A Bilingual Audio Book for Children of All Ages

(I-Newswire) April 30, 2010 - Antofagasta, Chile, April 2010. MultilingualBookstore has released the first English-Spanish bilingual audio book. According to Soufian Kader, chief publisher, the choice of The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde, was made because it “meets linguistic, trade, and technical requirements.” The piece of work to record should treat of a general subject, so that the vocabulary would be useful for anyone; it should be suitable for listeners of all ages; not only should it allow cutting, but also had to keep its qualities despite the cutting.

The audiobook presents the recording of the original text (for the English part, of course) that is to say: some sentences are quite long because, despite the classification “suitable for children” the book is a piece of art, not a teaching tool. The Spanish translation uses modern Spanish.

The Canterville Ghost is a parody of a ghost story. All the elements are in place: the old mansion, the armour in the hall, the blood stain, the chains, the secret corridor, etc, but they do not work the way they are supposed to. They are present, but the circumstances make them less ghostly than they should be, mainly because they are seen from the materialistic point of view of the American family, the Otises. For them, a detergent may remove the stain, the ghost's chains may be lubricated, a syrup may improve Sir Simon's awful voice etc.

Even things that are not related with the Otises refuse to work. When the ghost makes the terrible oath, using the “picturesque phraseology of the antique school” -something that is known to have yet proved its worth- though Chanticleer “sounds his merry sound” at once, then he remains mute, instead of serving Sir Simon's purpose and allowing “deeds of blood” to be wrought. Everything goes wrong for the representant of the antique school, of the old England.

But in the end, it is the ghost who has a present for the new world. His legacy goes to Virginia, the one who will reconcile the two worlds by marrying an English duke.

While reading the story, children are entertained, not afraid.

Adult readers will enjoy the way Oscar Wilde pits an American family against a British ghost, one culture against the other. The inserted ads, that sounded so American one century ago, are still funny. The stereotypes of both cultures are reexamined.

In the Christian theology, the ghosts cannot exist, since a soul is or is not saved, but cannot choose a third way. No Christian can believe in ghosts. But it is the ghost himself who asks for someone praying for him, so that he can be forgiven; and it is Virginia, a believer and a member of the “Free American Reformed Episcopalian Church” who prays with and for him. The conclusion is clear: two choices are not enough.

The bilingual audiobook follows a sentence-by-sentence alternation. It is perfectly suitable for beginners. They do not have to do guess work, they learn the easiest possible way almost as they learnt their mother tongue, except that they do not ask their mother to repeat when there is something that escapes their understanding, they simply hit the “Replay” touch.
The bilingual audiobook is a little less than three hour long. Each one of the seven chapters of the Canterville Ghost has its own corresponding mp3 file, so that even children may listen to the story since the length of a file is within their ability to focus.
Many adult listeners who are looking for a handy tool to refresh their Spanish will also find pleasant to stop saying: “I have not read it yet,” when asked what they think of Oscar Wilde's tale and instead will proudly reply: “Actually, I prefer to listen to it in Spanish.”

About Gabrielle Guichard:
Gabrielle Guichard is a French teacher and author. She enjoy making some work for MultilingualBookstore, the publishers who offered her her first publication.

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