Katherine Kostiuk Last updated: How to Learn Faster with the Best Foreign Language Audiobooks
Want to level up your language skills?
Give your headphones and speakers the workout of their life with foreign language audiobooks!
Contents
- 5 Study Tips to Make Audiobooks Work for You
- 5 Audiobook Resources for Learners
- Beginner Level: Audio Language Courses
- Intermediate Level: Children’s Books
- Advanced Level: Novels and Non-Fiction for Young Adults and Adults
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
5 Study Tips to Make Audiobooks Work for You
First, a few general tips to give you a great head start.
1. Take notes. If you hear new words you want to remember, write them down. This will help you retain information and make it easier to reference in the future. It’s much easier to find a word in a notebook or computer document than it is to search through an entire audiobook to find the place you heard it!
2. Get a hard copy. Choose an audio language course with an accompanying hardcopy book, or try to find a hardcopy of the children’s or adult book you are listening to. Even though you shouldn’t get into the habit of reading along every time you listen, having the hardcopy material available is helpful when you come across new words and phrases that you just can’t catch.
3. Listen first. Written material can help you learn and retain information, but it can also be a crutch. One of the advantages of an audiobook is that it forces you to learn by listening, a skill you need in order to communicate that a lot of people underestimate. Use your notes, a hardcopy book and a dictionary as you learn, but try to listen to an entire section or chapter before you start to rely on written material.
4. Repeat again and again. The more you listen, the more you’ll learn. Most audio language courses are designed to repeat material for this reason. If you’re listening to a children’s or adult audiobook entirely in the foreign language you’re studying, you will need to repeat sections for yourself. Listen several times so that you grow comfortable with what you’re hearing.
5. Practice in real life. If you’re taking a class or meeting with a conversation partner, bring along your list of new vocabulary words, and practice using them with a native speaker. Engage your friends in conversation about the audiobooks you’re listening to, and learn more about what they think. When you practice words in different contexts, you help yourself remember them better.
5 Audiobook Resources for Learners
Let’s take a look at five bountiful language audiobook resources that will take you closer to sounding like a native speaker.
Amazon Audible
The company that brought you Kindle keeps the reading flame burning with Audible audiobook service.
Audiobook languages:
- Spanish
- Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese
Types of available books:
- Literary classics
- Contemporary Fiction
- Non-fiction
Special features:
Audible lets you switch from one device to another without losing your place in the book. Start out listening to a book on your laptop during your afternoon break. Continue listening on your phone right before bed—and don’t forget to take advantage of Audible’s sleep timer!
The next morning, take in a chapter or two via your Echo Dot as your coffee brews in the kitchen. Grab your travel mug full of java and proceed to the car for your morning commute… and continue listening seamlessly on your mobile phone. (You can even repurpose that old Garmin or TomTom GPS device in your car as an Audible device.)
With Whispersync, now available for thousands of books on Amazon, you can switch back and forth between the e-book and audiobook version on the fly. This is particularly handy if you want to keep reading, but you’re in a situation where you can’t listen out loud and can’t use headphones.
To take advantage of Whispersync, you must:
- have a wireless internet connection
- own the e-book (or have a Kindle Unlimited subscription) and
- own the audiobook (or have an Audible subscription).
Average cost and format(s):
Individual books from the Audible service vary widely in price.
Another buying option is an Audible membership, which includes access to a new audiobook each month. You can try a free trial.
Audible books are completely virtual—all you need to access them is a compatible device and a reliable internet connection. Once the books are downloaded, feel free to enjoy them even when you’re out of WiFi range.
LibriVox
LibriVox is a labor of love. A multi-language library of works recorded by volunteers, LibriVox’s mission is the “acoustical liberation of books in the public domain.”
Audiobook languages:
- Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
…plus over 50 more ancient and modern languages, including Ancient Greek, Irish Gaelic, Tamil, Arabic, Yiddish and Ukrainian.
