If you've ever desired to learn a new language, why not begin your learning journey now? December is National Learn a Foreign Language Month.

It may seem an unusual time to start learning a new language. With the lead up to the winter holidays you might be busy preparing for the arrival of family of friends or to do your own traveling. However, if you're stuck in a car or a plane for your travels, going to the store for shopping, cleaning or cooking, or just have some free on your hands, you can use that time to try some of our language learning materials. Studying time varies depending on the person and the language, but many language learning apps use lessons of 15 minutes to 30 minutes in length per day. That could cover a trip to the store and back for some or an exercise session for others.

Plus, there are many benefits of learning another language. It can help stimulate the brain, helping to reduce cognitive decline as it requires you to use more functions of the brain. Learning a second language can boost your attention span, help improve memory, and more. With help from our collection, you can start your foreign language adventure from a varied collection of languages.

Download the books on any of the following languages to take on the go with the BARD Mobile app. BARD makes using our language learning materials easy when traveling or moving around as mobile devices are easily portable and you can download and listen to the material directly on the device. And, there are no due dates or expiration dates on the books from BARD so you can use them for as long as you wish. BARD, Braille and Audio Reading Download, is a free library download service provided by the National Library Service or the Blind and Print Disable (NLS) for all talking books patrons. To learn more, visit https://library.ks.gov/talking-books/bard, or contact the KTB office at 1-800-362-0699 or KTB@ks.gov. You can also contact the office or use the online catalog to order books to be sent on cartridge which also have no due dates.

Foreign Language  Books

For this list of foreign language study books in our collection, we have divided them by the system/publisher and the languages they offer.

Behind the Wheel

You can find more information about each of these titles through our online catalog by typing the book number and searching or from the search results we've made available for the Behind the Wheel language program.

  • Arabic: DB106816 Level 1
  • French: DB104580 Level 1; DB104581 Level 2
  • French Braille Supplementary Material: BR23830 Level 1
  • German: DB104582 Level 1; DB104583 Level 2
  • German Braille Supplementary Material: BR23832 Level 1; BR23833 Level 2
  • Italian: DB107092 Level 1; DB107093 Level 2
  • Spanish: DB98320 Level 1; DB98321 Level 2; DB98322 Level 3
  • Spanish Braille Supplementary Material: BR23827 Level 1; BR23828 Level 2; BR23829 Level 3

Pimsleur Language Program

Many languages are available from Pimsleur. We have gathered a list of popular foreign languages and a couple other languages. For a full list, use our online catalog search results we've made available for the Pimsleur Language Program books. If you want to find out more about the books listed below, use the online catalog and search for the book number typing in the number as written here.

  • DBF04932 Cantonese 
  • DBF04976 French 
  • DBF05003 German 
  • DBF04951 Hebrew 
  • DBF04920 Japanese 
  • DB124817 Polish Level 1
  • DBF05001 Russian 
  • DB 104584 Spanish Level 1
  • DB121173 Tagalog 

Drive Time by Living Language

Living Language publisher offers popular languages to learn in their Drive Time series. For more information about the books, you can visit the online catalog and search for the book number or use our catalog search results we've made available.

  • DB087039 French beginner
  • DB087040 Italian beginner
  • DB087041 German beginner
  • DB087042 Japanese beginner
  • DB087043 Spanish beginner
  • DB083399 eTicket Spanish phrasebook

Language Study Books

This list of books focuses on different topics about languages and language learning.

DB086500 Languages: a very short introduction by Stephen R. Anderson 
Linguistics professor uses biological species analogy to illustrate difficulty of identifying and counting languages. Examines loss from declining diversity, endangered languages, the difference between language and dialect, linguistic change as an inevitable aspect of history, the criterion of mutual intelligibility, universal characteristics, and signed languages. 2012.

DB086400 Linguistics: a very short introduction by P. H. Matthews 
The origins of language, how and why languages change, the relationship between speaking and thinking, the development of rules for grammar and syntax, the mechanics of speech, and the brain's role in processing language. 2003.

DB130478 Proto: how one ancient language went global by Laura Spinney 
"Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history's most unlikely journeys. All four languages--along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish--trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west. Its last speaker died thousands of years ago, yet Proto-Indo-European lives on in its myriad linguistic offspring and in some of our best loved works of literature, including Dante's Inferno and the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings and the love poetry of Rumi. How did this happen? Acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We retrace the epic journeys of nomads and monks, warriors and kings -- the ancient peoples who carried these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve the lost languages and their speakers: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed that ancient diaspora. What they have learned has profound implications for our modern world, because people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words." -- From publisher.  --  Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

DB126122 Linguaphile: a life of language love by Julie Sedivy 
"A celebration of the beauty and mystery of language and how it shapes our lives, our loves, and our world. If there is one feature that defines the human condition, it is written, spoken, signed, understood, and misunderstood, in all its infinite glory. In this ingenious, lyrical exploration, Julie Sedivy draws on years of experience in the lab and a lifetime of linguistic love to bring the discoveries of linguistics home, to the place language itself within the yearnings of the human heart and amid the complex social bonds that it makes. A Life of Language Love follows the path that language takes through a human life--from an infant's first attempts at sense-making to the vulnerabilities and losses that accompany aging. As Sedivy shows, however, language and life are inextricable, and here she offers them a childish misunderstanding of her mother's meaning reveals the difficulty of relating to other minds; frustration with "professional" communication styles exposes the labyrinth of standards that define success; the first signs of hearing loss lead to a meditation on society's discomfort with physical and mental limitations. Part memoir, part scientific exploration, and part cultural commentary, this book epitomizes the thrills of a life steeped in the aesthetic delights of language and the joys of its scientific scrutiny."-- Goodreads.  --  Some strong language.

