Holiday Gift Guide for the Language Learner
The holiday season is upon us!
Have you finished your holiday shopping already? I sure haven’t, but I’m getting pretty close. Finding the perfect gift is (almost) never easy! Especially for someone with particular tastes or interests.
If you have a few language learners or lovers who you still need to shop for (and it’s totally cool if that includes gifts for yourself), here are a few items that I absolutely love and they may or may not be on my holiday wish list too.
Language Learning Gifts Under $10
A Notebook // You can’t go wrong with a simple, travel-sized notebook so that you can document either your language notes or travel experiences. These particular notebooks from TOPS are my favorite and I bring them with me everywhere.
Lonely Planet Phrasebook // The Lonely Planet phrasebooks are one of my favorite phrasebooks – I have them for nearly every language that I speak (and even some that I don’t). They’re the perfect size and a great gift for someone interested in travel or language learning.
Culture Smart // These are one of the first things that I buy whenever I travel to a new country or take on a new language and I love the bite-sized introduction they give to the cultures of different countries.
Assimil Phrasebooks // Based on conversation topics, Assimil offers a great series of phrasebooks. There are a few items available for English speakers, but if you have a friend who speaks French, there are an impressive number of phrasebooks available.
My 10 Best Language Tips // My book on Amazon with my ten best language learning tips.
Tuttle Instant Series // These are another of my favorite phrasebooks, but they’re only available for Asian languages.
Library Book Cards // These are fun cards to give you language learning friends so that they can use them to either take notes, or to create their own library system for when they loan out their language learning resources. Or just for a bit of nostalgia.
Flashsticks // These fun sticky note flashcards are a great gift to give your friends to help inspire them to learn a language.
Language Learning Gifts Under $25
iTalki Credits // Nothing says “you’re the best” to your language learning friend more than the gift of language lessons. Get your friend a gift card from iTalki and you’ll have a very happy friend this holiday season.
A One-Month Basic Subscription to FluentU // FluentU is one of my favorite online language learning resources because it uses native language content to teach languages. I’ve learned so many useful expressions and words studying with FluentU.
An Amazon Gift Card // Let your friend choose what they want by buying them an Amazon gift card this holiday season. Amazon has some of the best prices and product choice for both your language learning and traveler friends.
Language Learning Gifts Under $50
Pimsleur Conversational // If your friend is always on the go, what better gift is there to get them than a language learning resource that they can easily take with them? Pimsleur is one of my favorite audio language learning tools and you can get your friend started with the Conversational series.
Foreign Language Blocks // Because we’re all still kids at heart. These alphabet blocks come in French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese (even though Chinese doesn’t use an alphabet).
Language Learning Gifts Under $100
Language Learning Accelerator // My course and ebook on how to get better at time management when learning a language even if you’re crazy busy.
Assimil Coursebook // Assimil is my favorite course book because of the audio and written material available. Once again, the majority of their products are available to French speakers, but there are quite a few books for English speakers as well.
Conversation Countdown // Benny Lewis has a great course out that helps you get started with a language as a part of a week-long challenge.
Kindle Fire Tablet // I bring my Kindle with me everywhere. It’s an incredibly affordable tablet and I can store all the things that I need on it to carry with me wherever I go.
$100 + Language Learning Gifts
Glossika // Glossika is a fantastic language learning tool that aids both reading and comprehension. They’re available in a variety of languages including some hard-to-find languages.
Pimsleur // This is one of my favorite audio resources available to language learners and it is published in numerous languages. It’s on the pricier side, but it has been worth the investment for me.
What about you? What’s on your holiday wish list? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