Types of available books:
Books on LibriVox are from the public domain (as defined by the laws of the United States). LibriVox boasts all kinds of genres, including these:
- Children’s books
- Humor
- Horror
- Crime fiction and detective stories
- Historical fiction
- Plays
- Poetry
- Romance
- Westerns
- Non-fiction
Special features:
LibriVox is interactive. If you don’t see a certain favorite work, feel free to add it to the “wish list” in the Book Suggestions forum.
If you need to report an error in a file, you can do so in this section of the forum. You can even participate by recording works for the LibriVox library or doing “proof-listening” for newly recorded works.
You can easily browse the LibriVox library by language, genre, author or title.
Average cost and format(s):
As the name suggests, all books on LibriVox are free.
It’s easy to listen online using your browser—just click on the “play” arrow next to a selected book chapter to start.
You can download entire books as MP3 Zip files or Torrent files.
There’s a free LibriVox iOS app for your iPhone or iPad and a similar, low-cost app for Android devices.
Spotify
Spotify hosts millions of songs in hundreds of languages. But it can do more than just get your toes tapping!
Spotify offers a host of foreign-language audiobooks that are a boon to language learning.
Audiobook languages:
- Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Spanish
Types of available books:
- Children’s books
- Fiction, including classics like “Moby Dick” and “Treasure Island” (translated into various languages)
For some languages, such as Japanese and Portuguese, audiobooks currently appear to be limited to language-learning texts. For other languages, like Arabic, Chinese, Italian and Spanish, Spotify offers language-learning texts plus a few children’s bilingual books.
Spotify’s French and German audiobook selections seem the most varied, although other language audiobook collections will likely grow over time.
Special features:
Enjoy the communal efforts of other Spotify users who have worked to compile playlists filled with language-learning material. Spotify’s Search feature finds public playlists created by Spotify and its users, such as these, that will aid you in your linguistic quests:
French
- “Livres Audio” (French audiobooks), including“Le petit prince” (“The Little Prince”) “L’Étranger” (“The Stranger”) and other classics
German
- “German Audio Books,” including translations of “Moby Dick,” “Peter Pan” and “Treasure Island”
Spanish
- “Audiobooks in Spanish,” a collection of works by Rubén Darío
You can also search for specific authors or book names, although the most relevant results will appear if you combine both in your search.
Average cost and format(s):
Spotify can be enjoyed with a free membership; if you’d like additional features and benefits, like advertisement-free play, the ability to skip over multiple songs and offline listening, you can upgrade to Premium.
Listen to audiobooks on Spotify in any of the following ways:
- Web player (which runs through your browser)
- Spotify’s desktop app
- Android app
- iOS app
Audiobooks.com
A dedicated audiobook listening service, Audiobooks.com gives its listeners an extensive library of popular books in multiple languages, in addition to language instruction as well as other fiction and non-fiction books.
Audiobook languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Polish
- Russian
- Spanish
To find fiction or non-fiction books beyond language instruction texts, try searching for the language’s native name, such as “polski” for Polish, to get more relevant results.
Types of available books:
- Adult fiction, both classic and contemporary
- Collections of quotations from philosophers such as Thoreau, Plato, Confucius and Kierkegaard
- History (non-fiction)
- Treatises on disciplines like architecture and design
- Biographies
Special features:
Using patent-pending technology, Audiobooks.com lets you move your listening from smartphone to laptop to tablet, without losing your place in the book.
Audiobooks.com members can download books to the library on their own devices, making them available for offline listening—perfect for times spent in “airplane mode” or in places with spotty network coverage.
Average cost and format(s):
An Audiobooks.com is a monthly membership fee. One audiobook a month, which you can choose to stream or download, is included with your membership; if you’d like more, you can purchase them with existing credits or through a feature called “InstaCredit.” Membership affords you discounts on other purchases from the site.
You can listen to your Audiobooks.com selections on your iPad or iPhone, or using your Android device. Audiobooks.com also offers web-based listening on your laptop or tablet.
