12 Fantastic Gift Ideas For Language Lovers

If you count language learners and enthusiasts, linguists, teachers, expats or whatever among those you’re planning to purchase gifts for this year (or any year), I’ve got you covered. I’ve comprised a list of a few cool items that are sure to add some language learning sparkle to your friends’ and loved ones’ holiday bounties.

 

1. Dirty Everyday Slang books

Looking for something special for the sailor in your life? Learn to cuss like a foreign pirate with this  fun, fantastic little series of novelty dictionaries. The Dirty Everyday Slang titles compile a vast array of unsavory words with which to spice up pretty much anyone’s vocabulary.

But vulgar language isn’t all that you’ll find in these books. The books also – as their titles suggest – include a huge variety of common terms for casual interactions (slang).

I wrote an in-depth post about this series here, if you want to know more.

I don’t necessarily suggest the use of many of these words in real-world application without a fair degree of cultural awareness, but they’re still good to know and fun to learn and – at least in the case of some of the less risky terms – could be useful for making your speech sound less robotic following a program like Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone, which regardless of any merits are very scripted and don’t always capture the feel of authentic conversation.

The Dirty Everyday Slang Books are available in the following languages: Greek, German, Spanish, Yiddish, Russian, Italian, American Sign Language, French, Korean, Mandarin, Japanese, Portuguese, Czech, and Hungarian.

A companion workbook series also exists. I don’t think all languages are available, but I’ve linked the Spanish Workbook here as an example.

These books cost less than $9 USD and are also available in Kindle format.

 

2. The Pimsleur Approach

This item is a bit more pricey, but I think the returns are worth the cost. Pimsleur‘s audio-based language learning programs have been among the top language products for years and have amassed quite a reputation for themselves – in part due to their horrible advertising campaigns.

It took me a long time to warm up to Pimsleur. I worked through all three levels of Pimsleur’s Russian and still had a sour taste in my mouth. It was only a year later in retrospect and having tried so many other tools in the intervening months that I realized just how much I had actually learned – and more importantly retained – by using Pimsleur.

Readers who recall my first review of Pimsleur will remember that one of my biggest issues with the software is its price tag. Since then, the price has dropped considerably with the release of their downloadable version, so while still not the cheapest option around, it is less of a money sink than many of its competitors.

For more information on what Pimsleur is and how it works you can go here and here respectively for my first reviews and why I decided to give Pimsleur a second chance.

 

 

 

If you’re raising bilingual children, or have friends or family who are, these are going to be hard to beat. I came across this item the other day quite accidentally and instantly wanted it despite being almost 30. Many of you may remember these from your childhoods – I know I certainly had a set. Nostalgia at its finest.

Here in the US we’ve been using alphabet blocks like these to help young children learn the fundamentals of English for ages, but did you know you can actually find these blocks in a ton of tongues, including a few that don’t receive nearly enough attention, such as Maori or Cherokee?

You can find a huge selection by going right here. There you’ll find most major world languages, but also a few you may not have been expecting, like Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

 

5. Magnetic Poetry

Another super inexpensive, universally useful toy for kids or adults; Magnetic Poetry is the product line that brings you those little fridge magnets with words on them that

that one friend you had had had on his mother’s refrigerator way beyond the suggested age.

Just as with the blocks, it’s well established that a variety of English language magnets exist, ranging from standard to Geek and Pirate, but did you know they also make foreign language magnets?

These are a good resource for simple sentence creation and in the case of some languages can serve to help you with your character memorization. They’re also a great way to squeeze some study time into your busy schedule, and are great for kids and their teachers.

Magnetic Poetry is available in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Mandarin.

 

6. Picture Dictionaries

People who love big books with tons of graphics and foreign languages cannot call themselves collectors of language books without at least one picture dictionary. These books are pretty straightforward, consisting of nothing but pictures broken down by topic, with words attached. You can find different brands for different languages all over the place, but a couple of my favorites are the Oxford Picture Dictionary and Webster’s.

When I was working as an ESL instructor, we used to use these fantastic resources when teaching English to adults. Unfortunately for some of us, they are tailored mostly for those learning English, rather than another language, but they are still a potential resource and reference for any language learner to have.

These books are generally broken down into categories. One page might feature a grocery store and then numerous arrows pointing to the various types of produce and offering a translation of each item. Here’s an example from the Russian-English Bilingual Dictionary by DK.

There are countless picture dictionaries available out there.

But in general I still think it’s a worthwhile buy for learners with whom these will not pose issues. It also makes a great gift for anyone who teaches or tutors English to immigrants, in schools or as one side of a language exchange.

The Oxford English Dictionary is one of my favorites, though, due to its high quality and my familiarity with it.

This dictionary is available in a large range of languages including Cambodian, Thai, Farsi, Urdu and Haitian Creole, as well as all of the European languages you’ve surely come to expect by now. You can take a look here!

 

7. The Expat Gone Foreign store.

In this case, I couldn’t just link to a single item because they’re pretty much all cool. Expat Gone Foreign is a webcomic about living abroad, languages and linguistics, and if you’re not already following the site, there’s something wrong with you. Go now!

However, fans of the series and language lovers may be pleased to learn that EGF hosts a Zazzle shop with a bunch of stuff for just about everyone and every need. The store is fairly new and constantly expanding.

From apparel and accessories to jigsaw puzzles, this store is great for expats, linguists, and really anyone who likes cute drawings.

