Best children foreign language books according to redditors

We found 223 Reddit comments discussing the best children foreign language books. We ranked the 125 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Subcategories:

Children chinese language books
Children french books
Children german language books
Children italian language books
Children japanese language books
Children korean language books
Children russian language books
Children spanish books

Top Reddit comments about Children's Foreign Language Books:

u/erydan · 13 pointsr/languagelearning

First, i know it will seem pessimistic of me to ask but; are you guys getting along very well? Most likely one will be better than the other, cause some frustration and will kill the learning process because of ego mismanagement.

If you guys can really work as a team, here's what i suggest:

  • As a couple, your best asset is the very fact that you're a couple. If you live in a big town, google russian and the name of your town and go hangout there. Since it will be an "enclave" rather than a ghetto, you will see cultural stuff everywhere. Pamphlets and ads in local russian newspapers with tons of cultural events and beginners-in-russian are most often than not warmly welcomed, since russian is a very hard language to master for non-native speakers, meaning that they will be happy that a stranger puts in the effort of learning their language and their culture. They will often go the extra mile to help you pronounce and correct your mistakes. Of course, you will encounter suspicious and taciturn characters but hanging out in russian cafés and attending local cultural events will super-charge your russian assimilation. Languages are meant to be spoken.

  • Secondly, i strongly, strongly recommend the acquisition of this book:

    http://www.amazon.ca/Russian-Learners-Dictionary-Words-Frequency/dp/0415137926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300431171&sr=8-1-spell

    And follow this man's method, The Goldlist Method:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6FERpM5fQ (Part one)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTyJiGVJ0LM (Part two)

    This will be your main method of vocabulary acquisition. I also recommend:

    http://www.amazon.ca/Schaums-Outline-Russian-Grammar-Second/dp/007161169X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1300431298&sr=8-2

    and

    http://www.amazon.ca/Big-Silver-Book-Russian-Verbs/dp/007143299X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

    Yes i know, spending money sucks, but i bought all three of them and not regret my choice at all. Very practical.

    Speaking of spending money, if you have money to spend, spend it on a private tutor for both of you. The value of this cannot be stressed enough. He will explain things to you that books can't and will correct your pronunciation and also challenge you by having higher degrees of conversation (like the use of dative instead of instrumental, etc) so that you learn in deep and not just "to get by".

    A huge part of language acquisition is the exposition to culture. The longer you expose yourself to russian, the faster and better learners you will be. That means listening to russian music, watching russian videos and movies, reading russian news and get interested in what's happening int he country, speaking russian as much as possible. Immerse yourself in it.

    If you do all of this and you really, really dedicate yourself to it and use your couple as a blessing rather than a curse, i guarantee you that in 6 months, your level of russian will be that native russians will not believe you when you will tell them it's всего шесть месяцев :)

    Hope this helped, good luck with your russian!
u/VCH250 · 10 pointsr/russian

I had just finished Grad school, and I didn't have a job and was living at home—that helps :)

But basically I would wake up, repeat words I learned the previous day, then learn another 30 or so (I have a decent memory). Then I would go over a grammar topic for a few hours then try to watch something. The only thing I didn't do was talk much (I wrote lots) because I had no money for a teacher and don't like talking to random people.

But to be honest I just become obsessed with Russian and it became my job (for the first year, anyway. After that I had different strategies as I started working etc). Sometimes I spent 12 or more hours on it a day.

I used this book for the vocal—https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Learners-Dictionary-Words-Frequency/dp/0415137926

u/tanzoniteblack · 10 pointsr/languagelearning

There are admittedly not many good resources out there for learning Finnish. I started with self teaching myself, but never really got very far until taking Finnish classes in college. Self study from things available on the internet isn't that bad once you already have a foundation, but getting that foundation is annoyingly difficult.

It doesn't help that almost every book out there for learning Finnish makes things needlessly complex. At some point or another, I think I've looked at almost every major resource (book-wise anyways) for English speakers learning Finnish. Here's some notes on some that come to mind, feel free to ask about others if you want.

