Google agrees with Charlemagne and is helping researchers and native speakers try to save over 3,000 endangered languages. That’s nearly 50% of the world’s languages. Losing a language is akin to losing a species. With it goes rich cultural, and even scientific, knowledge.
You might not be able to find someone to teach you the endangered Koro (spoken in India), but if you’ve been thinking about learning a language for travel, work, or simply the pleasure of it, the Library is a great place to start.
Besides thousands of items to check out, we also have complete language programs online to help you learn anything from Afrikaans to Zulu (see Transparent Languages), or Biblical Hebrew to Pirate (see Mango Languages). If you’d like to make a friend in another part of the world who can help you learn to speak their language, or if you’d like to teach someone English, we have a program for that, too (Live Mocha).
If you’re learning on the go download the Mango app on your tablet or smartphone. First set up your Mango account through our website. Then you’ll login with your library account via the app, and you can learn for free. Nice!
Want to learn more about how Mango teaches languages?
Dictionaries and additional resources can be found on our Language Learning page, including resources just for kids.
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