What if there are ways to get all these for free without the need to pay a dime?
Visiting bookstores in a foreign country is one activity we love to do. It is a great way to look into what the locals are reading and what their interests are.
A few years ago while visiting Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we visited one of the largest bookstores in Malaysia called Kinokuniya at Suria KLCC. This is where I bought popular classic books for souvenirs even though we could easily purchase them here in the United States.
I don’t know what I was thinking… but for the love of shopping overseas and mingling with the locals and books, I usually end up with a heavy luggage full of books and local cookbooks and magazines. On this particular visit, my daughter wanted an American magazine. I asked, “how much?” She said seven dollars.
Thinking, it was seven Malaysian ringgit (local currency), I said OK. When we were checking out, the magazine turned out to be seven US Dollars, which was about twenty five Malaysian ringgit.
That was not a bargain for me… it was about $4 more for a magazine that we get here in the US… double the price.
So what do you do for all things free or cheap when you are preparing to travel or when you are on the road?
Free Spanish Lessons:
BBC offers 12 weeks free Spanish lessons called Mi Vida Loca (translated: my crazy life) Spanish for beginners. You will be given a BBC certificate upon completion of the post-beginner’s Spanish course after an assessment.
BBC offers French, German and Italian too.
Free Mandarin Lessons from Peace Corps:
Another great website for free language lessons is Peace Corps. Some of the examples are Mandarin, Arabic and Thai.
Free audio books:
Archives.org has an array of audio books, books and periodicals for free. Here is one sample audio book by Orson Welles.
Free eBooks:
Another organization that offers free books is Project Gutenberg. Here is one sample, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
Free Academic and Education Help:
Khan Academy has over 3,000 educational videos from Algebra to Anatomy of Neuron to anything imaginable that are found in school text books. Mr. Khan offers them for free.
Do you have any free quality websites for books, languages and education to share? Leave your comment below.
View Claudia Looi's profile
{ 2 comments }
Hi Claudia,
As usual, you have really usable information. I just bookmarked the BBC Spanish course. It looks really fun — how they use the backdrop of a dramatic story in video to teach the language.
Gracias!
~Josie
I love your free sites! Great information from you Claudia. Thank you!