DB117753 The origins of life: from the birth of life to the origin of language by John Maynard Smith 
"In this fascinating book, John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary present an original picture of evolution. They propose that during evolution there have been a number of major transitions in the way in which information is passed between generations. These transitions include the appearance of the first replicating molecules, the emergence of co-operative animal societies, and the unique language ability of humans. Containing many new ideas, this book is contemporary biology on the grandest scale, from the birth of life to the origin of language." -- Provided by publisher.

DB120663 Language city: the fight to preserve endangered mother tongues in New York by Ross Perlin 
"From the codirector of the Endangered Language Alliance, a captivating portrait of contemporary New York City through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages, diving into the incredible history of the most linguistically diverse place ever to have existed on the planet. Half of all 7,000 plus human languages may disappear over the next century and because many have never been recorded when they're gone, it will be forever. Ross Perlin, a linguist and co-director of the Manhattan-based non-profit Endangered Language Alliance, is racing against time to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history: contemporary New York. In Language City, Perlin recounts the unique history of immigration that shaped the city, and follows six remarkable yet ordinary speakers of endangered languages deep into their communities to learn how they are maintaining and reviving their languages against overwhelming odds. Perlin also dives deep into their languages, taking us on a fascinating tour of unusual grammars, rare sounds, and powerful cultural histories from all around the world. Seke is spoken by 700 people from five ancestral villages in Nepal, a hundred of whom have lived in a single Brooklyn apartment building. N'ko is a radical new West African writing system now going global in Harlem and the Bronx. After centuries of colonization and displacement, Lenape, the city's original Indigenous language and the source of the name Manhattan ("the place where we get bows"), has just one fluent native speaker, bolstered by a small band of revivalists. Also profiled in the book are speakers of the Indigenous Mexican language Nahuatl, the Central Asian minority language Wakhi, and the former lingua franca of the Lower East Side, Yiddish. A century after the anti-immigration Johnson-Reed Act closed America's doors for decades and on the 400th anniversary of New York's colonial founding, Perlin raises the alarm about growing political threats and the onslaught of "killer languages" like English and Spanish. Both remarkable social history and testament to the importance of linguistic diversity, Language City is a joyful and illuminating exploration of a city and the world that made it"-- Provided by publisher.  --  Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

DB094042 Babel: around the world in twenty languages by Gaston Dorren 
Linguist examines the world's most commonly spoken languages. Discusses their origins, the ways they grew, and their quirks, and debunks myths about them. Includes information about Vietnamese, Korean, Tamil, Turkish, Javanese, Persian, Punjabi, Japanese, Swahili, German, French, Malay, Russian, Portuguese, Bengali, Arabic, Hindi-Urdu, Spanish, Mandarin, and English. 2018.

DB082463 The unfolding of language: an evolutionary tour of mankind's greatest invention by Guy Deutscher 
Linguist Guy Deutscher examines the genesis, evolution, and decay of language throughout mankind's history. Deutscher argues that destruction and creation are irrevocably entwined in language, demonstrating how these processes unceasingly operate to generate new words, structures, and meanings. 2005

DB060014 Language in danger: the loss of linguistic diversity and the threat to our future by Andrew Dalby 
Linguistic historian addresses the rapid disappearance of the world's native tongues as national languages, including English, are increasingly adopted by minority peoples. Drawing on historical examples, Dalby laments these vernacular losses and stresses the need for a "multiplicity of languages" to preserve the knowledge and cultural traditions embodied within them. 2003.

DB053683 The Science Times book of language and linguistics by Nicholas Wade 
Thirty-six articles from the science section of the New York Times on the origins and acquisition of language. Topics covered include the tree of language, language in other species, language and the brain, and language and society. 2000.

DB122342 The language puzzle: how we talked our way out of the Stone Age by Steven J. Mithen 
"The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. The Language Puzzle explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Steven Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved; he explains how it transformed the nature of thought and culture, and how we talked our way out of the Stone Age into the world of farming and swiftly into today's Digital Age. While this radical new work is not shy to reject outdated ideas about language, it builds bridges between disciplines to forge a new synthesis for the evolution of language that will find widespread acceptance as a new standard account for how humanity began"--Publisher's description.  --  Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

References

National Day Calendar. (n.d.). Learn a Foreign Language Month. Retrieved November 24, 2025, from https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/december/learn-a-foreign-language-month-december

University of the Potomac Marketing. (2025, April 4.). 9 benefits of learning a second language. University of the Potomac. https://potomac.edu/benefits-of-learning-a-second-language/