What are these files?
They are bilingual texts with original texts and their translations aligned side-by-side. Most of the files are of classic novels no longer copyrighted. In the United States, copyright expires after life of the author plus 70 years. See Copyright Term Extension Act for more details. Most files are in Microsoft Word format, but a few are in Excel and PDF formats.
What are these files for?
They were made specifically for a language learning technique called Listening-Reading Method. Here is the gist of the technique:
You will need:
- Text in your native language
- Text in your target language
- Audio recording of the same text in your target language
First, listen to the audio while reading the text in your native language so you get the meaning, then rewind and listen to the same segment of the audio again while reading the text in your target language. Depending on your memory and language level you can alternate these two steps per paragraph or per chapter. This method only works if you read long texts in an intensive manner. Some who have tried the method reported that they studied 8-10 hours per day for several consecutive days. Here is an excerpt from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo in French and English with the matching audio clip. Listen and read along:
| Français | English |
| Il y a quelques années qu’en visitant, ou, pour mieux dire, en furetant Notre-Dame, l’auteur de ce livre trouva, dans un recoin obscur de l’une des tours ce mot, gravé à la main sur le mur: | A few years ago, while visiting or, rather, rummaging about Notre−Dame, the author of this book found, in an obscure nook of one of the towers, the following word, engraved by hand upon the wall:−− |
| ANAΓKH | ANAΓKH |
| Ces majuscules grecques, noires de vétusté et assez profondément entaillées dans la pierre, je ne sais quels signes propres à la calligraphie gothique empreints dans leurs formes et dans leurs attitudes, comme pour révéler que c’était une main du moyen âge qui les avait écrites là, surtout le sens lugubre et fatal qu’elles renferment, frappèrent vivement l’auteur. | These Greek capitals, black with age, and quite deeply graven in the stone, with I know not what signs peculiar to Gothic calligraphy imprinted upon their forms and upon their attitudes, as though with the purpose of revealing that it had been a hand of the Middle Ages which had inscribed them there, and especially the fatal and melancholy meaning contained in them, struck the author deeply. |
| Il se demanda, il chercha à deviner quelle pouvait être l’âme en peine qui n’avait pas voulu quitter ce monde sans laisser ce stigmate de crime ou de malheur au front de la vieille église. | He questioned himself; he sought to divine who could have been that soul in torment which had not been willing to quit this world without leaving this stigma of crime or unhappiness upon the brow of the ancient church. |
| Depuis, on a badigeonné ou gratté (je ne sais plus lequel) le mur, et l’inscription a disparu. Car c’est ainsi qu’on agit depuis tantôt deux cents ans avec les merveilleuses églises du moyen âge. Les mutilations leur viennent de toutes parts, du dedans comme du dehors. Le prêtre les badigeonne, l’architecte les gratte, puis le peuple survient, qui les démolit. | Afterwards, the wall was whitewashed or scraped down, I know not which, and the inscription disappeared. For it is thus that people have been in the habit of proceeding with the marvellous churches of the Middle Ages for the last two hundred years. Mutilations come to them from every quarter, from within as well as from without. The priest whitewashes them, the archdeacon scrapes them down; then the populace arrives and demolishes them. |
| Ainsi, hormis le fragile souvenir que lui consacre ici l’auteur de ce livre, il ne reste plus rien aujourd’hui du mot mystérieux gravé dans la sombre tour de Notre-Dame, rien de la destinée inconnue qu’il résumait si mélancoliquement. L’homme qui a écrit ce mot sur ce mur s’est effacé, il y a plusieurs siècles, du milieu des générations, le mot s’est à son tour effacé du mur de l’église, l’église elle-même s’effacera bientôt peut-être de la terre. | Thus, with the exception of the fragile memory which the author of this book here consecrates to it, there remains today nothing whatever of the mysterious word engraved within the gloomy tower of Notre−Dame,−nothing of the destiny which it so sadly summed up. The man who wrote that word upon the wall disappeared from the midst of the generations of man many centuries ago; the word, in its turn, has been effaced from the wall of the church; the church will, perhaps, itself soon disappear from the face of the earth. |
| C’est sur ce mot qu’on a fait ce livre. | It is upon this word that this book is founded. |
| Février 1831. | February, 1831. |
Have you tried the method?
No. I’m only hosting the files temporarily until a permanent home can be found.
Does Listening-Reading Method really work?
