Learning, Translated 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning

Learning, Translated 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning Learning, Translated: 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning Sitting on a beach or in a coffee shop in some far-flung place. Showing everyone how interesting you are by reading Camus or Cervantes or Murakami in the original language.Isnt it a beautiful image?Of course, the actual experience of trying to read books in a foreign language is not usually so beautiful.My early attempts to read in my target language meant a novel propped open with one hand and a dictionary with the other. It was slow and difficult. In the end, I  gave up.Thanks to modern tech such as the overlord of e-book readers, the Amazon Kindle, such tribulations are no longer necessary.The Kindle certainly has its haters among the literarily inclined, who prefer the feel and smell of a real paper-and-ink book. But love it or hate it, theres no denying that the Kindle is a fantastic tool for polyglot bookworms.Unlike with those early attempts and flicking back and forth with a reference book, the power to define and translate new vocabulary is, literally, in the palm of your ha nd. Whats the Big Idea? What You Need to Know About Kindles Translation FeatureThe first thing to note about Kindles translation feature is that  it only works with certain models of the Kindleâ€"specifically ones with a touch screen, like the Paperwhite or Kindle Fire.These offer the opportunity to see the definition of words while youre reading simply by holding your finger on the word you want to look up, provided you have the correct dictionary installed. There are Kindle-friendly monolingual dictionaries in many languages and bilingual dictionaries in common language pairs.Additionally, some versions of the Kindle will keep track of words youre learning for you, a feature that works great in conjunction with the FluentU Plus plan. FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language lessons. With the Plus plan, you can create custom multimedia flashcard sets with your Kindle vocab lists in an instant: All you need to do is type the words in.There are some limitations to Kindles translation abilitiesâ€"for example, you can only translate single words rather than longer idioms and phrasesâ€"but the Kindle is a powerful tool to get reading in your target language. Lets take a look at how.Learning, Translated: 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning1. Make sure you have the correct dictionary installed.The first thing you need to do is to choose the appropriate dictionary for your language learning. If youre early in your language learning, a bilingual dictionary might be most appropriate to give you the direct translation of words. If youre a more advanced learner, its better to use a monolingual dictionary and translate yourself.Not sure how to find a dictionary or get started? This post will have you set up with your new Kindle dictionary before you know it.2. Select your reading material.Here are some key tips and things to know when selecting your reading material:As ever with choosing learning materials, make sure you choose material of an appropriate grade. Its tempting to try the challenge of jumping into a novel like Ulysses, but a surefire way of making yourself give up is to select something too tricky!If you search on Amazon for graded reader in your target language, youll see some options for language learners of different levels. These are particularly useful if youre still in the early stages of learning a language and would feel more comfortable with something targeted at beginners.Remember that a genre like literary fiction is likely to have complex vocabulary and metaphorical expressions that can be particularly difficult to work out. If youre still an intermediate reader, consider non-fiction genres like biographies, where texts are likely to be more direct and descriptive.Choose something you would be interested in in your first language. If you have to spend weeks translating a sci-fi novel when you only read romance, it wont be rewar ding for you.There are plenty of options for free texts on the Amazon site. Simply use the check boxes on the left-hand side in the Kindle Store to select the language you want and then sort by price from lowest to highest. Usually these texts are ones that have been around for long enough to be exempt from copyright laws, so just be aware that the language may not be as up-to-date as in a modern text.3. Start reading.Dont expect to understand every word right awayâ€"after all, theres a reason why youre practicing reading! It’s easy to get frustrated when there are key parts of the text that you dont fully understand, but its important to be patient. Reading to learn a language is naturally going to be more difficult than reading for pleasure in your mother tongue, but it will be all the more rewarding for that reason!So, when you first come to a word you dont know, try to understand it from context. Think about cognates or similarities to words youve seen before, and if that does nt help, then simply try to think of the things that would make sense in that place.Dont stop there. The more you interrupt your reading, the more disjointed it will feel and the easier it will be for you to get bored and want to stop. Read to the end of the sentence, paragraph or even page.Try to summarize to yourself the meaning of what you just read, then go back and read it again.This time, when you get to the unfamiliar word, tap on it to check the dictionary definition or translation into your language. Go back and re-read sentences and paragraphs to make sure you can translate them properly.4. Review!As we know, its all well and good to see new wordsâ€"but they arent going to stick just from seeing them once. Perhaps youre the type who, when reading in your target language, scribbles notes and translations all over the page. Kindle has a note-taking feature, but theres something you can do thats even better.A really handy feature for using your Kindle as a language learning t ool has been introduced for the Paperwhite: Vocabulary Builder. Heres how to use it:When you look a word up by placing your finger on it, its automatically added as a flashcard to your vocabulary list. When you want to review, just select the menu from any book and select Vocabulary Builder. Youll see a list of the words youve looked up.Scan the words and try to remember their meanings. Then click on each word to see the definition. You can also tap Usage to see the context it was used in when you looked it upâ€"the full sentence from the book.You can also work it the other way around. Tap Books at the top of the screen to see a list of books in which youve looked up words. You can then see the list of words you wanted to translate in that book. That means if you want to go over the vocabulary in the most recent book you read, its all there for you in one place.When you want to test yourself, tap Flashcards at the bottom. Youll be shown the words in your Vocabulary Builder in a rand om order, alongside the full sentence from the book you looked it up in. Try to remember the meaning and then check the definition to see if you were right. When you think youve fully learnt the word, you can click Mark as Mastered and the word will no longer appear as a flashcard.If your version of the Kindle doesnt have this feature, recreate it yourself. Keep a list of the words you had to look up and, at the end of each chapter you read, go over them again. If you cant remember the word, go back to the chapter, find it and use the context to remind yourself. You could even go so far as to create the flashcards for yourself!5. On to the next one.Its great how a Kindle shows you the progress youve made with your reading. Youll have a full shelf of foreign-language books in your pocket in no time.Happy reading!And One More ThingExcited to jump into language learning? Then youre going to love learning with FluentU!FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, comm ercials, news and inspiring talks.  Its all stuff that native speakers  actually watch.  With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  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 Screen.FluentU 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 your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You 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 recommendin g videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes  or  Google Play  store.