Start here and choose your country. They ship to many.

 

8. Flashsticks

Another great resource for learners of all ages; Flashsticks are, as the name suggests, sticky flashcards that can be stuck to any surface. Each card is printed with a unique, commonly used word, translation, icon and phonetic key for pronunciation.

You can use them as flashcards, walk around your home or classroom sticking them to the objects they belong to or creating any number of fun language learning games that make learning a foreign tongue easy.

It also has a tablet or smartphone app that offers high quality audio to aid you with pronunciation.

Besides having a great product, Flashsticks, as a company,  is devoted to making language learning accessible to all and maintains a vibrant social media following and is constantly posting language tips, tricks and new articles. Be sure to follow them on Google+ at +FlashSticks  and Twitter at @Flashsticks

Go here for a much more thorough review.

 

9. Tablets and eReaders

I know, I know, not much says cliche Christmas present like an iPad or a Kindle Fire, but I do have to say that they’re pretty handy for language learners.

These are already some of the top selling holiday items, and have been for a while, but that doesn’t mean you’re quite ready to give in just yet, does it?

They can be quite a bit more expensive than some of the other gifts on this list  (though the basic Kindle is now “only” $79), usually ranging from around $150 and moving upwards of $800 for some of the fancier models, but the services they can render to a dedicated language learner are truly awesome.

First of all, I cannot recommend enough the importance of mobile learning on today’s education playing field. With nearly every major language learning company now offering its services in either a mobile format in the form of an app or simply as online digital content – which can be reached via your new tablet’s browser – you’d be missing out if you didn’t take advantage of all that is currently offered and stayed abreast of that which is yet to come.

Check out this earlier post in which I cover the differences between Android and iOS platforms and how they uniquely impact language learners.

By the way, you don’t actually have to buy a Kindle device in order to read books via Kindle. The app and service is completely free and totally compatible with your phone or even computer. Basically, there’s essentially no reason not to grab yourself some free books – some of which are available in multiple languages. If you find out you like it, there is, of course, also a paid upgrade that comes with a bunch of benefits. It has a 30 day free trial as well.

Lastly, taking up eBooks does not mean that you can’t still love and own print, as some seem to think.

 

 

10. Endangered Alphabets

By far the coolest item on this list – Endangered Alphabets is a Vermont-based non-profit initiative begun to use artwork derived from some of the world’s less common and otherwise endangered writing systems to create masterpieces and draw attention to this crisis.

Furthermore, if you’re really looking to outdo yourself as a gift-giver this year, or perhaps for a language loving friend’s wedding, Endangered Alphabets’ masterpieces include extraordinarily high quality, expertly hand-carved furniture, wall hangings, and other items that feature numerous scripts from around the world. Here are a few pictures:

 

Yeah, you get the idea.

You can find a bunch of super awesome carvings for sale here.

This one is for a super good cause, and even if you’re not entirely able to afford what is probably an extraordinarily expensive piece of beautiful furniture like that table, you should consider donating any amount. The Atlas of Endangered Languages is an enormous project and they can always use all the help they can get to maintain the site and research. If you’d like to contribute, you can dump some of that excess holiday spirit right here.

 

11. Get them an Audible account already! Or collect freebies yourself!

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Want two free audio books? Sign up for an Audible account! They give you two free audiobooks of your choosing – of which there are countless foreign language books or language learning products available. The first month of your subscription is free, but you can always cancel the account immediately if you’d like. You still get to keep your two books. There’s absolutely no reason for anyone to not do this, unless you simply hate Amazon, which, I mean, I get it.

I’ve written about Audible before with a much more thorough explanation of the product, as well as details about how to unsubscribe from the service if you don’t want to pay for it.

If you enjoy the account, you can keep it and receive a pretty good deal on further books each month. You can always buy individual books as well without having a subscription.

But seriously, holidays or no, there’s absolutely no for anyone to not do this. It only takes a few minutes to set up, choose your books and if you want, unsubscribe, making off like a digital bandit.

Whether it’s for you or for someone else, two free audiobooks cannot be argued with.

Go do it now!

 

12. Keyboard stickers are the perfect stocking stuffer!

When learning a 2nd language, it’s important to try to create a nice immersion setting that you can surround yourself with. For those who spend a lot of time on our computers, and in particular are learning a new writing system, overhauling our technology can do wonders.

Countries around the world all have to have keyboards that suit their needs – and chances are if you’re living in the US, you’re going to have a hard time finding a Hebrew or Arabic keyboard. Keyboard stickers are a cheap and effective way to help learn a new writing system while successfully navigating everything that needs navigating.

You can find most languages by typing “______ keyboard stickers” into the search box below:

 

However, please note that you still have to actually change your keyboard in your computer’s settings. You can do so by following these instructions.

 

Conclusion

So I do have to level with you. Many of the items listed above do contain affiliate links. Rather than saying that after each piece I figured it made more sense to simply say it here.

Affiliate links earn me a very small commission every time you buy an item (between 1 and 5%).

This in no way affects you. It doesn’t cost you extra and you don’t have to do anything except what you were going to do anyway – buy stuff!

In any case, if you’re shopping for a language lover this holiday season – or any time of the year – keep this list in mind. Hopefully you’ve gained some ideas they’ll love or were swayed one way or the other on an item you were already considering.

Happy hunting!