  • Kuulostaa hyvältä / Sounds good by Lili Ahonen. This is a 2 part series, one of which has the Finnish first in the title, and the other with the English first. Kuulostaa hyvältä features short texts in Finnish along with exercises, but is completely in Finnish. Sounds Good is to be used along with it's Finnish counterpart, and contains grammar and vocabulary explanations in English. This is probably the best book I've found for learning Finnish, though it might be a bit difficult to get started with.
  • From Start to Finnish by Leila White. This is probably one of the better books for those who have absolutely no current foundation or understanding of Finnish. It's not too heavy on the technical details, and contains many useful examples. It is however grossly overpriced for being such a short book (only 180 pages or so), this being due to it being imported from a Finnish publisher.
  • Teach Yourself Finnish by Terttu Leney. This book is one most people recommend, and for a complete beginner it's not a bad choice. You will not get very far in Finnish with this book, it just doesn't go very in depth. You will get the ability to interact with people in your stereotypical tourist situations, and it will help you get comfortable with Finnish's grammar system, but it has a very limited amount of vocabulary words and texts to learn with.
  • *Colloquial Finnish by Daniel Abondolo is a decent reference book if you're attempting to write a linguistics paper about Finnish, but not so good to learn from.

    Non-book resources:

  • Selkouutiset, a Finnish 'easy' newspaper. Bookmark this for when you get a decent Finnish foundation under you, it's very useful for helping expose you to Finnish once you hit the intermediate stages.
  • Local Finnish programs. Check out the Finnish consulate webpage for a list of universities and other places which offer Finnish classes in the US.
u/dwchandler · 10 pointsr/languagelearning

Norwegian shares some with both Swedish and Danish, so it's a nice pick for understanding at least a bit of those. It's also quite easy for English speakers to learn, on par with Swedish and maybe just a touch easier.

For learning resources, check the sidebars of specific subreddits like /r/norsk and /r/svenska, and/or ask in there. But for Norwegian I really like Norwegian: An Essential Grammar, and I used the Pimsleur course.

u/Subs-man · 9 pointsr/languagelearning

Merry Christmas/God Jul/Hyvää Joulua!

This is actually quite common, this phenomenon is known as "Language Attrition":

>Language attrition is the loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language. Speakers who routinely speak more than one language may use their languages in ways slightly different from a single language speaker, or a monolingual. The knowledge of one language may interfere with the correct production or understanding of another.

Which seems to be what you're experiencing with Finnish, especially if your immersed in Swedish culture the majority of the time with school, the media, friends, family (even though you also said the speak finnish) etc.

To combat this I suggest attempting Finnish as if you were a novice...

Books:

  1. Teach Yourself's Complete Finnish

  2. Routledge's Colloquial Finnish

  3. Routledge's Essential Grammar: Finnish

    Or if it's not too hard you could try something like "Suomen Sujuvaksi" or "Tarkista tästä!" Where Finnish is taught in Finnish, that might or might not help.

    Hopefully this helps :)
u/Nameyxe · 7 pointsr/languagelearning

New Practical Chinese Reader is a popular choice for a lot of Mandarin courses. The Colloquial (T'ung & Pollard/Qian) and Teach Yourself (Scurfield 1, 2) books are both pretty popular for beginners.

I've heard good things about Lingodeer as an app for Mandarin/Korean/Japanese but haven't had a chance to go through it seriously yet.

Happy language learning!

u/pawnzeeknee · 6 pointsr/Urdu

I have been having a lot of luck with Urdu: An Essential Grammar, which is very broad in its treatment.

u/pinocchiolewis · 6 pointsr/French

I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/French-Short-Stories-Beginners-Captivating-ebook/dp/B07DSZCPYW

I'm mid A1 level, and I can follow along with most of these stories with a few small translations. The audiobook version is great too because you get a PDF with it to follow along with the story!

u/Lord-Octohoof · 6 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

I learned to do this my first semester of Chinese. It's actually incredibly easy and nowhere near as complex as one might think it would be. The computer is really accurate about guessing which character you want to use based on context so as long as you input the pinyin correctly you generally get the correct character.

This is the one we used for class, but windows also comes with its own version which you can access by simply going to keyboard settings and adding Chinese (simplified or traditional) as an input method. From there switching between languages is as simple as hitting alt+shift!

If you're interesting in learning, we used this textbook series which I found to be really awesome. And it can be found online for free, of course.

u/tillypotter · 6 pointsr/russian

Colloquial Russian by Svetlana Fleming & Susan Kay. It was the set text for my first year of university (studying German and ab initio Russian) and now I'm near the end of my fourth and final year and I can confidently say that it provided an excellent foundation. It has accents to mark stress as well as useful audio CD accompaniments. Available on Amazon fairly cheaply - hope it helps :) желаю вам удачи!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colloquial-Russian-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415469953/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427536468&sr=1-1&keywords=colloquial+russian

u/Amagyar · 6 pointsr/hungarian

I use Duolingo and this book. I also annoy this sub to death by asking about every small thing I don't understand. Hungarian Reference is also helpful. Lastly, I listen to Absolute Beginner clips on HungarianPod101. I'll move on to intermediate and advanced when I'm ready.

