En Kindle? Et En Francais? Mais Non!

I came across the Christine Thompson Blog this afternoon while mulling over the idea of getting a Kindle purely for a) an easy-to-access detailed French-English dictionary, and b) reading material for our French trip (I think of our summer guest as she ran out of French material to read, and I shudder. I need to read.) The blog is quite good -- well written and interesting.

Here's what she had to say on the subject, speaking of a friend with much the same quest:

Her dream: read French novels, newspapers and magazines on a conveniently portable device like the Kindle. Current releases, not just 19th century public domain books. Because she’s passionate about perfecting her French comprehension and pronunciation skills, she’d love to read while listening to a simultaneous playback via MP3 (or equivalent).

French is not her native language, so she wants to be able to select unfamiliar words on the Kindle, thereby launching a built-in dictionary whose entries explain their meaning. She’d also welcome the option of viewing French-to-English translations of unknown words and slang (a must-have for people whose French is less fluent than hers.)

The conclusion is: the technology and infrastructure are not hardly there at all, at the moment. And no immediate prospect of improvement, either, due to multiple factors.

Well, heck.