Books that go from English to Spanish?

[AlwaysLost]

I was thinking about it and the thing that has built my vocabulary the fastest has been reading exercises. Based on that I was wondering if there are any books out there that will slowly move from English to Spanish as you read, so after explaining what a word is in Spanish, it then starts using the word every time. For instance the word and is y in Spanish. From that point on every time the book writes and it says y instead, y just keeps going from there. Slowly pero surely el libro would convert into español y at some point el libro would start using estilo español phrasings.

Just an interesting thought. Part of this comes from a book I'm reading where the author said the best way to learn words is within phrases.

Note: I didn't want the post to be too long, so I explained only the y(and). The sentence reads... Slowly but surely the book would convert into Spanish and at some point the book would start using Spanish style phrasings. the style spanish line is an example because in English we would say Spanish style and in Spanish we would say style spanish(and no capital S). Obviously not a Spanish expert, but I would love a book written in that style. I would also want to make the Spanish words italicized or bold, that way the reader would easily recognize that a Spanish word is being said.

Your thoughts? Does this exist?

[Rusty]

I haven't heard or seen any such book, most likely due to the fact that word-for-word translation will seldom work.

I believe it would be better for you to just read books that are in your target language. This introduces you to how words work together in phrases.

By the way, there are several ways to express 'slowly but surely' in Spanish, just as there are several ways to express the same idea in English. When it comes to idiomatic expressions, set phrases and other nuances of spoken language, you'll find that entire phrases will have to be translated in a single go. In fact, a translator often has to get the entire idea in mind before translation can be considered.

We don't learn languages one word at a time. We learn phrases.

[aleCcowaN]

@AlwaysLost

I'm afraid such a book would resemble the code changing typical of bilingual people chatting. For that you need to know both languages.

There's the problem with literal or word by word translations, as Rusty says. Some time ago, in the Buenos Aires Herald, a newspaper in English founded in 1876, there was a comic strip with literal translations. For instance:

-(knock!knock!)
-Between no more! [¡Entre nomás!]
-(the person comes in)
-Drink a sit [Tome asiento]

When I was at school and wouldn't learn a thing of English, we were given a book with short stories from famous authors where the whole vocabulary had been replaced by 1,600 words we the students were supposed to know. Think for instance in Poe's "The Oblong Box" replaced by "The Rectangular Box". I think there's must be similar books with Spanish authors.

[JPablo]

-Tengo un nuevo trabajo de profesor de inglés.
-¿Trabajo estable?
-No, "trabajo" es "work". "Mesa" es "table"...

[Aprendo]

Originally Posted by AlwaysLost

I was thinking about it and the thing that has built my vocabulary the fastest has been reading exercises. Based on that I was wondering if there are any books out there that will slowly move from English to Spanish as you read, so after explaining what a word is in Spanish, it then starts using the word every time. For instance the word and is y in Spanish. From that point on every time the book writes and it says y instead, y just keeps going from there. Slowly pero surely el libro would convert into español y at some point el libro would start using estilo español phrasings.

Just an interesting thought. Part of this comes from a book I'm reading where the author said the best way to learn words is within phrases.

Note: I didn't want the post to be too long, so I explained only the y(and). The sentence reads... Slowly but surely the book would convert into Spanish and at some point the book would start using Spanish style phrasings. the style spanish line is an example because in English we would say Spanish style and in Spanish we would say style spanish(and no capital S). Obviously not a Spanish expert, but I would love a book written in that style. I would also want to make the Spanish words italicized or bold, that way the reader would easily recognize that a Spanish word is being said.

Your thoughts? Does this exist?

I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but there are "parellel texts" meaning books where the same story is on the left side page in Spanish and the page on the right side is a translation in English.

These books are on amazon.