Hungarian isn't really a big or useful language, and resources are scarce, so you have to make do with whatever you can find.

u/KillYourCar · 5 pointsr/ChineseLanguage

I came from a beginner/intermediate level of Japanese fluency to Mandarin a year and a half ago. I have been using the New Practical Chinese Reader series (here) and have been very pleased with it. I think it will work well for you because 1) the vocabulary seems pretty accelerated to me and 2) there is a good amount of audio content with the texts. Hope that helps.

u/anagrammatron · 4 pointsr/INTP

I actually enrolled in local university course. I'm old enough to know that unless I have external pressure and schedule I tend to wander off, break the schedule, postpone things and generally grow more lax about things. To avoid that I decided to make it official so that I'd feel some sort of obligation to keep going. I can effectively teach myself things that take few weeks or monhts to master, but this project is much more serious so I need someone else to push me along too.

We're using New Practical Chinese Reader which is not exactly a fast paced textbook, but it seems to be a standard. There's a series of them, all with workbooks and audio.

u/Bo_Peep · 4 pointsr/breakingmom

Maybe try some textured flash cards. My kid loves these.

Edit: My son talks a shit ton and signs...but he is throwing tantrums ALL THE TIME FOR EVERYTHING. It doesn't stem from me not understanding him, he is just pissed off that I won't let him try to kill himself. Toddlers=terrorists.

u/End_Of_The_Internet · 4 pointsr/beyondthebump

I have these cards at the recommendation of a friend!

My First Touch & Feel Picture Cards: First Words (MY 1ST T&F PICTURE CARDS)
http://amzn.com/0756615186

u/lubutu · 3 pointsr/norsk

First of all, you'll find that there are two different writing standards for Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk. You will almost certainly want to learn Bokmål, the most common. There are also a wide range of regional dialects; you will almost certainly want to learn Standard Østnorsk. It's nothing to worry about, as Bokmål and Østnorsk are almost always the ones taught to foreigners, but do be aware that you will find Norwegian that doesn't conform to what you've learnt.

As for somewhere to start, I'd suggest Norwegian on the Web, a basic introductory course covering grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, built up little by little in each of ten chapters. To have a minimal understanding of pronunciation you will need to read up to at least chapter 6; for grammar at least chapter 8.

I know you say you can't really sink money into it, but in my opinion the most valuable book, if you were to buy one, is Norwegian: An Essential Grammar. Most of your Norwegian learning can be done on the Internet, but I've not really found another decent reference for more complex Norwegian grammar. That can wait, though.

You'll probably also be recommended Teach Yourself Norwegian at some point, but in my honest opinion I don't think that's a particularly good book, especially considering the free courses you can find online. Just make sure to use a course from a reputable source — there are guides written by non-natives that are misleading or just plain wrong.

Once you get past the level expected for courses, you can try having a go with actual Norwegian text and speech, perhaps beginning with resources for people who are still learning Norwegian, like Klar Tale and SkoleTV.

Lykke til!

u/seumcha · 3 pointsr/languagelearning

I know nothing about Greek, but for Urdu I have Teach Yourself Urdu by David Matthews and Mohamed Kasim Dalvi. I think it's a pretty good book. However, I would not try to learn the script from it. Get Teach Yourself Read and Write Urdu Script for that. A friend of mine also had good things to say about Let's Study Urdu by Ali Asani. She also really liked Urdu: An Essential Grammar. I haven't used that, but I have use the Essential Grammar book for Hindi and thought it was pretty well-written. There is also Darvazah: A Door into Urdu, but unfortunately certain parts of the site don't seem to work.

If you're into it, you could also learn Devanagari (Hindi script) and then you'd have access to Hindi learning materials as well (Hindi and Urdu are VERY similar- most deviation is in vocab and grammar is mostly the same). I could give you some recommendations for Hindi too if you're interested.

u/Aubash · 3 pointsr/pakistan

I would also advise anyone to check out Urdu: An Essential Grammar's Farsi (and Arabic) grammar of Urdu section.

u/Norskfisk · 3 pointsr/Norway

Hi there, This book is the one I'm using. I would also switch all your online accounts to bokmål (if possible) and perhaps install a Norwegian proxy so you can watch dagbladet and nrk videos.

u/J_for_Jules · 3 pointsr/French
u/Spaztic_monkey · 3 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Come join us over at /r/ChineseLanguage for starters! Look into chinese pod for listening, anki deck for learning vocab. And then try a book like New Practical Chinese Reader as a textbook. But to be honest, without some tutoring, or preferably time in China, it will be a massive uphill struggle at the best of times.

u/sseager · 3 pointsr/norsk

These two sentences mean the exact same thing, and they absolutely are both standard Norwegian, although you would definitely hear the second one being used the most in spoken Norwegian.

