Languages and Learning is the Free Library of Philadelphia's department for adult education support, connecting patrons seeking Adult Basic Education, English Language Learner, and World Language support to the appropriate resources.
Did you know that over 180 languages are spoken in Philadelphia? At the Free Library, we want to help residents learn as many languages as possible to make communication easier with people near and far. Whether taking a trip this summer or talking to your next-door neighbor, the Free Library has several ways to practice your language skills.
Recently, the Free Library acquired hundreds of new books centered around adult learning, including the ones below. What will you learn?
50 French Coffee Breaks: Short Activities To Improve Your French, One Cup At A Time
50 French Coffee Breaks makes it easy to master a simple routine of improving your French by effortlessly integrating it with your calming daily ritual — from a five-minute espresso to a 15-minute latte. Organized by five, ten, and 15 minutes, these 50 varied and lively activities — from anagram and idiom challenges to recipes and quotations — are created for high-beginner to intermediate-adult and young-adult learners and are designed to keep you motivated while building your skills in key areas.
50 Spanish Coffee Breaks: Short Activities To Improve Your Spanish, One Cup At A Time
50 Spanish Coffee Breaks makes it easy to master a simple routine of improving your Spanish by effortlessly integrating it with your calming daily ritual — from a five-minute espresso to a 15-minute latte. Organized by five, ten, and 15 minutes, these 50 varied and lively activities — from anagram and idiom challenges to recipes and quotations — are created for high-beginner to intermediate-adult and young-adult learners and are designed to keep you motivated while building your skills in key areas.
This is an ideal introductory textbook, quickly teaching you everything you need to get started learning this beautiful and popular language. Spoken by over 400 million people, Arabic is the world's fifth most spoken language. Each of the 20 lessons in this book includes a real-life, practical dialogue that increases your proficiency and ability to communicate and online audio recordings; the free online audio recordings by native speakers help you learn how to pronounce all the Arabic words and sentences provided; a list of common Arabic words and phrases along with sentence patterns and grammar notes; extensive drills and exercises to reinforce the lessons and help you progress; interesting information on culture, geography, customs, pastimes and everyday life; and "reflections" that allow you to record what you have learned, helping you track your progress.
Colloquial Russian: The Complete Course for Beginners
Colloquial Russian provides a step-by-step course in Russian as it is written and spoken today. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language to equip learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Russian in a broad range of situations, requiring no prior knowledge of the language. Features include progressive coverage of speaking; listening, reading, and writing skills; structured, jargon-free explanations of grammar; an extensive range of focused and stimulating exercises; realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a variety of scenarios; useful vocabulary lists throughout the text; and additional resources available at the back of the book, including a full answer key, a grammar summary, and bilingual glossaries.
Portuguese In 3 Months: Your Essential Guide to Understanding and Speaking Portuguese
This includes everything you need to understand and speak Portuguese. The free audio app helps you perfect your pronunciation by imitating native speakers. Builds vocabulary through word lists, key phrases, and model sentences. It explains essential grammar and develops conversation through exercises based on real-life scenarios.
For beginning learners of Vietnamese, here's everything needed to learn the language effectively! Speak, read, and write Vietnamese as it's used in real-life contexts in Vietnam today. This book has everything you need to learn the language effectively and to quickly achieve basic proficiency.
The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use, and Education
The Haitian Creole Language is the first book that deals broadly with a language that has too long lived in the shadow of French. With chapters contributed by the leading scholars in the study of Creole, it provides information on this language's history; structure; and use in education, literature, and social interaction.
Basic Mandarin Chinese: Speaking and Listening
No matter what textbook you're using to learn Mandarin, it requires a lot of practice. Here is a wealth of effective activities and drills — plus over 16 hours of audio recordings — to help you improve your spoken Mandarin Chinese quickly and effectively.
American Sign Language Dictionary For Beginners: A Visual Guide With 800+ ASL Signs
Whatever your reason for learning the richly expressive language of American Sign Language (ASL), this book will guide you through the initial stages of your signing journey. It's filled with everything you need to master more than 800 essential vocabulary words, including detailed directions that make it simple to develop your ASL skills.
Contact adultlearning@freelibrary.org to learn more about Languages and Learning with the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Have a question for Free Library staff? Please submit it to our Ask a Librarian page and receive a response within two business days.