Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain in Slow Spanish?

Question

I've completed all 4 levels of Pimsleur Spanish (update: I just discovered there are actually 5 Levels -- woohoo!!)

At the moment, I want to develop an enjoyment of reading in Spanish (at this vocab level). I'm a very practice oriented person. I find that when I practice something enough times over and over, I begin to love the activity.

I want to learn to enjoy reading in Spanish without constantly having to stretch my brain or look up a dictionary.

So, I'm looking for 2 kinds of resources:

• Reading resources (e.g. blogs / websites etc.) that are written specifically with a very limited vocabulary set (either only the words covered in Pimsleur, or some other vocabulary set that I can look up before doing the readings).

I know that there's a term for something like this: "Slow Spanish." And there are news websites in "Slow Spanish." But the news is too depressing these days, so I'd prefer non-news sites. Is there some way to read Ernest Hemingway or Mark Twain (or other classic authors) in "Slow Spanish"?

Another good option is those bilingual "parallel text" books. Do they have such books for classic English language authors' short stories? E.g., I'd love to read some Ernest Hemingway short stories in Spanish in that way (I've wanted to read some Hemingway for a long time, and have only ever read a couple of short stories by him).

• Translation resources, i.e. something like Google Translate that translates a page into Spanish but uses only a very limited vocabulary set of Spanish words (so that I can feed in something I already want to read in English, and be able to read the resulting Spanish translation despite my limited Spanish vocab).

(Note: for those of you into French as well, I'm done with Level 1 of Pimsleur French, and would appreciate similar resources for French too.)

I see that you finished 4 levels over 12 months ago , why didn't you continue to level 5 ? - ray76, Dec 15, 2015

I had no idea there was a Level 5! I just discovered (via Winkfish) that there's one and I'm going to see if my Inter Library Loan can get it for me. - corazon_espinado, Dec 15, 2015

Answer 1

Hello, Corazón-Espinado. The song by Santana and Maná by that same name is one of my favorites. Is that why you chose that moniker?

I completed all five of the Pimsleur Spanish levels (did you know there's a level 5?). I cannot speak to non-news Slow Spanish sites, but I do subscribe to "News in Slow Spanish." It's not your normal depressing news, it is definitely the happier stuff, and spoken in a happier way. If you join at the second level, in addition to the audio, you also get access to the text on line, and you can click on the highlighted terms to get a translation, which is great for seeing alternate uses of words and phrases. I really like it.

The site gives you the choice to listen in normal speed, or .8x speed, or even 1.5x speed if you feel brave. I found a way to slow it down even further.

Anyway, I think it is a really good site, so check it out.

That is indeed why I chose that moniker. I too love the song. I didn't know there was a Pimsleur Level 5. I gotta get my hands on it. Thanks for your suggestion. I updated my question a little, do have a look and follow-up if you like. - corazon_espinado, Dec 14, 2015

Corazon, last Christmas, my wife gave me "Old Man and the Sea" in Spanish. It wasn't a parallel translation, but I had the English text. I started out very slowly, having to look up a lot. The English text helped, but sometimes the Spanish was not - Winkfish, Dec 14, 2015

literal, and I wanted to see the translation of the actual Spanish. I really enjoyed doing that. - Winkfish, Dec 14, 2015

Thanks Winkfish for describing your experiences. Definitely makes me want to try out the same. - corazon_espinado, Dec 15, 2015

Answer 2

I'm really interested to know.

1) What level you are after completing all the Pimsleur courses.

2) How long it took you.

Thank you.

I'm done with Level 4. I just discovered (via Winkfish) that there's a Level 5. So I have to get to that. It took me 4 Summers to do 4 levels of Pimsleur Spanish. - corazon_espinado, Dec 15, 2015

I've done all five levels, twice. I've also done a couple of other things, but not whole other courses. I can speak with someone, and if they speak slowly, I can understand most of what they say. I love the Pimsleur course, but the biggest thing with any - Winkfish, Dec 15, 2015

Course, including this one, is that there are so many words or phrases which mean the same thing, so iyou'll hear a lot of words you have learned, but used in a different way, or as part of a phrase. That's why I also like News in Slow Spanish, because - Winkfish, Dec 15, 2015

you hear lots of new ways of using words and phrases. - Winkfish, Dec 15, 2015