The best way to learn a foreign language is to read a printed book and listen to the corresponding audio-book at the same time. That way you are able to see, how the words are spelled correctly and, equally important, how they are spoken properly. I remember one day in school, when I had ro read an english text and our teacher interupted my reading, telling me that "a funeral has nothing to do with fun". Well, a blunder like that whould never have happened, if I'd had the opportunity at the time to listen to someone reading it to me before.Alas, most audio-books aren't really helpful in this respect, 'cause most of them are awfully recorded and maltreat your ears with hissing sounds, deep basses and the inevitable "twang" most US-Americans can't seem to do without. Once in a while you find some bearable examples, like the one I'm going to present you here. "Alice in Wonderland" read by Lorraine Montgomery would have been an almost flawless treat at that, if I hadn't found two flies in the ointment, that I have to mention here.
- 1. She rattles off like a machine-gun when she's reading out loud, and
- 2. Her capabilities as singer-songwriter are next to nothing, to say the least.
I couldn't improve her singing in any way, of course, but as for the machine-gun reading, I was able to slow it down a bit by cutting the audio files into bits and pieces and put them together again with little breaks put between them. The result of this radical intervention can be listened to right here, or listened to and seen in HD on YouTube. Some examples of less dreadful singing I have put into the link list below. Have fun!
RELATED LINKS
- Lorraine Montgomery for Lit2go
- All files on web.de
- Steely Dan's Lobster Quadrille
- Ben Michaelis' version of the Turtle Soup Song (Original soundtrack composed by Richard Hartley)
- Another ambitious try at singing the Turtle Soup Song by Betsie Bush
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Die ersten PAN-BOOKS erschienen 1945 und wurden noch mit Fadenbindung hergestellt. Diese frühen Taschenbücher sind eigentlich unkaputtbar und während ihre später zusammengekleisterten Paperback-Kollegen inzwischen alle aus dem Leim gegangen sind, und als Anhäufung fliegender Blätter längst in irgendwelchen Papiertonnen gelandet sind, erfreuen sich diese alten Schinken immer noch bester Gesundheit. O.k. das Papier ist inzwischen etwas angegilbt, ein paar Altersflecken hier und da, wie das bei älteren Zeitgenossen halt nun mal so ist. Das hier abgebildete Exemplar (PAN GP1) erschien 1952 und war bereits die dritte Auflage. Die 1947er Ausgabe (PAN G1) findet man hier.