Mango Languages

Are you interested in learning a new language or just brushing-up on a language studied long ago? Mango Languages, available 24/7 from our website, is an interactive program that allows you to track your progress on learning a new language. Using real-life situations and conversations to teach the language, Mango Languages allows you to listen and repeat material, teaching you not only individual words and phrases, but also how they are used in practical situations and conversations. Among the languages included in this program are Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese and over 20 additional languages. Also included for non-English speakers are courses in English for speakers of French, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Vietnamese and others. Give it a try!

New Foreign Film DVDs at the Beaverton City Library

BREATHLESS (FRENCH)
A Paris crook falls in love with an American. One of the first films of the French New Wave.






SILENT LIGHT (GERMAN)
In a Mennonite community in Mexico, a man betrays his family by having an affair with another woman, which changes the course of events with both his wife and his mistress.




TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS (ITALIAN)
A little boy breaks his precious pair of clogs, which he needs for his long trek to school. Desperate for wood to make a new pair, his father sneaks into a prized grove in their small village. When he is caught, the unfeeling, rich landlord punishes him.



AT THE BEGINNING OF GLORIOUS DAYS (RUSSIAN)
After great losses in the 17th century, Russia must try to capture a shipyard in order to gain a foothold in foreign trade once again. Now Peter must return to Russia to stop the rebellion started by his own sister.

Words want to be free....

La bella Lingua : my love affair with Italian, the world's most enchanting language

by: Dianne Hales

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman’s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.(Publisher's Marketing)

Finding our tongues : mothers, infants and the origins of language

By: Dean Falk

Far more than soothing nonsense, the baby talk a mother coos to her infant provides Falk with a key for explaining the origin of language. This explanation focuses not—as other theorists’ speculations have—on the evolution of speech since the emergence of Homo sapiens. Instead, Falk highlights the much earlier evolutionary...(Booklist)

How to hear text being read to you from the online Encyclopedia

World Book Discover enables you to hear text being spoken in English. You go to the site and put in your library card number. Then, search for something you want to know about. When you find it, click on enable read aloud toolbar. Then, doubleclick on the first word of any sentence and it will read it to you.

If you wish, you can have any block of text in there translated to one of 14 languages including Arabic, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. This is but one of the many interesting features of World Book Discover.

Language Counts

Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language

This witty and informative book debunks myths that bamboozle word-loving fansand offers a delightful primer on the eccentricities of the English language. ~Publisher Synopsis

I love it when you talk retro : hoochie coochie, double whammy, drop a dime, and the forgotten origins of American speech

The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid is a mystery to young people today, as is 45rpm. Even older folks dont know the origins of raked over the coals and cut to the chase. Keyes ("The Quote" "Verifier") uses his skill as a sleuth of sources to track what he calls retrotalk: a slippery slope of puzzling allusions to past phenomena. ~Publishers Weekly

Learning English?

The library has a selection of guided readers on CD. Guided readers allow you to read the book while listening to the story on CD. This is a wonderful way to expand your vocabulary and understanding of the story.

The guided readers are located in the ESL section. To locate titles search the catalog for: Macmillan readers.

Happy Reading!

¿Habla Español?

Learning Spanish? Try listening to a book on CD. What better way to practice your listening skills than to listen to your favorite book in Spanish.




Papá Rico Papá Pobre
Kiyosaki, Robert T.


Check out our catalog for this title






Eragon
Paolini, Christopher

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El Código
Brown, Dan


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The Artful Nuance: A Refined Guide to Inmperfectly Understood Words in the English Langauge
Evans, Rod L., 1956-

Many people use these words interchangeably but there are actually subtle and interesting differences in meaning and usage. Now from the author of "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" comes a fun and fascinating word reference book for word lovers, students, and trivia collectors alike. Readers will relish learning about these distinctions in this entertaining homage to a gift we use every day-a-words. (Publishers Marketing)