Hoopla
Your public library card can be your passport to a world of online language audiobooks through Hoopla Digital.
Audiobook languages:
- English
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
Types of available books:
- General Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Self-help
- Science fiction and fantasy
Special features:
Hoopla provides ad-free content and no membership fees. Your borrowed items will be automatically “returned” to the virtual library after 21 days.
Hoopla offers other digital media, including music, comics and e-books.
Spanish is probably the highest-profile language on Hoopla (besides English); check out the following extensive collections of Spanish-language resources:
- Spanish fiction & non-fiction
- Spanish children’s books
- “Mi Nombre es Sara G.” (“My Name Is Sara G.” — easy stories to practice your intermediate-level Spanish)
Average cost and format(s):
As it’s a program supported by local public libraries, borrowing from Hoopla is free. All you need to join is your library card number, along with a PIN.
Hoopla’s media library can be enjoyed on a wide array of devices, including:
Beginner Level: Audio Language Courses
The best type of audiobook for a beginner is an audio language course. They’re typically tailored for beginners and travelers who need to learn phrases quickly so that they can communicate on a trip. You’ll find that an audio course teaches you useful everyday words and phrases in a pleasant, enjoyable format while giving you lots of practice listening to native speakers.
You’re probably familiar with audio language courses since these are the most common and accessible foreign language books available. You’ve probably even impulse-bought an audio phrasebook of some kind before!
How to choose the best audio language course:
- Check out your favorite library, bookstore or website. It’s easy to find audio language courses for most of the commonly studied foreign languages. Look for titles like “Spanish for Dummies,” Pimsleur, Collins or Earworms.
- Take advantage of textbook CDs or audio files. Many textbooks offer access to online audio files for practice listening. Investigate this option if you’re already using a textbook to study.
- Ask your friends for recommendations. If you know someone who has studied a foreign language (even if it’s not the one you’re studying), ask which audio language course they liked best.
Once you’ve got your audio language course, turn it on and start learning! But before that, here are some more little tips to ease the process.
Make it work for you:
- Supplement with grammar materials. The everyday words you’ll learn with an audio course will help you ask simple questions and understand the answers. But most audio courses focus on stand-alone phrases and don’t provide detailed grammar instruction. If you find yourself wanting to say not just, “I’m going to the museum,” but, “Yesterday I went to the museum,” you may have to look further than your audio course. Build on the phrases in your audiobook by supplementing with a grammar book or website that explains grammar rules.
- Don’t be afraid to skip ahead. If you discover that the material most important to you is in one of the later “chapters” of an audio course, skip right to it! Although most audio language courses build on the material taught in previous chapters, there’s no reason why you need to wait if what you want to learn most is 45 minutes into the audio course. Go ahead and listen to what you’re drawn to!
- Make an audio course part of your larger language-learning routine—not the entire routine. Most of us retain information best when we get it from a variety of different inputs. Look up new words in a dictionary, use a textbook for additional learning, watch videos online and talk with a conversation partner for a complete picture of how the language is used in different contexts. Find programs that incorporate listening as well as other skills at the same time such as FluentU.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
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Intermediate Level: Children’s Books
Intermediate-level language learners are ready to move beyond the basics and will probably enjoy the challenge of authentic audio materials—the type of audiobooks native speakers might use themselves.
An adult audiobook in a foreign language can be daunting even to the most confident language student, so it’s best to start with children’s books. You’ll find that they are approachable, fun and remarkably useful for learning.
To choose the best children’s book for you, follow these suggestions:
- Have fun! Children’s books are meant to be fun. Luckily, most are designed to be engaging, educational, and interesting, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a good one.
- Ask native speakers which books they like best. What do native speakers read to their children? What books do they remember from childhood? Choosing books that are beloved by native speakers is a good way to ensure you don’t pick a “dud” and may mean that you’ll find an audience interested in discussing it with you.