 

As for commas, the first one should indeed have a comma before for as it is a coordinating conjunction (as are og and men, among others), although there should be no comma in front of the fordi in the second sentence, as it is a subordinating conjunction. I suggest you go read up on the differences coordinating and subordinating conjunctions (including subordinating clauses).

 

If you're willing to spend a bit of money, two good books I would recommend are Norwegian: An Essential Grammar or Norsk grammatikk.

u/KusinGenuin · 2 pointsr/Svenska

If you want books for small children, checkout these:


My First Book About Sweden - Min Första Bok Om Sverige: A children's picture guide to Swedish culture, traditions and fun - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1999985443/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_JuzVDbAMBDGRA

Counting Sweden - Räkna med Sverige: A bilingual counting book with fun facts about Sweden for kids - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1913382001/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_LuzVDbJ6J0BE4

Santa's Christmas Tomtens jul: A bilingual Swedish Christmas counting book - En tvåspråkig räknebok på svenska och engelska - https://www.amazon.com/dp/199998546X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_KuzVDb1HNYNGN

Tomten Saves Christmas - Tomten räddar julen: A Bilingual Swedish Christmas tale in Swedish and English - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1913382052/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_cvzVDbF0V0FZW

u/boxruler · 2 pointsr/languagelearning

I taught myself the Cyrillic alphabet and was actually pleasantly surprised that it's not that hard. A lot of the letters aren't that foreign at all, and Russian has LOADS of words that you'll already know.

The toughest bit for me are telling apart the sounds of ш, щ, ж. But it's incredibly rewarding and it can make you feel proud to be able to read a new alphabet. Here's a vlog in which you can see a bit of my progress.

I'll give you the same advice I always give language learners: Go slowly, make sure you study with people (tutors are worth it, classes are worth it), and make it a regular thing. Here's the book I showed in the video, and I loved it for learning Russian. The author has a Norwegian version too:

An Amazon Affiliate Link

A non-Affiliate Link

u/jarrettkong · 2 pointsr/languagelearning

There's a Colloquial Lithuanian book that should be good.

u/z00mbinis · 2 pointsr/languagelearning

What about Colloquial Hungarian or Hungarian: An Essential Grammar. There's also Teach Yourself Hungarian, but I don't think the grammar focus is as strong.

u/matterhayes · 2 pointsr/Svenska

I’ve ordered some Swedish books from Amazon US. See examples below. You can also try searching there for “Swedish Edition”. I haven’t had any luck ordering from Swedish sites in Europe as none is the ones I found would ship to the US.

Alices Äventyr i Sagolandet (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Swedish)

Counting Sweden - Räkna med Sverige

Santa’s Christmas Tomtens jul

I also found a book I was looking for on eBay.

u/ZhunCn · 2 pointsr/Purdue

This textbook and workbook was used for CHNS 101 and 102 for Spring and Fall 2018:

https://amazon.com/gp/product/7561926235/

https://amazon.com/gp/product/7561926227/

CHNS 101 went half way, while 102 finished the textbook. So if you are going for upper level chinese, you probably would need something else.

u/thenumber28 · 2 pointsr/ChineseLanguage

yes I know that Japan borrowed Chinese characters for their writing system but that doesn't make the languages related. just like koreans used the chinese writing system to express their language, and the vietnamese also. however, neither of those languages are related to chinese except that there is a great deal of vocabulary that is borrowed.

that would be like saying that because my friend borrowed my clothes to wear, he is my brother, which isn't true either.

chinese and japanese are from different language families and have evolved independently of each other.

I honestly don't know why you made this thread because you seem to think you know more than you really do. I have been taking chinese for almost two years and am in china RIGHT NOW studying chinese.

it is my opinion that if you actually want to learn chinese and not flex your intellectual penis on reddit you should do it from the standpoint that you don't have any experience with chinese, because in reality you don't.

edit:

also, just so I can feel like I'm being more helpful rather than feel like I'm berating you here is the book I used in "chinese 101"

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Chinese-Reader-Textbook-Vol/dp/7561910401/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262081421&sr=8-2

it has dialogues in chinese characters subtitled with the pinyin. and the vocab lists are the same way. and until you get to an intermediate chinese course all beginning level chinese text books will have pinyin. it is necessary to learning the language.

http://www.chinabooks.com.au/ChinaBooks/search.cfm?UR=14071&search_stage=details&records_to_display=5

THIS is the book they use for entry level courses here at BLCU for people learning Chinese. it is in much the same format as the other book (dialogues in chinese characters subtitled with pinyin).

