Guest readings

I’m looking for native speakers of non-English languages to read in their native language!

The idea is simple: when learning a language, it’s often difficult to get exposure to various accents; it’s difficult to learn to hear the sounds of the language; it’s difficult to get good at reading. And it’s often difficult to find materials to help overcome these difficulties!

What I want to do here is to give all of you an opporunity to help people get over that difficulty! Just take a few minutes to record yourself reading some text in your native langauge — a page from a book, an article from a newspaper, anything! — and submit that recording to me, along with the text that you read.

In return, for your help, I give you an opportunity to promote yourself! You have full lisence to promote your web site, or a product you are selling, to choose the reading material, to add as little or as much as you want to the introduction. Let some of my traffic become some of your traffic!

What I need from you

I need the recording and the text of what was read. The best way to send the audio is in the form of an MP3 file, but don’t worry too much about the format. I can convert other formats if necessary.

What to read

The choice is yours. Maybe you’ll choose a famous poem, or a page from a famous novel. Perhaps you’d prefer to read an news article about current events in your home country. Or maybe you’ll translate something famous from English into your native language. This is an opportunity to share your culture, and to let people know a little about yourself. I’m sure you’ll think of something great!

Length

I think the best length is usually around 500-600 words, but I don’t want to put too much limitation on the length of the reading, and I definitely don’t want you sitting there counting words. The most important thing is just not to go too long, so you don’t lose your audience. Try to get approximately one screenful of text, and you’ll be fine.

Translation

And English translation is definitely appreciated, but it is not a requirement. If your submission is in a language that I know, I can do the transation. And if not, it’s not a problem — I’ve posted readings without a translation before, I don’t mind doing it again.

Photo

If you wish to include a photo of yourself, or an image related to the material being read, you are welcome to do so. I prefer images at 500w x 375h, but I will accept any size, and I’m capable of editing to make them fit.

Introduction

The only information that is necessary is the name of what you are reading, and the language being used. Beyond that, you can say as little or as much as you want to say about yourself. You can share your website, or promote your latest e-book, or link to your Amazon wishlist and ask people to buy you things… whatever you want!

Can you do it more than once?

Of course you can! You’re welcome to participate as much as you want. I don’t mind publishing multiple contributions from the same person, though I probably won’t publish them back-to-back.

Where to send it

That’s easy: just email it to me! yearlyglot@gmail.com.

Thanks! I’m looking forward to receiving more