new use for my Kindle

I found a new use for my Kindle.

One shortcoming of the Kindle is that it doesn't support Asian fonts. That didn't affect me much as I don't have any books in an Asian language, and can't read any Asian languages anyway.

However, I am trying to learn Chinese. After two and a half years of Saturday lessons, I have three textbooks, each with its own glossary. Whenever I come across a new word or character that looks familiar, I have to look through the three books to see where I've seen that character before, or if I'm confusing it with another character. I don't like using a traditional Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary because my vocabulary is so small and it is discouraging to see so many words that I don't know. I tried making my own personal glossary, adding new vocabulary as I encountered it in the textbooks. However, every week I'd have to add new words and print and bind a whole new booklet. I got seriously behind and gave up trying to update the glossary.

Then Amazon came out with a software update for my Kindle that offers support for .pdf files. Although the Kindle doesn't support Asian fonts in Kindle format, it does support .pdf files with Asian fonts! I can have my personal glossary on the Kindle without printing anything. I can bring just my current textbook and the Kindle to my Chinese lessons, leaving the old textbooks behind. Yippie!