Learning Another Language with the Amazon Kindle

I previously posted my review of the Amazon Kindle 3.   I would like to expand on how I have been using it for learning languages.  This feature is not necessarily exclusive to the Kindle, but I'm also not familiar with how it would be done on another device.


Language Dictionaries

I like what the Kindle can do for other languages.  The main thing I think is really cool is the ability to use a translation dictionary to get instant definitions of words.

The Kindle has a dictionary look-up feature.  If you come across an unknown word, you can arrow over to it and a quick definition pops up.  To look into it further, you can click ENTER, read the full entry in the dictionary, and then click BACK to return to your reading.  The default for this is a standard English dictionary.  With the Kindle, I found out that if I wanted to read something in another language, I could change the primary dictionary to a translation dictionary.  Whenever I come across an unknown word (which is usually much more common in another language than in English), I can click over to it and see a definition.  This is a really nice feature.

I'm not sure what program is similar to this on other devices.  Clearly it's possible to implement on other devices, I've just never seen it.  One of the things that makes it work on the Kindle is buying a good dictionary.  A good dictionary is not free because it takes time to put together.  Further, on the Kindle, a good e-dictionary is one that can handle the grammatical complexities of a language and return the correct word more often than not.  For example, it would be hard to read the news in another language without a better-than-free dictionary.  I am therefore skeptical that there exists a good replacement for this on another device without costing a lot.

One gripe I have with Amazon on this is that there are no good dictionaries for sale on the Kindle store.  All of the dictionaries I have browsed through are low rated.  They are e-versions of basic printed versions, and they tend to fail to handle all of the grammatical complexities that a good e-dictionary can.  These dictionaries sell for cheap.  I had to go to another site and buy some good e-dictionaries (which were not cheap, by the way).  I am not sure why Amazon doesn't have good dictionaries for sale currently.

Availability of Materials


My other point is that it is easier to get things to read in other languages via e-books.  It is harder to get printed books in a lot of other languages because local bookstores and libraries have no or few books that I would want to read in other languages (except for maybe Spanish).  Further, ordering a printed book on the Internet is not much easier.  Amazon.com, for example, does not have a large selection of foreign language books.  On top of that, such books would be imported, so they come at a higher price.

With e-books, I have had a much easier time finding books.  There is a lot of stuff for free on various websites.  Further, I don't have to pay an extra import fee to download something that isn't free.  Finally, there is a lot more than books that one can read.  I mentioned before how I am reading a lot of websites on my Kindle.  For languages, my favorite thing is to read the news using the program Calibre.  As I mentioned in my previous post on the Kindle, I can read newspapers for free by using Calibre to download content off of its website.