However, I don't understand why you chose don quixote. That's not modern, normal, everyday prose, it was written 400 years ago.. any spanish kid would have trouble understanding it.
Any other modern (less than 100 years) and famous novel would be much adequate for learning spanish.
I'm so glad to see there are other folks interested in teaching Spanish through input. Would you have any interest in exchanging info to talk about what we are each doing? I bet we could both learn from each other! My email is in my profile, in case you're down :)
Anyway, congrats on the launch, and the best of luck to you!
I took a one month Spanish class in Mexico a few years ago. It was amazing for giving me a solid base, and your tool would be perfect for getting regular practice in and learning new things.
Definitely agree with the other comments that a more modern book would be better. For me, probably a children's book haha. I can't imagine how much time it takes to translate though!
Idea:
- Create a list of a few books you could translate.
- Allow users to donate and select the book it would go towards.
- When donations reach the threshold, they're charged and you write it.
Like Kickstarter for book translations haha. Or maybe Patreon or something has that feature.
I hope you keep at it!
I imagine another way to do it would be to go more slowly. Start in all English and then transition to the target language so that the reader never has to press anything or re-read parts, so that by the end of the book it is all in the target language.
This should be the new killer app for e-readers. That tech is generally closed with too low powered processors due to power requirements for it to be implemented in any current generation. But it is just right for this kind of reading/learning.
Are you doing the translation?
I like that it starts with english, so that I have to try to guess what the Spanish is first. I missed the 'de' in 'de cuyo nombre' and now I don't think I'll easily forget.
Do you have any numbers or stats on its impact on language learning? Is it more or less effective than just learning a vocab list? What base level should one have before using it? etc...?
If you guys liked this, then there are similar solutions posted for the problem 'Teach me vocabulary without spending extra time'[1] on my problem validation platform.
As the problem title implies, it's about integrating language learning as part of our regular reading efforts. OP, You're welcomed to share your work there as well.
[1] https://needgap.com/problems/169-teach-me-vocabulary-without...
“un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero”, is a great example of why this is the case.
I also agree with the rest of the comments here, the original Don Quixote is not a good book for learning Spanish, see here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote#Style
A modern children's adaptation of the story may be a good choice for learning if OP wants to use the same story.
I've always wished that Kindle had this. One can buy a Kindle translation (and some popular books have communities around translations: https://tinwhiskers.net/post/harry_potter_spanish, https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/9229774/Harry-Potter-in-S...) as well as a translating dictionary, but one must find a book that's very close to the reader's level or reading will be impossibly slow (highlight word, click to translate, repeat). Your contextual translations and next/play button are way faster.
