Ah, good. This is something I've thought about but never had the opportunity to follow up. For most African parents eager to give their children the gift of English, this method is a sure way of getting them to buy African language content books for the same children. Too many ideas, too little time. However, I will make time for providing an African language translation for any writer interested in publishing a bilingual book. paa.kwesi
-----Original Message----- From: AfricanLanguages@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 8:26 AM To: AfricanLanguages@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AfricanLanguages] Digest Number 317 ------------------------ 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> There is 1 message in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Bilingual books for African children? From: "Don Osborn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 03:21:18 -0000 From: "Don Osborn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Bilingual books for African children? 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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/
