Thanks Andrew, for this additional info. These are good ideas and the thought occurs that it would be an interesting topic - and set of initiatives - to discuss further on this list.
Another dimension is end-user costs of books (related to printing and publisher costs). The market may have to be tilted a bit by donor monies at least in early stages, or else either few will be able to afford the books or no one will bother printing them. This is I believe what is happening in China, where a lot of educational books (monolingual Chinese, bilingual, and even some English series with notes and glossary def's in Chinese) are very cheap certainly by Western standards but even compared to what you see books sell for in Africa. Subsidizing books for kids would seem to be a great investment (new books - used ones are fine but why stop there), and publications in the first languages of Africa (mono/bi/multilingual as needed) would seem a logical part of the process. Doing stuff on the internet is a cost-effective strategy for getting materials together and available at least in one medium, but the next step of getting things on paper for wider use is a more expensive one (as we all know). Don --- In AfricanLanguages@yahoogroups.com, Andrew Cunningham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Don > > a number of publishers do bilingual books. Bilingual children's picture books are the most common. > > For instance Milet (http://www.milet.com) do bilingual picture dictionaries for children. The african languages they currently support are Somali and Dinka. Some of these companies will work with translators to develop additional languages if they see a large enough market for it. > > An alternative approac would be to develop a set of bilingual books and release them under a creative ocmmons licence and work with language specialists on additional language pairs. > > For bilingual books: > > English - African language > French - African language > Arabic - African language > > would be useful, or even trilingual French - English - African language editions. > > Andrew > > Don Osborn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I've recently found an interesting series of children's books by Blake > Education Pty. Ltd. (Australia) for my son. They are fun introductions > to serious topics in science and culture, and the versions we found > are bilingual English & Chinese. > > The thought occurs that since this series has already been adapted to > one series of bilingual versions, that it might be possible to adapt > it to a variety of others, thinking here specifically of African > languages. > > Search "Brain Waves" on the publisher's site at > http://www.blake.com.au/ to see a list of titles. > > A more interesting description of one of the titles, "Whose Crazy Idea > Was That?" (perhaps an apt example here ;-) )is at > http://www.dominie.com.au/productsmain.asp?productid=XXSN-1126 : > "This is a series of full colour, non-fiction, chapter books that make > facts come alive. These are easy-to-read books which grab students. > High interest topics and real facts that are really interesting! For > reluctant readers or those not yet switched on to non-fiction, these > books will bring a buzz to your classroom. > > Text features include: > - A variety of text types in a highly visual format > - Labelled diagrams, tables, graphs and maps > - Index, glossary and a table of contents > - Pages laid out as double-page spreads > - Illustrations and photographs on every page" > > The bilingual versions are available in China only at a fraction of > the cost of what one sees on the web for the English version (this may > have to do with the quality of paper etc. used, though what we bought > here in Chengdu is excellent quality). > > The Chinese sites listed on one of the publications > (http://www.centuryoriental.com.cn/ & http://edu.sina.com.cn/ ) > unfortunately do not lead to anything about the books. > > As an outsider it seems to me that creative thinking about developing > African language materials (monolingual and bilingual) for in class > and outside of class reading might look to Asia for examples and > possible business relationships to build on. I'd imagine that finding > resources to fund such projects will be a lot easier if there is a > good project to build on. (And good translators available!) > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
