This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.
Группа Learning English   [bad word]  [bad word] club17650165
Продолжение транскрипта: [bad word] /downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/readinggroup_prog8.pdf

ANNOUNCER:
You’re listening to The Reading Group from the BBC World Service. In this series we bring
together listeners, students of English, literature teachers and other contributors from the
world of books to share their enthusiasm for reading. We hope that following this series will
encourage your own interest in reading books in English as a foreign language.
Gary: Hello. Today we hear from a novelist who cares less about literary prizes and
more about books touching people’s lives. We also meet a little golden-haired
boy from another planet. He’s the main character in a classic French book
beloved by adults and children - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Insert 1 – Extract from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The stars are not the same for all people. For some who travel, the stars are
their guides. For most they are nothing but small lights. For a few, the learned
ones, they are problems. But you will have stars like no-one else has. You will
stars that know how to laugh.
Gary: But first, teacher and author Martin Parrott continues his series of talks
intended to help English learners to develop their reading skills. Today he
argues the case for reading books in translation.
Insert 2 – Martin Parrott on reading books in translation
It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Why read a book written by one of your favourite
national authors, translated into English? Surely, the whole point about learning
English is that it opens doors to a vast new literature? So why read Tolstoy, or
Balzac, Lu Xin or Paulo Coelho in English?
Well, because in the [bad word] this will help to unlock those doors to English
literature. Reading favourite works translated into English can be a useful – and
enjoyable – means of building up essential language skills and at the same time
avoiding possibly distracting and daunting implicit cultural associations.
Until you know the language and culture really well, these cultural associations
can create a real barrier to enjoying and understanding books written in English.
What I mean by ‘cultural associations’ is references to – I don’t know -
historical or literary figures, to religious or traditional practices, to TV
personalities, games or meals that a reader who is part of the culture will pick
up and understand, but which can be bewildering to other readers. The point
about reading books from your own culture and tradition translated into English
is that you are removing this kind of problem.
An obvious starting point is a favourite novel or short story, one that you
perhaps studied at school. French friend of mine, a teacher, discovered I had
a copy of a Maupassant short story translated into English. It's called The
Necklace. She had taught the original French version so many times to her
children that she knew the story almost backwards. Although her English was
still shaky, she took the book down from my shelves and just devoured it, she
didn‘t worrying that it was full of long words that would in other circumstances
have made reading difficult.
I know from my own experience of learning foreign languages how useful
translated books can be. I have read Agatha Christie murder mysteries in several
languages. Why? Because the books have a predictable cast of characters -
people behaving and talking in predictable ways. I understand them because I
am [bad word] familiar with the cultural associations of Aghatha Christie’s
novels.
So to summarise, strange as the idea may seem, if you are finding it difficult
reading books written in English, try obtaining and reading books translated
from your language into English. 

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