Learn the languages of the world for free with Mentor Library

Quiere hablar español? या हिन्दी? أو العربية؟? 日本語または? Oder Deutsch?

Or maybe you just want to know what that last paragraph meant.

If you want to learn another language but don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on classes, books or software, try Transparent Language for free from Mentor Public Library.

Transparent Language offers a simple, intuitive way to learn the basics of more than 80 different languages—pretty much any language you can think of, everything from Albanian to Zulu. And—not to put too fine a point on it—if you have a Mentor Public Library card, it’s completely free.

Transparent Language offers dozens of language lessons, which can help you negotiate everyday conversations, as well as vocabulary lists, proficiency tests, and pronunciation and conversation practice for each language.

And language is more than just knowing words and grammar, so Transparent Language includes culture blogs to add variety and depth to your learning experience. There are even interactive games for each language to help you practice.

There’s even an online community with more than 1.5 million people, all helping one another learn.

Transparent Language is also great for people who are learning English. It offers 24 English-as-a-second-language courses, including ones for people who speak Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Polish, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese and more.

It’s easy to sign up for Transparent Language too. You just need an email address and a library card. (If you’ve signed up for Zinio or IndieFlix—which are great services if you love reading magazines of watching independent films, respectively—then you’re already registered for Transparent Language.)

So whether you’re visiting France or just want to learn Urdu, check out Transparent Language. It’s just one of the dozens of useful databases available from Mentor Public Library.