freekindlebookslanguagelearning:

These books can be read even without a Kindle. All of these books might be free for today only, so download the ones you want right away. 

You might also like today’s Kindle Daily Deal: The Best American Travel Writing 2011.

HEBREW

• Modern Hebrew Vocabulary Flash Cards - Food Words for the Kitchen, Shopping, and Eating Out in Israel

PORTUGUESE

• I Just Love MONSTERS! (Bilingual English-Portuguese)
• The Book of The Animals - The Collection - Episodes 1-2-3 (Bilingual English-Portuguese)

CHINESE

• Essential Travel Chinese (Simplified)

ESPERANTO

• A Complete Grammar of Esperanto

JAPANESE

• Where Hummingbirds Come From Bilingual Japanese-English

FRENCH

• I Just Love MONSTERS! (Bilingual English-French)
• The Book of The Animals - The Collection - Episodes 1-2-3 (Bilingual English-French)
• The Book of The Animals - Mrs. Milkshake (Bilingual English-French)

INDONESIAN

• The Dance of The Caterpillars Bilingual Indonesian-English

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Don’t forget to check out today’s free ebooks in other categories.

freekindlebookslanguagelearning:

Here are the today’s free Kindle ebooks that have to do with foreign languages or language learning. They’re readable on Kindles, PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and in any web browser.

Note: There might not be free language learning books available every day, so there might be days when you don’t see any new update here. You can also look at the previous day’s offers to see if they’re still available.

FRENCH

• The Book of The Animals - The Collection - Episodes 1-2-3 (Bilingual English-French)
• I Just Love MONSTERS! (Bilingual English-French)
• Learn French Today - Phrasebook for Beginners

PORTUGUESE

• I Just Love MONSTERS! (Bilingual English-Portuguese)
• The Book of The Animals - The Collection - Episodes 1-2-3 (Bilingual English-Portuguese)

SPANISH

• Spanish Phrases for Travelers

JAPANESE

• Where Hummingbirds Come From Bilingual Japanese-English

HINDI

• Aamoo in Restaurant (Hindi Children’s Book Level 1 Easy Reader)
• Aamoo’s Walk (Hindi Children’s Book Level 1 Easy Reader)
• Sonu’s Fish (Hindi Children’s Book Level 3 Easy Reader)
• Hindi Children’s Book of Fruits

INDONESIAN

• The Dance of The Caterpillars Bilingual Indonesian-English

ENGLISH

• Essential Sight Words Level I - Introductory [8 Readers in one]
• Lunch For School (An “I Love Reading” Level One Reader)
• Who, What, Where
• English Help

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Don’t forget to check out today’s free Kindle books in other categories.

❝Saudade (Portuguese): The feeling of longing for someone that you love and is lost. Another linguist describes it as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist.”
It’s interesting that saudade accommodates in one word the haunting desire for a lost love, or for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be-experienced love. Whether the object has been lost or will never exist, it feels the same to the seeker, and leaves her in the same place: she has a desire with no future. Saudade doesn’t distinguish between a ghost, and a fantasy. Nor do our broken hearts, much of the time.❞

its-cool-i-got-this:

([sɐwˈðaðɨ] for any linguists out there) is a Portuguese and Galacian word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which has been lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never really return. It was once described as “the love that remains” or “the love that stays” after someone is gone.

Brazil actually commemorates the word, concept and state-of-being associated with it on January 30.

Although I have loads of affection for the English language, it certainly appears to be lacking in some respects. We have plenty of words that mean essentially the same things, stolen from various other languages (and we can easily steal more whenever we care to). But to me it seems we never really bothered to come up with any beautiful, complex words of our own to address the intangible side of human existence. It’s kind of silly.

(Source: weheartit.com)

thatreligiousguy:

         It is no secret that behind my exterior of a mild-mannered seminarian and college student lies an avid language lover. Whether they be written or spoken, words excite me, especially ones from different tongues. A language lover tends to speak a variety of languages, much to the envy of others who are amazed when the former can carry a conversation in French when he obviously is a Filipino, prompting them to question their own abilities to do the same. Language lovers recognize that they’re a rare breed in this age of instant translating apps and lack of engaged students. Alas, ladies and gents, it’s not a matter of genetic mutation or divine intervention that enables linguaphiles to excel in language acquisition. It’s merely a matter of … Well, read on and find out!

        Recently, a friend sent me a message on Facebook inquiring about languages. It went a little something like this:

“Jeremy! Well I was talking to some friends about how I want to major in Foreign Languages and then your name came up! One friend mentioned that you know seven languages! So I was wondering… How do you do it?? do you have techniques? Or are you just a genius? … Have you ever struggled? What would you do if you’re learning a language but at some point it gets hard?”

