Tempo Bookstore

I love this bookstore! They have many language options like Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Czech, etc. they have many languages that you possibly couldn’t even get at any typical store! I was disappointed that they didn’t have Swedish though. Maybe they will order some. I’m coming back to visit and buy more books!

Washington, DC is lucky to have Tempo Books! They have so many books for English learners and teachers as well as learners and teachers of other languages. And they don’t just have material for the commonly-​taught languages, but a lot of less-​commonly taught foreign languages as well. It’s so great to browse their selection, and the staff is so knowledgeable and helpful.
Seriously, if you like languages, learning languages or teaching languages, you’re probably just using the Unilocal listing to look up the numbers because you already know and love this store! And if you don’t already love it, get over there! Tenleytown isn’t THAT far out of the way, I promise.

How many times have I driven past Tempo and thought «ugh!» It’s easy to be down on the place– its window display (if you can call it that) is faded by the sun. It has a horrible yellow sign that says «Tempo.» It always looks closed. It’s the bookstore that time forgot.
One day, though, we were walking down Wisconsin and I thought it was my opportunity to finally check out the mysterious bookstore. Once inside, friends, you will find all your language needs met. And here’s the best part — it’s not just a romance language bookstore! I found more Hindi language materials in Tempo than I’ve ever found in any bookstore in the US. And the person working in the store told me they’d happily order any other Hindi materials I wanted — amazing! This is a huge plus if you’re learning a language where accessing materials can be challenging, or if you want to actually see the materials before buying them.
All of this to say, I’m no longer down on Tempo. They are my new go-​to place for all things Hindi.

Tempo is an ESL teacher’s goldmine. Not only do they give discounts to pretty much every metro area company or organization that teaches English, they have a serious selection crammed between their walls.
Before going overseas to teach (or just teaching domestically, really), you MUST go here. But be careful, you need a list, as if you were going to the grocery store. If you walk in there with the intentions to pick things up as you go, you’ll get waaaay too much stuff or you’ll spend half the time putting things back. In fact, do some research on popular titles first, because you can be overwhelmed by their selection and end up panic-​buying every book with a shiny cover. Seriously, one of my biggest problems was figuring out a way to cram all the books I bought at Tempo into my carry-​on luggage. I think I even left some books with my host family before I went home (convenience masked in generosity, I’m a baaad man).
Even if you aren’t a teacher and just want to learn a language (one of those independent learner types), go to Tempo and you’ll find plenty of resources for a variety of languages, especially the stock Romance ones they teach in school (Spanish, French).

Great store, super nice staff, good prices. They give me a discount (10 or 15%) on the ESL textbooks since we use ‘em to teach ESL through a local volunteer organization. Prices are comparable to the best ones you’l find online (for new textbooks) and they’ll happily order more for you if they run out.

Language nerd heaven. It’s extraordinarily wallet-​threatening for me to go in here because I’m addicted to language learning books, and they have more than any other store I know of.
(The only possible competitor for that laurel would have been the odd but awesome language bookstore above the News of the World international news place on 18^th and Florida — but sadly, they recently closed that.)
The people who work at Tempo are more than helpful and amazingly friendly. Don’t let anyone tell you that the big box stores and Amazon will destroy all the independent bookstores, because I can contest that Tempo can sometimes pull through where no other stores could. I once tried everything to find a book/​CD set for Amharic, and it was unavailable from Borders, B&N, and Amazon (no, really). I couldn’t even find it on the publisher’s site (Routledge).
It took them a while but Tempo somehow came up with a copy. It wasn’t cheap, but those sets rarely are anyway, and I have no idea how they found it! Connections, I guess.
It’s also the best resource for ESL teachers in DC, that I know of. Huge selection of that sort of thing. Boatloads of high quality Longman’s titles, for instance. I wish I had known about this place when I taught ESL a few years back.
Today I found a copy of a Dr Seuss book in Spanish there. Hawt.

Dedicated to language learning resources, Tempo Bookstore has been a lifesaver for me. As a freelance instructor of Chinese and Japanese, I have found language resources unavailable at larger chain bookstores. You can also order texts from them and the courteous and helpful staff there have been great about contacting you once your order is in!