Sunday May 2nd, 2010 Learn a New Language @ Your Library

Have you always wanted to learn to speak another language? If so, your Library can help! We have books, CDs and even online resources available for you. Learning a language can enrich your life by opening doors of communication with people from different countries. Imagine making fast friends speaking Spanish on a beach vacation, impressing your child’s French teacher, or charming your Italian in-laws with your new language skills.

Books

Reading about other languages can be fun. The book “Pardon my French: Unleash your inner Gual” by Charles Timoney is a great example. In this entertaining and useful guide to words and phrases every French traveler should know, Timoney shares his personal experience with real life French. For example the pharse “faire un canard,” which literally means “to do a duck” actually refers to dunking sugar lumps in coffee. And, “tablette de chocolate” – literally “a chocolate bar” – is the French term for a finely muscled stomach (also known as a “six pack”!).

Your Library has a collection of dictionaries, grammar guides and phrase books for a wide variety of languages. Some of the titles are “Street French”, “Mastering Finnish”, “Italian by Association” and “Chinese for Dummies”.

CDs

Language-learning CDs have the advantage of letting your hear what a language sounds like. Some, like “Instant Italian”, are designed to have you speaking enough of a language to get you by on an upcoming vacation. Others, like “Teach yourself Spanish conversation” are more in-depth.

Playaways

Our new collection of “playaways” – one-title pre-loaded MP3 players – include a few language-learning titles. You can borrow “Italian Guaranteed”, “French Guaranteed” and “German Guaranteed”, and learn while you walk, run or relax!





Online

We also have language-learning eAudiobooks available. “Turkish: Learn before you land” is one example, from NetLibrary. You can download NetLibrary eAudiobooks to your computer or MP3 player. Tumblebooks, our collection of online interactive children’s books, includes titles in French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Russian. You can listen and follow along with the text on the screen. To find Tumblebooks go to our Web site, www.tbpl.ca, click on “Find Books”, then “eBooks” and choose “Tumblebook Library”. Then choose “Language Learning”. TumbleBooks in other languages include familiar titles like “Aventuras De Tom Sawyer” and Robert Munsch books. This familiarity is great for both children and adults learning another language.

Your Library recently acquired Powerspeak Languages, a new language-learning product. Spanish, French, German and Mandarin Chinese are currently available, as well as English for Spanish-speakers. The Powerspeak Languages courses include a combination of scored online activities, exercises, lessons and games. The use of multi-sensory activities takes full advantage of the brain’s ability to acquire language. It really is fun to use! The course activities are bound together with an adventure story containing rich graphics, audio, video, music and an intuitive way to track your progress. Learners are also challenged to practice speaking and writing in a variety of interactive modules designed to stimulate real conversations with native speakers.

To get to Powerspeak Languages go to the Library’s Web site: www.tbpl.ca Click on “Virtual Collection” and then the Sleeping Giant. Log in to My Giant Search with your Library Card number and PIN, and then choose “Powerspeak Languages” from the list of resources. If you choose to take a Powerspeak course you’ll be promoted to create an account, so you can track your progress, and easily begin at the point where you finished during your last session.

Bonne chance, hyvä onni, buona fortuna and viel glück in your language-learning adventures!

Joanna Aegard, Head of Virtual Library Services – www.tbpl.ca. This column appears Sundays on this page. If you have a comment about today's column, we would love to hear from you. Check out the blog at http://libdetective.blogspot.com