Try out interlinear material

[Keys]

... but I'm not quite convinced that doing interlinear translations with word-to-word matches is worth the added time expenditure. ... I do however agree that you shouldn know the content of the constituent words even in idiomatic expressions where the real meaning isn't obvious and a totally different kind of expression would be substituted in a normal 'literary' trasnslation. In such cases I also prefer a literal translation plus a footnote containing the 'real' meaning.

I totally agree that it's a lot more work than worth especially for an individual language learner. But I hope that sharing them helps others as well where they'd want to get more comfortable reading faster without those frustrating moments were you don't know the meaning of one or more key words in a sentence. Also I'd like to add more idiom where the different order of the original may just confuse people. For Hungarian I had to add a lot more idiom and there's still confusing bits there.

Also, the reason there's no such material is probably because the time/cost expenditure like you say. The advantage of doing it though is the translation database that is built up which also allows other formats, like pop-up or interlinear on-demand, or even Glossika or Duolingo like set ups, multiple choice questions, cloze sentences, etc. Or even a side by side format with pop-up, or something, and though you'd still need an English translation, most copyright free books also have an English translation already available, or they would be easy to make.

Selling the interlinear books on Amazon has mainly helped with funding more translations and voice overs and building on the hyplern.com site a bit where we'll be experimenting on those different formats. Initially there was a free site and donations, but those totalled about $ 10.-- (2 x $5), so now it's still free on demand, but the sales although not very much are helping us to expand more quickly.

It's also not a method to stand on its own (as probably few are), more something to speed up learning to read and listen after a basic course. For Hungarian it did help me a lot to start reading after having done a basic course and not getting anywhere. If you don't mind "tedious" re-reading of the material

[Keys]

I added an example for Latin as well, it's not published yet, but you can get the full pdf free like everything else if you pm me. There's actually two, Phaedrus' Aesop's Fables and Hyginus Fabulae. Of course for Latin there's a ton of interlinear out there, but still

[zenmonkey]

... but I'm not quite convinced that doing interlinear translations with word-to-word matches is worth the added time expenditure. ... I do however agree that you shouldn know the content of the constituent words even in idiomatic expressions where the real meaning isn't obvious and a totally different kind of expression would be substituted in a normal 'literary' trasnslation. In such cases I also prefer a literal translation plus a footnote containing the 'real' meaning.

I totally agree that it's a lot more work than worth especially for an individual language learner. But I hope that sharing them helps others as well where they'd want to get more comfortable reading faster without those frustrating moments were you don't know the meaning of one or more key words in a sentence. Also I'd like to add more idiom where the different order of the original may just confuse people. For Hungarian I had to add a lot more idiom and there's still confusing bits there.

In studying Hebrew and Tibetan, I find this type of literal translation immensely useful as a beginner.
Fo example, Assimil does this in their Hebrew method.

My only criticism is that the extra spacing between words makes reading more difficult for me. I just fell down the rabbit hole and tried to find some articles on the subject. Imagine that, this could be a whole area of research.

[Keys]

In studying Hebrew and Tibetan, I find this type of literal translation immensely useful as a beginner.
Fo example, Assimil does this in their Hebrew method.

My only criticism is that the extra spacing between words makes reading more difficult for me. I just fell down the rabbit hole and tried to find some articles on the subject. Imagine that, this could be a whole area of research.

So for you or anyone else interested, we are developing a site to host all the books in interlinear, interlinear on-demand (only show when word or whole text is clicked), and pop-up format (only show pop-up for a word clicked).

The pop-up mode might me a little better readable and in the future we'll remove more spacing there just like in the old software and the apps, so would be better readable than interlinear. Also for the interlinear it might be possible to make the translation smaller perhaps, in the future, with a slide or select option, so the spacing is smaller.

Any book that has audio will have an mp3 player on the bottom, including download functionality.

There's multiple choice and flash card testing for chapters or clicked words. It's pretty basic now, features under construction are to remove high frequency words from non-clicked word testing (chapter testing), and remove words from testing that have been tested correctly enough times, and add a delete word functionality to the word list menu.

If someone wants to see all our material with the above features, go to https://hyplern.com and either register or use the "try as guest" option on the register screen where you don't have to fill out any email.

Anyone interested in testing and a lifetime free account just register and I'll set your account to have everything visible (no "support us" pop-up on chapter >1) if you pm me or if you don't it will happen automatically in a day or a few days.

All new books that are finished in our translation tool simply "appear" here before publishing in eBook and Paperback format. For example there are two completed Latin books there that are finished, but not published yet. We'll add an option so you can see per language which books are "under construction" (just thought of that one ;p ).

Another future addition will be a page where we keep a list of features that testers come up with as a sort of backlog to implement.

[Bex]

I have signed up at https://hyplern.com/
Looks very promising on the Spanish front.

I have spent 5 minutes looking around as guest and the buttons at the top of the page are a little confusing, so far I have been randomly using them just to see what happens but really they should be more intuitive than that.

Is there anywhere on the site that explains all the button functions?

Also do you want new user feedback and if so what's your preferred method?

Otherwise it seems like a really comprehension resource for many languages. Nice work.

