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Amazon Kindle and language learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 64 06 October 2010 at 1:55am | IP Logged |
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Hey. I was just wondering if anyone used Kindle for language learning and how they
utilize it. I am really thinking about buying one for myself for Christmas for the main purpose of language study, but I am just wondering whether it's worth it or not. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| eugenie Newbie United States Joined 5502 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 64 06 October 2010 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
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I got one for my birthday and I absolutely adore it. It's not *exactly* like paper, more like newsprint or glossy-ish magazine paper, but it's extremely comfortable to read on for hours and it's lighter than a mass market paperback, at least without the lighted cover(which is also good despite being overpriced).
As for language study, it currently has an okay selection of foreign(romance) language books available from the US store, but most it is older classics and whatnot. Obviously there are other sources for ebooks, both legitimate and not-so-legitimate, so the lack of selection in the Kindle store is not the end of the world. Also, as far as I know it's not currently possible to change the default dictionary, which means no in-text look ups. There may be hacks around it, but I haven't bothered to try. And...honestly, it's just as to look a word up quickly on my iPod. For me, I use it basically to read French books cheaply. I can't afford shipping from amazon.fr, so it was the most economical choice. There are definitely flaws, but I still think it's worth it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bernardpar Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5556 days ago 4 posts - 7 votes | Message 3 of 64 06 October 2010 at 9:30am | IP Logged |
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I had Kinlde 3 for a week and then I decided to return it. Don't get me wrong it is a
great device, its instant lookup works well. Unfortunately I could not buy anywhere a good French dictionary. (I could have de-drm-ed Mobipocket dictionaries and probably I would have done it if not the release of Sony Rearder PRS-650. Lovely touch screen, pre- installed French, German, Italian, Spanish, English and Dutch dictionaries, it is much easier to lookup the definition then it was on Kindle 3. The device costs more, but again there is smaller 5 inch version which price is comparable to Kindle 3. I do not know if it is possible to buy additional dictionaries (Russian, Mandarin). Sony displays better PDF files with a nice reflow option. The best eink reader for language learners in my opinion. Edited by bernardpar on 06 October 2010 at 9:32am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6852 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 64 06 October 2010 at 3:26pm | IP Logged |
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I sent them an email once (I forget which generation it was) asking how it handled
languages other than English. They said that the device at that time didn't support neither foreign scripts nor diactrical marks. Is it not the case anymore? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5320 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 64 06 October 2010 at 3:43pm | IP Logged |
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I'd never buy a closed system that can only be used for one application. Since Amazon offers the Kindle software as an application for PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android phones for free, there's no reason to buy the actual Kindle.
Besides, for the price of a new Kindle you could buy a decent used Netbook and install any software that you need on it. If you still want to buy one, have at least a look at a display model in a store. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 7 of 64 06 October 2010 at 5:18pm | IP Logged |
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E-readers are only suitable for books that are formatted for that purpose, or else .txt files. My wife has an Sony e-reader and whenever I tried to use it for language files, it's been disappointing, at best.
And then, I got an iPad. This is THE device I needed. It allows me to read any kind of pdf file beautifully. I can take any webpage and save it to read later. It's more expensive than a Kindle, but there is really no comparison. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5782 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 8 of 64 06 October 2010 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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I've just got one, thought it'd be awesome but its...meh.
Its perfectly readable like paper. It jsut doesn't look like an electronic screen at all. But using the thing itself...its just not so great for text books. Scrolling back and forth is just nowhere near as good as flicking back a few pages. And it seems to display Japanese fine. Tablet PCs are worse though. They have the same scrolling problems and are bad on your eyes. Edited by Tyr on 06 October 2010 at 9:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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