interesting reading material. Conversational stuff is useful, but it just doesn't hold my attention. Literature is where it's at, for me—and this looks great. I already know the stories, which makes it easy to follow along and fill in the bits I don't understand. And just as importantly, they're good stories. Most of the stuff that's written specifically for language learners is dreck, but these are timeless. I'm in.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 1:01 PM on January 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is marvelous! I employed a similar scheme when I was teaching myself Italian: I purchased the Italian version of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, and read the Italian book while I simultaneously listened to Stephen Frye reading the book in English. It was wildly effective.
posted by Silvery Fish at 1:45 PM on January 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is great--thanks! A number of free online texts I've used to refresh my high school French a little might be relevant here too, e.g. the stories section at Duolingo (which they expanded a lot in the past ~year), an interlinear reader that starts off with a bunch of fables, and Nouveaux contes de fées pour les petits enfants by the Comtesse de Ségur. I'm aware of another interlinear reader at the Internet Archive, plus tons more children's books by Sophie Ségur and fairy tales by other authors at Project Gutenberg, and a bunch of classics available from Gallimard Jeunesse are free online too, e.g. La petite Fadette by George Sand or Lettres de mon moulin and Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon by Alphonse Daudet. Incidentally, I found the literature videos at Les Bons Profs easy to understand, and I've also enjoyed Français avec Pierre for everyday vocabulary.
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:00 PM on January 20, 2019 [2 favorites]