Awesome Things No. 2

A randomish old blog post from the library has inspired me to post Awesome Things No 2. Which blog post, you ask with bated breath? This one from Elizabeth back in July. I LOVE this idea! Now I want to go on a blind date with a book, but it's 8ish on a Friday, the libraries are all closed, and I don't think this display exists anymore. Maybe I should just go to the land of E books on my iPad and hit buttons (yes, there are buttons on my iPad. . .) with my eyes closed until I find something interesting.

So Awesome Thing No. 2.  (dun dun-un DUN) is free foreign language learning online. Mango Languages, a popularly-subscribed-to library database, is about five thousand times more fun than Rosetta Stone. Really. Srsly. How do I know? Because my husband tried to learn Spanish from Rosetta Stone while sitting in the bath tub, and I listened in, and it wasn't nearly as entertaining as my glimpses at Mango Languages have been. While you may find this evidence subjective, you should still give it a shot if you have any desire to learn more about another language.

The interface is attractive and intuitive, multiple languages are available, and quick flashcard lessons teach you words and sentences, as well as offering cultural notes and grammar lessons where you can watch the part of a sentence light up in English and the foreign language to better understand a language's structure.

Before I tell you the full list of languages, here's the best one, which I just discovered. Yes, Mango offers pirate lessons. International Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up in just over a month, so it's definitely time to brush up. Here are (or arggggggggh) some screen shots of pirate lessons in action.

The front page of Pirate lessons

A flash card

And now here are all of the languages you could potentially learn for free. I believe these will link to HDPL's Mango sign in if you have an HDPL card. Otherwise, see if the library you use subscribes by going to their website.

• for English speakers
• English CoursesEnglish as a Second Language

• Arabic (Levantine)
• Chinese (Cantonese)
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dari
• Dutch
• Farsi (Persian)
• Finnish
• French
• French (Canadian)
• German
• Greek
• Greek (Ancient)

• Greek (Koine)
• Haitian Creole
• Hawaiian
• Hebrew
• Biblical Hebrew
• Hindi
• Icelandic
• Indonesian
• Irish
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latin
• Norwegian
• Pashto

• Pirate
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Russian
• Slovak
• Spanish (Latin America)
• Spanish (Spain)
• Swedish
• Tagalog
• Tamil
• Thai
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

You're welcome.

Awesome Things Vol. 1

I've discovered something surprising at Zappos. A lot of people there actually like libraries. WHAT? I know. It's crazy. Imagine my surprise when three chicks simultaneously (are you getting excited?) told me they had considered becoming librarians. I doubt that has  happened to a librarian in the history of forever outside of the sequestered world of library school.

Something else I've discovered  is that most people don't know about some fairly awesome things that exist at the library (or not even at the library if they have a card and live in the right place); thus, Awesome Things (that you didn't know existed at the library) is born.

Awesome Thing Number One 

Free music to download legally, and keep forever

Chances are, your local public library spends a few cents of your taxes to subscribe to Freegal, a database of downloadable music from the Sony catalog. Around here, you can download three songs a week. I am guilty of thinking it's a pain in the ass to sign on just to get three songs, but that can add up to a free album every month. Of course, Sony probably doesn't include your most favorite/obscure/etc. bands. That bit can get frustrating, but who hasn't downloaded a plethora of songs they would never have purchased simply because they were available and worth a listen? It's good times. 

People who remember what CDs are have long checked out music, ripped it, and built expansive collections of not-so-legal music. I'm really not sure why the recording industry hasn't come after public libraries as fiercely as  it has everyone else in the entire universe. Perhaps that's a little perk of having your pop-culture presence consist entirely of old lady/sexy lady/"shh be quiet" cliches. More likely, there's a legal reason that my feeble brain doesn't have access to, but I hope I haven't blown anyone's cover!

The moral of the story is, you can maintain your role as an upright citizen and still get free stuff. Thanks, library. All you need is a card from a district that subscribes to Freegal and serves the city where you live. Tada! Is this in any way not awesome? The truth is, I don't have a library card for the city where I actually live, so I'm off to do that.