- Avoid archaic language. Some of the best children’s stories are folktales, poems and stories passed down for centuries. While these provide wonderful opportunities for cultural learning, it’s best to avoid archaic language when you first start out. Archaic language is likely to be confusing to language learners and will not be as useful if you plan to use phrases you learn to speak with people on an everyday basis (you probably don’t want to tell your friend the equivalent of, “I bequeath you this piece of cake”). Start with more modern stories, and work your way up to stories with more complex language.
Of course, the easiest way to start learning with an audiobook is to simply turn it on and listen. But having a plan and some resources will help you keep on track.
Make it work for you:
- Focus on the story. Don’t worry about looking up every single word. Instead, look up a few keywords and then listen again to see how much more you can understand. It might be overwhelming if you try to look up every word you don’t know.
- Learn like a child. Children’s stories form the basis of language and reading development. Children usually pick up phrases from books and try them out in new settings. This is exactly what you should do.
- Emulate the narrator—but not too much. Children’s book narrators are fantastic storytellers. Emulating the narrator is great practice, but just remember that you don’t want to sound like you’re talking to children every time you speak!
Advanced Level: Novels and Non-Fiction for Young Adults and Adults
When you’ve got the hang of children’s audiobooks, it’s time to start listening to novels and non-fiction.
Give a little thought to what you plan to listen to. It will likely be much longer than a children’s book, so it’s important to select something that will hold your attention.
Here are some things to consider:
- Choose a book native speakers are reading. Look for lists of top-selling books in your target language, and ask native speakers what they like to read. A book that native speakers have appreciated is more likely to be interesting and will offer more opportunities for discussion with native speakers than an obscure book will.
- Consider starting with a book you’ve read in your native language. You’ll already be familiar with the characters and plot, so you may be able to follow along easier without looking up as many words. If you’ve read a book in translation that was originally written in your target language, this is an ideal book to start with. Reading the book in the language it was written in will provide you with a new and more complete perspective of the story.
- Take a gander at young adult novels. Young adult novels often have mass appeal and are written in “plainer” language than adult novels. These can be fun to read and a little bit less daunting than starting with an adult audiobook.
- Avoid classics—at least for a while. Classics are enduring stories and have great cultural value, but they can be difficult to understand, even for native speakers. Unless you know that a certain classic novel is written in a language that’s easy to understand, it’s best to start with books written in more colloquial language. After you’re familiar with the audiobook format, then you might start trying to listen to classics.
After you’ve selected the audiobook you’re going to “read,” it’s time to get started!
Make it work for you:
- Get a hard copy in your native language, if possible. Although you shouldn’t rely on the book in your native language, having one to consult may help you feel confident you are following the story correctly and getting all the nuanced information. Just remember not to attempt to translate word-for-word or even sentence-for-sentence because the exact phrasing may be different.
- Move on! Listening repeatedly improves your comprehension and helps you memorize new words, but a full-length book is too long for you to spend too much time on any one section. While you may be able to listen again and again to a children’s book, an adult book is much more about flow and overall comprehension than it is about the specifics of any single section.
- Focus on the big picture. Your goal should be to understand the story and learn a few new words in the process—not to look up every single word you hear. You will hear some of the same words repeated again and again and will begin to form an idea of what these words mean and how they’re used in different contexts. Recognize that it’s okay to “get the gist of it” without understanding all the nuances.
Audiobooks—whether language courses, children’s books or adult books—are a great way to learn and practice your language skills. They’re fun, inspirational and may fill a void in your language-learning routine.
As you begin to listen and become more comfortable with the best foreign language audiobooks, consider trying increasingly difficult ones. You may surprise yourself with your level of comprehension and will learn a lot in the process.
Time to level up!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
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With FluentU, you'll learn real languages—as they're spoken by native speakers. FluentU has a wide variety of videos as you can see here:
FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
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You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU's "learn mode." Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
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Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