        Well, dear Reader, who obviously shares my passion as well since you’ve managed to read this far, the trick is both luck and strategy and judging from my math grades in the past, I’m no intellectual prodigy.

        Growing up, I spoke English and Tagalog. To my eternal chagrin, my parents chose not to teach Ilokano to my brother and I, which would have made me trilingual early on! In high school, I took four years of French. For some unknown reason, I have always been interested in everything French, from fries to films. (It’s no wonder I’m discerning with a French religious order!) Ergo, I took four years of French in high school and loved it. Before senior year, I also decided to learn Spanish since I did not want to waste a class in my schedule on an easy A, like being a teacher’s assistant or on another course where I could sit there and vegetate. I purchased a Spanish guide and began studying conjugations, rules, and words over the summer. As a testament to my efforts, I jumped to third year Spanish at the honors level and passed with an A+. Qué chido!

        French essentially gave me a background in every Romance language. The Romance languages are great because they’re all interrelated since they branched off from Vulgar Latin, the lingua franca of ancient Rome. Once you know one, the rest will be easy (or at least manageable). In addition to French, my natural Filipino-ness allowed Spanish to become a piece of cake because Tagalog is at least 40% Spanish.

        After French and Spanish, I took up Afrikaans which is an easy Dutch-related language from South Africa. Since I gave my Afrikaans book away to my friend, however, I’ve lost my grasp of the language. I also learned Brazilian Portuguese and Italian over the summer before college (my language learning abilities must be seasonally-inclined) but am slowly forgetting conjugations and rules in both of these.

        Ultimately, the languages I’m most comfortable with are English, Tagalog, French, and Spanish. Now that I’ve established my experience, let’s get on with the tips and tricks!

        1.) Resources

        For self-study, purchase a good guide concerning the language you want to learn. Helpful features would be directions that emphasize conversation, verb charts, pronunciation guides, and vocabulary lists. Others may prefer taking classes, which help reinforce the material being learned. Self-study should be reserved for people who are self-motivated and have outlets where they can practice the language. In the case of Romance languages, once you learn verb conjugations, rules, and words in one, you’ll have built a mental bridge to the others. After I learned French and Spanish, I was able to skip the boring preliminary introductions in guides on Portuguese and Italian because I already had a basic grasp of the fundamentals. Between reading about a language and speaking it, I prefer the latter and so once you understand the basics it’s smooth sailing towards carrying a conversation. 

        2.) Repetition, repetition, repetition!

        I make sure to repeat out loud like a crazy person minus the foaming mouth conjugations, words, and rules. Studies have shown that seeing something and verbally expressing it helps in memory retention. Unfortunately, there is no use in repeating words incorrectly. I recommend listening to online radio in the language of your choice whenever you’re wasting away at Facebook or reading someone’s blog. You’ll learn new words and expressions as well as gain better insight into imitating a native speaker’s accent. Watching YouTube videos or foreign films also help. Register for sites like Livemocha or Interpals, which are social networks designed for language learners to practice with native speakers around the world.

        3.) Application 

        Try to apply what you’ve learned into your daily life. See a chair? Refer to it as “la chaise.” See a table? Refer to it as “a tabela.” See one of your buddies who told everyone in your third grade class that you wet the bed? Refer to her as “la chismosa.” At a French café or a Mexican taco truck, try ordering en français or en español. Your friends and family might get annoyed at your little language immersion habits but you might end up teaching them a thing or two. After all, how can you learn a language that you never speak at home or anywhere else besides the classroom?

        4.) LOVE 

        My last trick is to make sure that I love the language I’m studying (which isn’t even a trick really…) I make sure to study its history, its culture, and its people, all in the hope of grasping the essence of the language. If you love your languages, you’ll never forget them. This may be the most difficult step to master since if your heart is not into German, I don’t believe you’ll ever truly get far in it.

        Language learning is definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes courage, motivation, and an ability to get up after taking a fall. I’ve struggled in each language I currently speak, English included. In first grade I was in an ESL class, where the teacher would test me on how to say the word “apple,” and look at me now, years later with an AP English Literature score of 5 and a passion for student journalism under my belt. Taking college-level French has at times frustrated me as well since I struggled with difficult grammatical concepts and rules but after some rigorous studying, I survived and am currently set for spring semester to take a sophomore-level French class as a freshman! C’est cool, n’est-ce pas?

        Don’t get discouraged by the difficulties you encounter because the only way to grow is to overcome, which is a lesson one can coincidentally apply to his life outside of languages. Ultimately, the world needs more language lovers. I mean who else will interpret for world leaders, translate award-winning literature, or help someone order ice cream in Québéc?