Incoming e-mails, instant messages, SMS, and MMS, are scanned for new language objects such as words, abbreviations, text shortcuts and, in appropriate languages, ideograms, that are placed in a list for use by a text input process of a handheld electronic device to facilitate the generation of text. Systems and methods consistent with the present invention may gather new language objects from sources of text external to the handheld electronic device, and may ignore new language objects that are not considered to be in a current language of the handheld electronic device.