[tommus]

I have registered and had a brief look through the Dutch material (which I had done on your earlier interlinear material). Very impressive! I can only imagine how much work goes into producing such high-quality material.

I am an "ideas" person. I have some suggestions that I think would significantly exploit the HypLern paradigm for enhanced advanced language learning. Here is one idea:

Targeted Stories. Interlinear stories written to directly address specific aspects of language learning, such as the concepts of "language islands" and "connectors". These would be short stories, purposely-written. I know this is extra work, but I'll bet some members of LLorg would contribute. I have a few on a website I set up to try some concepts.

Dutch English Esdoornblad

Language Islands

Connectors

Other websites about language islands and connectors:

Connectors Starter Pack

How to Use Conversational Connectors

I think the keys are (if you'll pardon the pun) to provide new interlinear stories and develop them specifically at being "language islands" and by using "connnectors". For example, a short story could be an exciting crime story that starts off in a house, in the various rooms, moves to a kidnapping and transporting the victim by car to a train station, forcing him/her to buy tickets, etc. Lots of useful islands. And within each short story, have the writer refer constantly to the list of common connectors, and incorporate as many as possible without interfering with the story. At the same time (or in addition), focus on conversation. The language learning community is suffering from the lack of quality interlinear material that targets everyday conversation, conversational expressions, short abbreviated expressions, etc. So many language learners say they can read novels, read the news, read a scientific article, but get totally lost in normal conversation (either verbal or written).

So again, I think the key is targeted short stories. However, they have to be interesting, exciting, page-turner stories, and not the boring kind usually found in language courses.

Another focus is Wikipedia articles whose Creative Commons licence allows commercial use. Thousands of very useful Wikipedia articles would form the basis of language islands that would be a great asset for beginners and advanced learners.

I know all this is easy to suggest, but it requires a large amount of work. I'll bet many here on LLorg would contribute as a partial "thank you" for the wonderful language learning environment that you have created with Hyplern.

[Keys]

I have spent 5 minutes looking around as guest and the buttons at the top of the page are a little confusing, so far I have been randomly using them just to see what happens but really they should be more intuitive than that.

Is there anywhere on the site that explains all the button functions?

Also do you want new user feedback and if so what's your preferred method?

Otherwise it seems like a really comprehension resource for many languages. Nice work.

Thanks! The icons are not very intuitive, I added on-hover tooltips at the last minute but those of course don't work on tablets or phone. I'll create a separate Post on this forum with a user manual and where replies can be used for user feedback.

[ilmari]

Very impressive new step in your endeavor, Keys!

I have looked at the first Russian text (Муж и жена) and found a small typo: Поздно вечером жена проходит домой, while the recording says приходит домой.

[Keys]

The language learning community is suffering from the lack of quality interlinear material that targets everyday conversation, conversational expressions, short abbreviated expressions, etc. So many language learners say they can read novels, read the news, read a scientific article, but get totally lost in normal conversation (either verbal or written).

So again, I think the key is targeted short stories. However, they have to be interesting, exciting, page-turner stories, and not the boring kind usually found in language courses.

Another focus is Wikipedia articles whose Creative Commons licence allows commercial use. Thousands of very useful Wikipedia articles would form the basis of language islands that would be a great asset for beginners and advanced learners.

I know all this is easy to suggest, but it requires a large amount of work. I'll bet many here on LLorg would contribute as a partial "thank you" for the wonderful language learning environment that you have created with Hyplern.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah language islands i.e. targeted stories would be great to have, budget and time-wise we're a bit constrained to out of copyright material. I think FSI has a lot of dialogues and those are copyright free or not?

One Latin book coming up actually consists of dialogues only (Colloquia Maturini Corderii) so the idea is to extend that to other languages. The trouble is finding the time next to our jobs. It would be great if people help out of course but it's a bit painstaking work so I can't blame anyone for not having done this extensively before or not wanting to do it. Another thing is some people start and then don't find the time and leave it unfinished so that's the advantage of paying translators with the sales from Amazon, stuff actually happens, and fast.

The Wikipedia articles I actually looked at already, same with the time constraints and for now we'll focus on stories but it's a great addition we'll add in the future, also because you can spread the content over different subjects or language islands as you say.

If ever I get the chance to work on this full time I would do all of the above and more.

P.S. I set your user (or anyone else's) to having access to all the material.

[tommus]

I can well imagine the amount of work required for these interlinear translations, having done some myself. But I would suppose that the older out-of-copyright material, with archaic words and expressions, is harder to translate than modern language such as that used in Wikipedia. However, modern conversational short phrases and expressions are also quite a challenge.

I have quite a lot of Dutch Wikipedia articles that I have translated into English. They are what I would call parallel text and not quite interlinear. But it wouldn't take much work to make some of them more interlinear.

What I would like to do is write some more very specific and original language islands in English. As you say, time is the limiting factor. But I'll see what I can manage. A very applicable expression is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". I wonder if there is an equivalent expression in Dutch?

Thanks for the HypLern access. I have now read a couple of the NL-EN sea stories. There are some older words and expressions there.