I think you will find this to be the most common format and also the most logically designed for learning chinese.

u/Duttywood · 2 pointsr/ChineseLanguage

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Holmes-Curly-Haired-Company-ebook/dp/B00HFXR6W0

I bought this for myself after about 4-5 months of study, they are basic stories in Chinese with the Enlighs translations for difficult words at the foot of the page, there is a whole series of them, fairly cheap and very good practice.

Would make a great gift imo.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/German

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Lagune series:

http://www.amazon.de/Lagune-Deutsch-Fremdsprache-Kursbuch-Audio-CD/dp/3190016240

There are several levels, audio cds, workbooks and even teacher guidelines if you want those too.

u/BaiJiGuan · 2 pointsr/tea

no, its xin shiyong hanyu keben, 新实用汉语课本

https://www.amazon.de/Practical-Chinese-Reader-shiyong-hanyu/dp/7561910401

its a good textbooks series for learning, the first volume still has pinyin under the characters and the second one still has tone markers over them , easing you into reading over time.

i recommend getting each together with its workbook, since you get a lot of practice examples in the workbook. I`m currently in book 5 out of 6 but im looking at switching since ive heard that for advanced level theres better textbooks available, im just used to the format by now :)

u/UndergroundPhoenix · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I want to be as multi-lingual as my grandma, who was fluent (read, write, speak) in 7 languages, and could speak another two on top of that!

Right now I am working on learning French, since my family on both sides is primarily French. After French, I hope to learn Italian, Spanish (Spain Spanish, and Mexican-Spanish), Russian, Celtic, Hebrew, and Cheyenne or Atakapa. Unfortunately, I highly doubt I will be able to do all those languages, especially since some are dead/nearly dead. So my top priorities at the moment are French and Italian, followed by Spanish.

Here is a lovely children's book in French, which can be found on my books wishlist.

This song is in French, and is fun to listen to.

Here is a funny!

Bonus: I use a combo of duolingo and mindsnacks, and I find they are very, very helpful together!

u/Hope1976 · 1 pointr/Parenting

These things I did at home for free, minus the cost of the books and toys. Less than a therapist if you can't afford one. Feel free to message me if I can help. To clarify, I am selling NOTHING and have no hidden agenda. I just want to help where i can bc it was a struggle for me at first. Hope it helps.

This is an email I sent to my coworker over a year ago when my son was 18 months old. He is now almost 3.

Hi,

Here is my list.  I hope the links work or I wasted a lot of time.  LOL

Parent Books:

My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child's Language Development

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477693548/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the book I liked the best.  To the point, and gave me things I could actually do.  And oh my God, it helped so much!!! He learned and grew SO much after I implemented what I read in this book. 

It Takes Two To Talk: A Practical Guide For Parents of Children With Language Delays Third Edition

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0921145195/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

kind of long, a lot of detail, but explains types of speech delays and how children learn to speak

The Cow Says Moo: Ten Tips to Teach Toddlers to Talk: An Early Intervention Guide

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1482794403/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This book is alright.  There were some ideas in it that I'll use.  I'd recommend it if you want more ideas/books after the Teach my Toddler to Talk book

Children Books and Flash Cards:

Little Blue Truck Lap Board Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/054405685X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is a great book.  There is a lot of action in this book and has a lot of association between animals and sounds.  Very engaging and rhyming.

Bright Baby Animals

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312492480/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

simple words, simple REAL pictures and one picture per page so as to not overwhelm.  Great book to teach first words.

Elmo Says... (Sesame Street) (Big Bird's Favorites Board Books)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375845402/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is an action book, so your child would touch their nose, touch their toes, etc.  relating actions to  words is engaging and also the association helps foster language attrition.

From Head to Toe

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064435962/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

same as the above book. 

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0859537285/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Teaches body parts, has hand movements, rhyming/song  My son loves this book

My First Touch & Feel Picture Cards: Animals (My 1st T&F Picture Cards)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756615151/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Real pictures and has different materials to touch like rough, sticky, etc.  Works well, my son likes this too

My First Touch & Feel Picture Cards: First Words (My 1st T&F Picture Cards)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756615186/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

same as the above, just other words

DVD’s:

Baby Babble Beginning Words

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015NERXBQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, some speech therapists say to have NO screen time.  Well, I put this on when we’re on long trips or if my kids just wants to chill.  There are several different dvd’s in this series.  I have 3.  He said some words he’s never said before after watching these.  I would recommend engaging WITH your child while watching these if you can.  If you can’t and you’re driving somewhere, then so be it.  It still helps in my opinion.

