Read • Learn • Meet | Leer • Aprender • Encontrarse

World Languages Collection at Rockville Memorial
World Languages at Rockville Memorial
We think of the Library as a place for books and magazines. Perhaps for movies, and sometimes for newspapers. As time passes, more and more MCPL users think of us as a source for downloadable e-books, streaming audiobooks, and free music downloads.

Do you think of the Library as exclusively providing English-language materials? Allow us to introduce you to our World Language collection and language resources!

MCPL has an extensive World Languages collections for both adults and children in Amharic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. If you speak or read one of these languages, our website can direct you to the nearest branch with collections in your language. TumbleBooks also provides children's e-books in Spanish and French.
Children's Amharic Collection
Silver Spring Library

Looking for programming in a language other than English? Join one of our language-specific book clubs to discuss your latest reads with others from your community. Clubs are available for Chinese, French, and Spanish. For children, we offer a variety of bilingual storytimes, as well as Spanish storytimes.

Maybe you can read English—you are reading this blog post—but you would like a chance to practice English in a relaxed setting. Several of our libraries offer conversation clubs, with no registration required. If you are looking for more formal instruction in English, we have information about local English Classes.

We were excited that our conversation clubs were recently featured in a video from My MC Media. Check it out to hear what participants have to say about this experience. My MC Media also has a second story about our language resources on their website.



Learning another language? We can help you with that as well! English speakers can learn more than 44 languages with Mango Languages. Mango also provides English-learning courses for speakers of over 13 other languages. For children learning a new language, Muzzy Online provides interactive language learning, with animation and games, for 8 languages. We also have Spanish Conversation Clubs at multiple locations. Like the English Conversation Clubs, these are drop-in meetings to practice conversing with volunteers and other learners.

Of course, not all users are concerned about finding spoken-language resources. Readers who do not read print books, may be interested in information about talking books, available from MCPL and other sources. We also have some braille books, primarily for children, available. Users of ASL will want to investigate our collections and programs for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. MCPL offers occasional sign language classes, registration required, as do other local organizations. Our website offers more resources for learning sign language.

Whatever your language proficiency or goals, MCPL is here to support you—check out what we have to offer



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