I don’t know, but I have read success stories from people who have tried it. The key is to do this intensively so you can beat short-term memory loss by repetition. Theoretically most words in a long novel should’ve been repeated enough times for you to memorize them. You would want to read something longer than 800 pages and go at it for more than eight hours per day until you finish the book. The goal of the method is to simulate the intensity of an immersion environment where you are surrounded by nothing but the target language. Have you ever wondered why after years of language courses at school all you can do is order a beer and ask where the bathroom is? Here is your answer: five hours of studying time spread out over five days DOES NOT equal to five consecutive hours, and 70 hours of studying time over a semester does not equal to a week in an immersion environment. Studying a language for an hour a day will never get you to fluency no matter how many years you go at it. By the time you come back for your next lesson you’ve already forgotten most of what you learned the previous day. When it comes to serious language study, immersion, real or simulated, is the only way to go. If you don’t have the time or money to study abroad, spending a few days with Victor Hugo or Stieg Larsson might be the next best (cheapest) thing. 
Where can I find the audio files?
Free sources:
Non-free sources: Amazon international sites and eBay international sites.
Most books here are over 100 years old, do you know where I can find books in contemporary language?
Yes, but not for free though. You can find translations of popular novels such as Stieg Larsson’s Trilogy, Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, etc on Amazon or eBay. Here is an example from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:
| Français | English |
| PROLOGUE | PROLOGUE |
| VENDREDI 1er NOVEMBRE | A Friday in November |
| C’ÉTAIT MAINTENANT devenu un événement annuel. L’homme qui recevait la fleur fêtait ce jour-là ses quatre-vingt-deux ans. Il sortit le paquet de l’enveloppe et retira le papier cadeau. Puis il souleva le combiné du téléphone et composa le numéro d’un ancien commissaire de police qui depuis sa mise à la retraite était installé en Dalécarlie, près du lac Siljan. Non seulement les deux hommes avaient le même âge mais ils étaient aussi nés le même jour – ce qui, vu le contexte, pouvait paraître de l’humour. Le commissaire savait qu’il allait recevoir cet appel après le passage du facteur vers 11 heures du matin, et il prenait son café en attendant. Cette année, le téléphone sonna dès 10 h 30. Il décrocha et ne s’embarrassa même pas des préambules. | It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dalarna. They were not only the same age, they had been born on the same day—which was something of an irony under the circumstances. The old policeman was sitting with his coffee, waiting, expecting the call. |
| — Elle est arrivée, je suppose. Qu’est-ce que c’est, comme fleur, cette année? | “It arrived. What is it this year?” |
| — Aucune idée. Je vais la faire identifier. Une fleur blanche. | “I don’t know what kind it is. I’ll have to get someone to tell me what it is. It’s white.” |
| — Pas de lettre, évidemment? | “No letter, I suppose.” |
| — Non. Rien que la fleur. Le cadre est le même que l’année dernière. Un de ces cadres bon marché à monter soi-même. | “Just the flower. The frame is the same kind as last year. One of those do-it-yourself ones.” |
| — Cachet de la poste ? | “Postmark?” |
| — Stockholm. | “Stockholm.” |
| — Ecriture ? | “Handwriting?” |
| — Comme toujours, des majuscules d’imprimerie. Des lettres droites et soignées. | “Same as always, all in capitals. Upright, neat lettering.” |
| Ils avaient épuisé le sujet et observèrent le silence, chacun à son bout de la ligne, pendant une bonne minute. Le commissaire à la retraite se pencha en arrière sur sa chaise de cuisine et suçota sa pipe. Il savait très bien qu’on ne comptait plus sur lui pour poser la question qui ferait déclic, la question d’une folle perspicacité qui jetterait une nouvelle lumière sur cette affaire. Ce temps-là était révolu depuis de nombreuses années et la conversation entre les deux hommes âgés avait le caractère d’un rituel entourant un mystère que personne d’autre au monde qu’eux n’avait à cœur de résoudre. | With that, the subject was exhausted, and not another word was exchanged for almost a minute. The retired policeman leaned back in his kitchen chair and drew on his pipe. He knew he was no longer expected to come up with a pithy comment or any sharp question which would shed a new light on the case. Those days had long since passed, and the exchange between the two men seemed like a ritual attaching to a mystery which no-one else in the whole world had the least interest in unravelling. |
Download Links: Please be gentle with the bandwidth and download only what you need.
great work by posting this…thanks.
I use Nova text aligner to make my own parallel texts,it is about 10 times easier and faster than using word in column layout and best of all it can export in ebook formats to read on kindle and other ebook readers:
http://www.supernova-soft.com/c5/index.php/products/text_aligner/
Take a look at http://tongues.org , a website that uses parallel texts to teach languages. The texts on there line up sentence-by-sentence with the audio, so it would work well for this method.
thanks for posting here link with many parallel translations of French. I can learn now much more – not all the time doing translation work in order to understand what i am reading listening cause i am beginner. Take care!
Thank you very much.
I’ve been looking for such a thing for almost a week. Finding the desired material when learning a second language is always backbreaking.
thanksssssssss