Baby Signing Time

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHMCVKK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this.  I used this w/my daughter too.  Taught them both a lot of super helpful signs and words.  The video is super cute and the songs are great too.  My kids both love this DVD.  I would definitely get it.  In fact, I bought it twice bc the first dvd got scratched up due to use. 

Toys to encourage speech and language development:

4.5" Set of 6 Wolf, Lion, Owl, Penguin Wild Animals Plastic Nesting Dolls

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L2UAVA0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is great.  My kids love this.  It teaches the animals, sizes, opening, closing.  in and out.  super cute.

Tot Tube Playset - Toy Car and Ball Tunnel Ramp Race Track by Inspiration Play

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PFB0JTQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My kids LOVE this.  super simple but fun.  Teaches taking turns, action words like "go" and "fast", use words like "ball" and "car" and "bounce"

Melissa & Doug Zoo Animals Sound Puzzle

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029N2NLU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 In general, speech therapists don’t like toys that make sounds, but this puzzle my son loves and I make the sounds with him, he mimics me, so it works.  Also, there is a high association with puzzle making and language development.  So we work on puzzles a lot and he’s gotten a lot better at them.  It helps also to say “tuuuurn” to turn the puzzle piece and that kind of thing.

Melissa and Doug Jumbo Paint Brushes

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M5J7W0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We bought water paint and have a big big roll of paper that we cut big pieces off and lay on the floor.  We paint and he uses these easy to handle brushes.  I’ll say words like “let’s paint” and “gentle” and I’ll name colors (but do not expect him to learn them).  I’ll make a face or something and tell him what I am drawing.  Called “self talk” or I’ll do “parallel talk” doing this too.

Melissa and Doug Latches Barn Toy

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B1V12KS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I HIGHLY recommend this toy.  Probably my favorite.  There are activities in the Teach your Toddler to Talk book that I used with this toy.  You say things like “Pig in” or “open door” “pig says oink oink” so it teaches actions, animals, sounds, and the latches are entertaining for opening and closing.  It’s engaging.  Super cute.

Melissa & Doug Hide and Seek Wooden Activity Board With Wooden Magnets

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0014E7DIS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I’d recommend this toy too.  You can say things like “what’s behind the barn door?” or “where is the dog?” or “cookie!” and pretend to eat the cookies.  Super super cute.  Has helped him with several words.

Wonderworld Rainbow Sound Blocks - Stackable Hollow Shape Block Toys - 7 Piece Set https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005BHUU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

we love these too.  They make sounds and are different shapes and colors.  We use these alone and with other blocks.  We say things like “up” and “put on” and “uh-oh” “fall down” “pick up” “shake shake shake”  He likes these, so does my daughter

kilofly Kids Mini Band Musical Instruments Rhythm Toys Value Pack [Set of 12]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C84SUUM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is just fun.  The kids like to make music.  The whistle helps with oral muscles.  The music helps and you can sing songs with it. You can say sounds like “boom boom boom” and “cling cling” and then use songs that help with rhyming and such that I have in that list for you.

And then just bubbles.  Buy bubbles.  Teaches breathing control and the words “bubble” and “pop” then you can teach the sign for “more” when your child wants to blow more bubbles.  Because you’re supposed to close the bottle each time and then they will want more and you say “More?” and then you sign it at the same time and then you say “Oh, more, okay!” and open it up and blow more bubbles and repeat until they start signing or asking for “more” or “more bubbles” or “bubbles” or “open”, etc.  So buy bubbles.  Lol.

My son loves basketball so we teach him “bounce bounce bounce” and “shoot the ball” and “make a basket” although he only says “ball” so far.  But its something he really really loves.  

We go on walks and point things out.  Or if we are at a fountain or something we sign and say “water, water” and just keep repeating it.  Every once in a while he will say “wah wah” so that’s something.  More than we had.

He can say “juice” and he would say that for every liquid he wanted.  So in the book, it said to give choices.  So I make a cup of milk and a cup of water.  And I say “do you want milk or water? “ or I say “milk or water” and I sign milk and water when I ask.  Then he will say and sign “Milk” which he NEVER did before.  But that was bc I gave him 2 choices and neither was juice so it forced him to tell me what he wanted.

