languages, languages
Jul. 18th, 2009 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonimpMango Languages has greatly cut what they offer for free. Screw that, I'm not paying $160 for 3 months of access to one language :P. Time to see what the library has.
I'm trying to brush up on my Spanish, both for my job search and, well, because there are simply a lot of people around here who speak Spanish. But the majority of the teach-yourself-language books are geared toward travel. They have phrases like "where is the bank" and "I want seven postcards." There needs to be a language book aimed at service professionals. Most of the phrases would be about transactions and money and time. And the ever-present "the bathroom is that way" and "we're open until 9." Libraries would also need things like "you can't check this out on a youth card," "your fines are over the limit and you can't check out," and "this item has gone to billing, you need to turn it back in or pay for it." Of course, we can't always get native English speakers to understand those concepts.
I'm trying to brush up on my Spanish, both for my job search and, well, because there are simply a lot of people around here who speak Spanish. But the majority of the teach-yourself-language books are geared toward travel. They have phrases like "where is the bank" and "I want seven postcards." There needs to be a language book aimed at service professionals. Most of the phrases would be about transactions and money and time. And the ever-present "the bathroom is that way" and "we're open until 9." Libraries would also need things like "you can't check this out on a youth card," "your fines are over the limit and you can't check out," and "this item has gone to billing, you need to turn it back in or pay for it." Of course, we can't always get native English speakers to understand those concepts.