Great. I should add that the solution I mentioned was done on Mint, but it’s a kernel parameter so I’d imagine it’s not too distro-specific (I’m very new to Linux though so I may be wrong).
Here is the forum thread if you want to look for yourself. The actual solution should be the third-to-last reply.
The user added in the last comment that this problem may actually be fixed on a lot of SmartShift laptops, so it may not come up at all if you do get one.
The US Foreign Services Institute releases their learning materials, so if you’re okay with a lack of structure I hear they can be very useful, including both reading and listening.
It can be accessed on several different sites. Here’s one that came up, but you can find a few more with some searching: https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/