Read the World! 8 Fruitful Sources for Foreign Language E-books

Read the World! 8 Fruitful Sources for Foreign Language E-books Read the World! 8 Fruitful Sources for Foreign Language E-books If youve ever struggled in your language studies, then youve got something in common with Thomas Jefferson.The third president of the U.S. managed to learn four languages, but he kept books in several moreâ€"and ultimately had trouble achieving fluency in some of the languages he studied.Maybe it was because he had to spend so much time trying to figure out where he put all those dang books.Okay, okay, maybe not.He probably had plenty of other stuff on his mind, what with helping to create a country and all.But its true that learning a language by reading books, though valuable, isnt always the easiest or most convenient method.Fortunately, there have been some advances since Jeffersons day.This is where e-books come in.They have all the target-language content to help you Jefferson it up, but theyre conveniently packed into one handy device. This means you always have an opportunity to read and learn, even when youre away from your bookshelf. Plus, youll never have to worry about wh ether the floor boards can sustain the growing weight of your extensive collection.And e-books offer a full array of genresâ€"from textbooks to novels. Chances are if you can find them in hard copy, you can find them in e-book form.So its time to write your Declaration of Independence from hard copy books and check out these great sources for foreign language e-books! Why Read Foreign Language E-books?Foreign language e-books are more convenient than conventional books. Since you can upload them to your phone, tablet or whatever you carry around, you can have them with you wherever you go.Whats that mean for language learners? You can fit in reading practice anytime, anywhere. Plus, the more convenient it is to do some reading, the more likely you are to do it (and, naturally, the more your skills will improve).These e-books are also often easier to find than hard copies of foreign language books. After all, e-books are entirely digital, so retailers dont need a warehouse storing a wide array of foreign language books in hopes that someone might purchase them. Retailers are a lot more eager to sell something that takes up literally no room.Finally, foreign language e-books offer super-charged  reading practice. Not only will you be boosting your comprehension skills just by reading, youll also have easy access to language tools on your device. You can quickly look up unfamiliar words or switch to your translator app without losing the train of the story youre reading.Its much easier than juggling a reference book along with your hard copyâ€"which means more motivation to read and learn.Read the World! 8 Fruitful Sources for Foreign Language E-booksProject GutenbergProject Gutenburg is a dream come true for language learners.It offers a huge assortment of free e-books in dozens of foreign languages. All these books are in the public domain, so most of the offerings are older books, but this also means that many of them are classics.There are several languages with more than 50 offerings each. These are mostly more common languages like Spanish, French, German and Chinese. However, there are also e-books in many languages that are less commonly served by learning resources/stores, such as Scottish Gaelic, Yiddish, Slovenian and much more.With so many options, chances are theres a free e-book (or a few dozen) in your target language.AmazonAmazon is one of the best places to find foreign language e-books because it offers plenty of books and is easy to browse. Of any website, Amazon does the best job categorizing different types of foreign language e-books.You can browse authentic  foreign language e-books, which were written for a native-speaking audienceâ€"like novels, nonfiction or self-help books. On Amazon, these offerings include the most common languages like Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese, but you can also find works in less common languages like Danish and Afrikaans.For the more common languages, you can even select a genre, making it easy to find the ideal e-book for you, whether its a popular Spanish YA novel or a Chinese cookbook for the most authentic recipes possible.If youre looking for foreign language e-books written specifically for language learners, Amazon also has your back. You can browse e-books on  language instruction, phrasebooks and dictionaries. These offerings cover dozens of languages, so theres something for virtually any learner.eBooksThe eBooks website offers two convenient browsing options to help you find the best foreign language e-book for you. You can browse the  foreign language books category  or the  foreign language study category, depending on whether you want authentic content or focused language study.The foreign language books include everything from crime to religion to health and fitness. A few books on language analysis and/or language education also sneak in. Just go to the lefthand sidebar to filter the results by language or subject. You can choose fr om  Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese and Swedish.The foreign language study category focuses more squarely on materials exclusively for language learners such as textbooks, phrasebooks and dictionaries. Language categories for language study include Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian and Scandinavian languages.VitalSourceIf youre looking for that perfect foreign language textbook (but dont want to lug a heavy brick around all day), then check out VitalSources collection of digital textbooks. VitalSource caters to many disciplines but there are thousands of texts to choose from in the World Languages category.You can filter by language (Spanish, German, Portuguese, Greek and more are offered). To access the VitalSource texts, youll use an app called Bookshelf that works on iOS and Android devices as well as Kindles. Cool features include the ability to easily mark up your texts digitally, and the option to change your default language so your entire reading experience is in the target language. Its a great way to get some focused, formal language study anytime, anywhere.Plus, VitalSource lets you rent textbooks so you can see how one works with your learning style before putting a chunk of money down.KoboKobo offers thousands of foreign language e-books in a wide range of languages, including some less common ones.This site emphasizes instructional foreign language e-books. They arent organized by theme,  so finding your ideal e-book will require a little browsing. However, you can filter by language so that at least you arent browsing through too many languages at once.You might also try searching the name of your target language in that language to see more offerings.Language offerings include Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Other language groups include Indic and South Asian languages, Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages and Southeast Asian languages.iTunesiTunes offers a convenient (if somewhat limited) selection of foreign language e-books.Unfortunately, licensing laws prevent users from downloading authentic content directly from abroad. In a cruel twist, even if you search in a foreign iTunes store and try to download a book, you may very well be blocked. However, you can find foreign language learning books and a handful of authentic offerings by browsing.Perhaps the easiest way to do this is paging through the foreign language reference section (linked above) until you spot a title in your target language. There are thousands of different titles, including learning books and authentic content. Not only are these convenient, there are also a good number of free options.If youre looking for more authentic e-books to read on your Apple device, you might also download the free iBooks app. It offers essentially the same options from iTunes, although the browsing experience is nicer and you may see a specific Books in Spanish category depending on where youre located.Google PlayLike iTunes, Google Play is somewhat limited by licensing laws, so you cant always download foreign content.However, Google Play still has some offerings that are worth a look. Google Plays book options are convenient and come in a wide variety of price points, so you can go all out or find budget options.Google Play offers easy access to plenty of  Spanish language books  in particular. Other languages are more limited, but there are a few out there if you search the name of the language. You may also find a couple if you search your target languages name in that language.While youre more likely to find learning books than authentic content, there is definitely some authentic content mixed in, so look carefully to find your ideal match.Your Local LibraryMost libraries offer some digital content, including foreign language offerings. Your library may even be more likely to have e-books in your target language if you happen to live in a region with a lot of native speakers.To get access to all these free e-books, all you need is a library card. You typically dont even need to visit the library itself. You can just enter your  library card number into the librarys online catalogue to browse e-books and download to your device.Of course, the specific process will differ depending on your library, but you can just call or visit to get a librarians guidance if necessary.If you have a Kindle, you can directly access public library e-books by following this procedure.Youll never accomplish all Thomas Jefferson did in his life. Youll probably never be on money. Your home may never be a tourist attraction. But at the same time, Thomas Jefferson would probably be jealous of all the foreign language e-books you can carry around with you, so give these resources a try and do what Jefferson never could! And One More ThingIf you love the idea of learning with the engaging material in e-books, youll love using FluentU even more. FluentU makes it possible t o learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that real people speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos, like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU App Browse ScreenFluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover over or tap on the subtitles to instantly view definitions.FluentU Interactive TranscriptsYou can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs quiz mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU Has Quizzes for Every VideoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.