Kafka - The Metamorphosis

I'm on a bit of a Kafka kick lately. I really like his works. So I found the original German text of his most famous work "The Metamorphosis" at:

http://www.digbib.org/Franz_Kafka_1883/Die_Verwandlung

and a free MP3 rendering of the story in the original German at

http://www.theateraufcd.de/Verwandlung.aspx

Enjoy!

Japanese Books and Audio

For those of you interested in Japanese I found a great link:

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6241&PN=1&TPN=1

It has lots of FREE Japanese books as well as FREE audio to go along with them. Full length novels by contemporary Japanese writers as well as translations of classics like the Brothers Grimm and hey even Tolstoy.

Tips For Studying Russian Literature

I've embarked upon an ambitious new pet project and thought I'd share my madness with others. I've always wanted to read the great classics of Russian literature in their original form instead of through translations. So here's how I'm going about it:

1. I get my FREE Russian text of the original from http://lib.aldebaran.ru/author/ - they usually have anything you could ever possibly want both classics and newer stuff.

2. I get my FREE English translation from http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page - they usually have the classics. On occasion I find their translations kind of crummy in which case I just pick up a copy at my local book store or amazon. Luckily classics are usually fairly inexpensive (under $10).

3. I can usually get a FREE audio recording of the book in Russian from http://www.konsultant.ru/ab/index.cfm or sometimes I use http://ea.pp.ru/main/books/. Worst case scenario if you can't find it on either of these 2 I also recommend http://www.bestrussianbuy.com which is not free but typically only the price of a CD (around $15). One thing I'll warn you of - any audiobook typically does not recite the book word for word. They tend to skip over some parts but it really doesn't make that big of a difference - the majority of the book is still read.

4. Now that I'm all set to go I don't do things the old fashioned way of sitting there with a dictionary looking up every 3rd word. I found the FREE website www.conradish.net. It's beyond fantastic. Has pretty much everything. They present the full Russian text and as you glide your mouse over each word it has the English translation of that word. It also has the option for you to click on the words you don't know and it prints out either a vocab list for you with the full English definitions or you can print out the Russian text with the English definitions footnoted per the words you highlight at the bottom of the page. What a time saver! Of course bear in mind that these are literal word by word translations. That's why you need the English version of the text as well to get an idea as to the overall meaning of some passages which may not lend themselves to literatl translation.

Another tip - I've found poetry to be quite successful using this concept. New words are easier to memorize when they rhyme.

Texts that I'm utilizing this method on right now are:

Pushkin - Evgeny Onegin
Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
Pasternak - Dr. Zhivago

Don't get me wrong it is a slow and painstaking process - you have to really want to learn it to do things this way but for me at least I've found it rewarding to get through even a page or two. You'd be amazed how the texts really come to life in the original language. I love it - lots of fun.

You know it might be fun to start a little club to share ideas on the classics in their originals. If anyone is interested let me know. I live in Atlanta but if you don't and are interested we could always see about starting some discussion group online. You can contact me at armchairlinguist@gmail.com

Scottish Gaelic Links

I saw a program on the Highland Clans last week and thought it was pretty interesting. I decided to check out Scottish Gaelic and ran across this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/foghlam/

Looks pretty good there are a variety of ways to learn. Cartoons for the kids and straight text for us old folks. All free and with audio. The BBC is always a great source for language courses. I've always found their programs to be well put together.

Dostoevsky Site

I'm a huge Dostoevsky fan and have this terrific all FREE site:

http://www.fyodordostoevsky.com/

Lots of great discussions and links on the famous Russian writer. Want to print out his works in the original Russian? Then this FREE site will do the trick for you:

http://lib.aldebaran.ru/author/dostoevskii_fedor/

Farsi Literature

Looking for literature in Farsi? I found a great FREE site:

http://www.iranonline.com/literature/

What I like about it is it has a great variety and also has children's books for those of you just starting out in Farsi. This is like finding gold. You'd be amazed how hard it is to find kid's books in other languages on the web. Most places that have them want to charge you a fortune. In most cases you'd probably come out cheaper if you just bought a ticket, went to the country, robbed a kindergarten and had your mother bail you out prison via wire transfer. Ha, Ha.

Mahabharata Indian Epic

I found a great site for the famous Indian Epic the Mahabharata:

http://mahabharata-resources.org/

For those of you who don't know it's the longest poem ever written at well over 900 pages. This FREE site has a full english translation as well as excerpts of the original Sanskrit. It was passed down orally for centuries in India and tells the tales of kingdoms, warriors, great romances etc. A real classic.

Ancient Sacred Texts

I was looking for the text of the Indian epic Marharbarata and ran across this site:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm

It has an all FREE and interesting selection of all sorts of interesting ancient texts. Mainly from a spiritual/religious nature it has stuff like Sanskrit documents, myths and legends from around the world, Taoism, Gnosticism you name it. Interesting stuff.