Learning, Translated: 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning

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YOU ARE READING: Learning, Translated: 5 Steps to Kindle Language Learning | FluentU Language Learning AT PhebinhvanhocEN

Sitting on a beach or in a coffee shop in some far-flung place.

show everyone how interesting you are by reading camus or murakami in the original language.

You are reading: Does kindle translate books

a beautiful image, but as the adage goes: don’t judge a book by its cover.

The actual experience of trying to read books in a foreign language is often not that beautiful.

My first attempts at reading in my target language meant an open novel with one hand and a dictionary with the other. it was slow, difficult and clumsy.

Thanks to modern technology, like the overlord of e-book readers, amazon kindle, such tribulations are no longer necessary.

turns out the kindle is a fantastic tool for polyglot bookworms. yes, you may miss the lovely feel and smell of a real paperback, but what you get in return is amazing.

Unlike those first attempts and running around with a reference book, the power to define and translate new vocabulary is literally in the palm of your hand.

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what’s the big idea? what you need to know about kindle translation feature
1. make sure you have the correct dictionary installed.
2. select your reading material.
3. start reading.
4. review!
5. to the next.

download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable pdf that you can take anywhere. click here for a copy. (download)

what’s the big idea? what you need to know about kindle translation feature

The first thing to note about the Kindle translation feature is that it only works with certain models of Kindles,specifically touchscreens, such as Paperwhite or Kindle Fire.

These offer the opportunity to see the definition of words as you read simply by holding your finger on the word you want to look up, provided you have the correct dictionary installed. there are kindle-compatible monolingual dictionaries in many languages and bilingual dictionaries in common language pairs.

also, some versions of kindle will keep track of the words you are learning for you, a feature that works very well together with the fluentu plus plan.

fluentu is a language learning app that uses authentic videos to teach the target language. Each video comes with annotations that give you instant access to the definition and uses of a word in example sentences, as well as the Kindle translation feature, only with videos!

with the fluentu plus plan, you can create personalized flashcard sets with your kindle vocabulary lists in a snap – all you need to do is type the words.

There are some limitations on kindle’s translation capabilities, for example you can only translate single words instead of idioms and longer phrases, but kindle is a powerful tool for reading in your target language. let’s see how.

1. make sure you have the correct dictionary installed.

The first thing you need to do is choose the appropriate dictionary for your language learning. If you are starting to learn languages, a bilingual dictionary might be the most appropriate to give you the direct translation of the words. if you are a more advanced student, it is better to use a monolingual dictionary and translate yourself.

not sure how to find a dictionary or get started? this post will have you setting up 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 always with choosing learning materials, be sure to choose material from an appropriate grade. it’s tempting to attempt the challenge of immersing yourself in a novel like “ulysses”, but a sure way to give up is to choose something too complicated!

if you search amazon for “skilled reader” in your target language, you will see some options for language learners of different levels. these are particularly helpful if you are still in the early stages of learning a language and would feel more comfortable with something aimed at beginners.

Remember that a genre such as literary fiction is likely to have complex vocabulary and metaphorical expressions that can be particularly difficult to resolve. if you’re still an intermediate reader, consider nonfiction genres like biographies, where texts are likely to be more direct and descriptive.

Pick something that interests you in your first language. If you have to spend weeks translating a science fiction novel when you only read romance, it won’t be rewarding for you.

there are many options for free texts on the amazon site. simply use the checkboxes on the left hand side in the kindle store to select the language you want and then sort by price from smallest to largest. These texts are generally the ones that have been around long enough to be exempt from copyright laws, so keep in mind that the language may not be as up-to-date as in a modern text.

3. start reading.

don’t expect to understand every word right away—after all, there’s a reason you’re practicing reading! It’s easy to get frustrated when there are key parts of the text you don’t fully understand, but it’s important to be patient. reading to learn a language is naturally going to be harder than reading for pleasure in your mother tongue, but much more rewarding for that reason!

sowhen you come to a word you don’t know for the first time, try to understand it from the context.think about cognates or similarities to words you’ve seen before, and if that not to help, just try to think of things that would make sense in that place.

Don’t 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 unknown word, tap it to check the dictionary definition or the translation into your language. go back and reread sentences and paragraphs to make sure you can translate them correctly.

4. review!

As we know, it’s all very well to see new words, but they won’t just see them once. maybe you’re the type who, when reading in your target language, scribbles notes and translations all over the page. Kindle has a note-taking feature, but there’s something you can do that’s even better.

A really useful feature has been introduced to use your kindle as a language learning tool for paperwhite: the vocabulary generator. this is how to use it:

When you look up a word by placing your finger on it, it is automatically added as a flashcard to your vocabulary list. when you want to review, just select any book menu and select “vocabulary builder”. you will see a list of the words you have looked up.

scan the words and try to remember their meanings. then click on each word to see the definition. you can also tap “use” to see the context it was used in when you searched for it: the full sentence of the book.

You can also do it the other way around. tap “books” at the top of the screen to see a list of books you’ve searched for words in. then you can see the list of words you wanted to translate in that book. that means if you want to review the vocabulary in the most recent book you read, it’s all there for you in one place.

whenever you want to test yourself, tap “flashcards” at the bottom. The words in his vocabulary builder will be shown to him in a random order, along with the full sentence of the book he looked it up in. try to remember the meaning and then check the definition to see if you were right. when you think you have fully learned the word, you can click “mark as mastered” and the word will no longer appear as a flashcard.

If your version of kindle doesn’t have this feature, please recreate it yourself. keep a list of the words you had to look up, and at the end of each chapter you read, review them again. If you can’t remember the word, go back to the chapter, find it, and use the context to help you remember it. you could even go so far as to create the flashcards yourself!

5. to the next.

It’s great how a kindle shows you the progress you’ve made with your reading. you’ll have a shelf full of foreign language books in your pocket in no time.

Happy reading!