Learn languages using children’s books and cartoons.
Why children’s books?
First, think of a baby, toddler or young child’s language level in their native language. They definitely can’t communicate as easily as their parents, right? So the books are aimed at their language level.
Let’s take baby’s board books to start with. They have bright bold images and very few words. These are great for those of you who are complete beginners. They’re basically like fun flash cards to get you learning vocabulary. You could even learn a new language with your kids this way!
Next we have toddlers books. They have more complex images and an actual story. However kids of this age have difficulty with multiple locations and too many characters in a story, so this means the stories are quite basic and very easy for adults who are native of that language to follow. For non native speakers, it means you can use these books as tools to learn the language whilst you are a beginner.
Children’s books written in French.
Pictures help you learn.
The pictures will also help you to understand the story without having to look up every word. Often toddlers books even have aids to help the reader learn new words as they read the story. For example in a scene where a father comes home from the bakery with croissants for his children, there is a little image of a croissant under the word croissant to help the child remember this word.
The pictures in these books also have a big impact on your learning. Much like remembering a particular post it note or revision card when you took exams at school, we can use the images in children’s books to help jog our memories and recall certain vocabulary or phrases.
As well as the mini pictures under the text, these books often have vocabulary pages or activities at the back of the book to assist with learning.
Pronunciation aids.
In languages where it is not immediately obvious to a young child how a word is pronounced (yes, that’s French!), many of the children’s ‘learning to read’ books have aids. Some letters are greyed out or printed in a different colour to show that those letters are not pronounced. You’ll also find little scoops under words to show where they link together in a liaison.
Page from a children’s book in French showing the pronunciation aids.
Dual language books.
Kids dual language books are more common in countries which have more than one national language. They are often aimed at kids aged 4 and over. For example in my local town here in Switzerland, I can purchase kids books with the German story on one page and the French equivalent on the opposite page.
Dual language books are available for adults too but are often rather dull stories!
Why kids cartoons?
For the same reason that the children’s books are at your level of language, so are cartoons. As well as the moving images, you have hand gestures, facial expressions and spoken words to help your listening skills too.
What about Intermediate & Advanced learners?
For intermediate and advanced learners I recommend searching the teen and young adult section of the bookstore. Maybe even choose a book that you already know inside out in your native language and read it in your target language. This goes for audio books too. Many of the most popular books from around the world have been translated into multiple languages.
When it comes to movies, it is better to watch the original and have the subtitles in your native language on screen than to watch it dubbed. Dubbing means the sound and the lip movements won’t be in sync which is not ideal for language learning. Grab some popcorn and turn on the next episode of Lupin. 😊