Anyways, I hope this helps.  I did a LOT of research and reading on the types of toys to get and HOW to encourage talking.  So hopefully I have saved you some time.  I can tell you it’s worked wonders for me.  He went from saying 3 words to saying like 20 in 3 weeks.  It’s a work in progress but I feel really good about the direction we’re headed.
 
Let me know what you decide to buy and do.  I would love to hear about your progress. 

u/LittleHelperRobot · 1 pointr/languagelearning

Non-mobile: this Zorro adaptation

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

u/soviyet · 1 pointr/russian

I bought this book, which you might find interesting:

Russian Learners Dictionary

The words are listed by their commonness, so you will learn the most common words first.

It's a little annoying because a lot of really obvious words are in there in the beginning (Я, Ты, и, или, etc) but then it starts to get interesting.

If you can get through that whole book, you will have a vocabulary of 10,000 of the most common Russian words.

u/404Username_NotFound · 1 pointr/languagelearning

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colloquial-Russian-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415469953/ref=pd_cp_b_0

This book is the best I can suggest if you want to learn quickly.

u/krnm · 1 pointr/languagelearning

I get mine on Amazon by searching "Graded Spanish Reader" or "Easy Spanish Reader". Print versions can be expensive, but the Kindle versions are usually only a few bucks (or, like this series, included with a $10/month Kindle Unlimited subscription.) Readers do what they're meant to do, but they can be a bit dull, so after a while you may want to move on to simplified novels like this Zorro adaptation or this detective story.

u/forrealthistime50 · 1 pointr/ChineseLanguage

Vigernere1 gave you some pretty solid advice. It sounds like you are focusing on reading more than speaking, correct?

I have studied for a few years, and I am probably around 2000 characters. I bounced around with a few textbooks, but if I were to start over, I'd use New Practical Chinese Reader books 1-4. The videos from the lessons are on youtube as well. Then move to All Things Considered (put out by Princeton). I have 4 of the books from their series. They are all good, but All Things Considered is fabulous. They have a few books that are higher level than that as well. It also has simplified and traditional characters.

Buy Pleco if you haven't already and make flashcards. Do quizzes and quiz yourself to you go blind and you should be good to go.

[New Practical Chinese Reader] (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Chinese-Reader-Vol-2nd-Ed/dp/7561926235/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501086151&sr=8-1&keywords=new+practical+chinese+reader)

[All Things Considered] (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=all+things+considered)

u/DerManiac · 1 pointr/German

I highly recommend Lagune 1. Make sure to get the workbook and remaining Audio CDs as well.

u/Q-Kyoo · 1 pointr/IWantToLearn

Why do you need this for college? I'm not trying to be mean but most colleges don't care if you know a language unless you're fluent. And I'm not sure how much you mean by "a bit".

The textbooks my Mandarin class in college is using are the New Practical Chinese Reader Series They're pretty cheap as far as textbooks go and you can watch video clips of their conversations on youtube.

Here is a website that has a lot of links for how to learn Chinese. I know not all of the links work, but a couple of them looked pretty good.

u/Lanulus · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Recommended Textbooks
-
Integrated Chinese - This is used in many university classes in the US. The companion CD is definitely recommended. The workbook wont be much use if you don't have someone to check your answers, as the company is pretty strict about not letting out the answer keys.

New Practical Chinese Reader - This is a great alternative to Integrated Chinese. There are also PDFs and mp3s of all materials floating around on the internet if you look.

Character Practice
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Skritter - Seriously awesome. It does have a monthly subscription though.

Oral Practice
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Pimsleur, Assimil, or the FSI course (free). I've only used Pimselur, but I've heard good things about the others. These are good for practicing your tones.

Online Resources
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Chinese-forums

nciku - A Chinese - English dictionary. You can draw out unknown characters, which can be much easier than going by radical like in other dictionaries.

You should also set up Windows (or whatever OS you use) to be able to type in Chinese (usually through pinyin).

Once you're good enough, you can find easy books called "Graded Chinese Readers" that often have a companion CD to help with pronunciation. They're pretty cheap as well if you import them from China.

Good luck, Mandarin is a difficult language, but it's also really fun. It might take a long time to see progress (I still can't read newspapers), but as long as you keep at it you'll probably be happy with your results.

u/ramblagir · 1 pointr/languagelearning

In my opinion, apps and software don't tend to be of much use; they don't let you advance quickly enough and don't expose you to enough material. If you're serious about learning Russian, grab a good book and study each text or dialogue until you understand it both in reading and aurally. There's Teach Yourself Russian, Routledge's Colloquial Russian, the FSI FAST (Familiarization and Short-Term Training) Russian, Assimil Russian (if you speak French), and I've heard good things about the New Penguin Russian Course. In all cases, be sure you get audio along with the book, or have a native speaker who is willing to help you learn. Good luck!

u/kctong529 · 1 pointr/languagelearning

If what you want to achieve is A1 and nothing beyond, you best bet would be getting one of the many course books:

u/KvalitetstidEnsam · 1 pointr/norsk

I recommend this book, it has done wonders for me.

