Our book, “The Cat, the Fish, and the Waiter,” is available in 15 different languages, with each paragraph written in three separate languages: English, French, and one of the 15 languages of your choice. It’s vital for you, or your child, to really know and understand the story first before moving on to start trying to understand it in another language. This is because by knowing the story, you’ll already have an idea of what the translated words are saying. Read the story over and over until you know it by heart. That being said, the story is fun and engaging anyway, so rereading it should be a joy in itself.
Each version of the book comes with an accompanying audio version to make reading and following-along easy and fun! Read by a native speaker at a pace easy to understand but consistent with natural dialogue; using this resource will allow you or your child to actively read and understand as you begin to see similarities between the languages. It’s essential that you not only listen but read while you do so to engage your brain and piece together both the sounds and words in real-time.
Do this as many times as you can to fully understand the text in all three languages! An important part of learning a language is through repetition, but with “The Cat, the Fish, and the Waiter” this is made easy and enjoyable through the engaging story, and resources provided.
Even as you go through steps 1 through 3, a helpful resource built into the book is the index in the back. These pages have every word listed and organized in all three languages for easy reference. If there is a word you just can’t remember or are having difficulty catching on the audio, the index provides a meaning and pronunciation guide to figure it out on your own. Use this at your leisure as your read, or even as a reference in day-to-day life! We want to help you be an active reader, listener, and learner, and the index is a great tool to do so!
