Learn a Language

Shorewood Library offers you a world of language learning at your fingertips online and at the library. Whether you want to listen in your car or practice on your laptop, brush up or start from scratch, pass out of the intro level or pass the AP exam – we can help you with all kinds of great language learning resources.

Online library resources

Mango Languages 

Your passport to learning over 70 languages, including English. Uses real-life situations and actual conversations to more effectively teach a new language. You'll learn more than grammar, vocabulary and conjugation, you'll learn how to communicate. Get started by creating a free personal account so you can choose a language, track your progress, and become fluent. For a complete list of available languages, visit Mango and get started.

Transparent Language Online

Transparent Language Online provides an engaging experience for learners of all levels looking to build their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in a non-native language. Combining robust courses, supplemental vocabulary, extensive grammar resources, and mobile access, Transparent Language Online is a complete language-learning system. With over 100 languages to choose from, including English for speakers of over 26 languages, there is something for every learner. 

Britannica Enciclopedia Moderna 

A Spanish-language encyclopedia designed for high school and college ages, consisting of articles, images, maps, tables, timelines as well as a complete dictionary and atlas. Provided by BadgerLink

Britannica Escolar Online 

A Spanish-language elementary encyclopedia, containing images, Spanish-language videos, and learning materials specifically designed for younger students. Provided by BadgerLink

EBSCO Español 

Offers a wide variety of information resources in Spanish with images, animations, full-text magazines, newspapers, books, and academic journals. Provided by BadgerLink

Literacy Services for Teens and Adults

Online tutoring through Reading Horizons and online daily news articles through The Juice are available for teen and adult learners. In-person tutoring for adults, through a partnership with Literacy Services of Wisconsin, are also available.

At the library

Materials for Adult & Teen Learners

Language learning materials for teens and adults are located in the Adult Non-Fiction collection, in the call number range 428-499 and 419 for American Sign Language.

Audio, audiovisual (PC CD-ROM), and text resources for the following languages:

African languages (limited), American Sign Language, Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs (for time travelers and students of archaeology), Arabic, English as a Second Language, Czech (limited), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian (limited), Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese

You can also learn computer languages such as JavaScript, C++, HTML and CSS.

English-based dictionaries for the following languages:

Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, French, German, Latin, Polish, Hebrew, and Russian.

Children's Materials

Try a new language with your kids, or just use the children’s books yourself! When you’re getting started with a foreign language, a children’s picture book written using basic vocabulary and sentence structure can be a great learning tool.

Available languages:

Arabic, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, and Zulu

Russian Collection

Shorewood Library maintains a collection of Russian language texts, mostly accumulated through generous donations from our Russian-speaking community members. Whether you’re just getting started or you are a native speaker, you will find novels, history, and more in the Russian language collection. 

Explore More

Milwaukee County Federated Library System allows you to access more than just what is here at Shorewood. Just ask us and we will happily track down and request for you anything the library system offers, or place an Inter-Library Loan request for something not owned by a Milwaukee County library.