Also, Duolingo does explain the grammar (not very extensively, admittedly), are you reading the blurbs each skill has?

u/jackelpackel · 1 pointr/languagelearning

Colloquial Afrikaans

Colloquial Afrikaans Audio (Free)

It'd be easier, if you already knew Dutch.

u/finchfinch · 1 pointr/languagelearning

I found this reference grammar book very helpful understanding the grammar while I was learning Urdu.
It has Roman alphabet transliterations throughout the book so it's good for you if you are unfamiliar with Urdu alphabet.
Also what I like about this book is that it has short sections dedicated to Persian and Arabic elements used in Urdu. As you probably already know, Urdu has a lot of loanwords from Arabic and Persian and basically that makes it a lot different from Hindi. From my experience it would give you a head start if you have any knowledge on these two languages. So if your target language is Urdu and not Hindi, I recommend you to take a brief look at the languages that influenced Urdu.

u/LarryBills · 1 pointr/languagelearning

In addition to the Chinese Breeze series already recommended, you can't go wrong with a text book.

​

Try New Practical Chinese Reader (comes with CD). Basically, each chapter is a reading/dialogue that lists the vocab and defines grammar structures used in the chapter. Working your way through the book will give you a really solid foundation in the language, which will pair nicely with your other methods.

​

The NPCR series goes up through level 6 btw. 加油!

​

*Edit: Also, check out /r/ChineseLanguage for other Mandarin learners

u/jinzo313 · 1 pointr/slavelabour

looking for

https://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Curly-Haired-Company-ebook/dp/B00HFXR6W0

​

or anything by mandarin companion level 1/2

​

paying for the lowest offer via paypal!

​

edit: still looking

u/Carammir13 · 1 pointr/languagelearning

Am I allowed to call myself a native L2 speaker. Raised English-speaking in Afrikaans-speaking family. This book is apparently highly recommended by foreign language learners of Afrikaans, if you looking somewhere to start.

u/osu-ez · 1 pointr/languagelearning

Also check out Colloquial Finnish. The Colloquial series is really good.

Pimsleur and Michel Thomas are also quite good but they're useless for reading and writing (which are honestly less important, especially for something with writing as simple as Finnish)

u/lipglossandabackpack · 1 pointr/solotravel

I used this book to teach myself the basics of Russian and Cyrillic. It focuses a ton on cognates, which made it a lot easier to pick up the letter sounds. I don't think I ever took the CD out of the package so I can't speak to its usefulness.

u/Mann_Aus_Sydney · 1 pointr/languagelearning
u/flyingkangaroo · 1 pointr/language

I bought some great material the other day on Amazon.

[This is the book](
http://www.amazon.com/New-Practical-Chinese-Reader-Textbook/dp/7561910401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334379917&sr=8-1)

And here are the CDs

You'll see that both things are available used for very reasonable prices. It's the best language learning self-teaching system I've seen out there in a long time. It seems to be thorough, and the student is expected to learn and use that knowledge in the exercises - just like a student would with a real elementary school lesson book.

It's a refreshing departure from most language learning materials I've found out there in bookstores and on the net, which are woefully inadequate.

u/ToDeathYouSay · 0 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Why Urdu and not Hindi? I'm not saying it's a bad idea to learn Urdu, but there are so, so many questions that are raised. Do you want to learn to write it as well? With whom will you speak? After all, learning a language is usually a means, not an end. Does anyone in your family know Urdu? Do you watch lots of Bollywood movies, or do you like the music of someone like Atif Aslam? Do you already speak Panjabi or Pashto? Maybe, Baloch or Sindhi?

It's totally fine if you answer "no" to all these questions. In fact, if you DO answer no to them all, then your desire to learn Urdu is all the more intriguing.

Do you speak any other languages?

Last question:

Do you already have an ear for it? You can't learn Urdu on Duolingo. You CAN go to Amazon and buy Ruth Laila Schmitt's Essential Urdu Grammar. If you pair that with 1) passion, 2) lots of Bollywood (it's Hindi, I know, but it's ear training), 3) some music, and 4) friends who will indulge your nascent attempts to communicate, then you just might succeed.

u/AmazonInfoBot · 0 pointsr/languagelearning

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