Existe esto?
September 21, 2011 10:18 AM   Subscribe

Does this app exist? I want a utility for my Android that will provide on-the-fly translations for selected sections of a body of text I am reading, without requiring me to leave the text or manually type in the section I need translated.

So I've taken a few years of Spanish and am looking to cement my understanding of the language by reading some Spanish literature in its original form. Short of fully immersing myself in a Spanish-speaking culture, or taking more classes, this seems to me like an amenable path to improving my fluency. (After all, it worked great for me when I was learning English!)

The plan is to download a few free ebooks of classic Spanish fiction to my Android (or to find them online) and read bit by bit in my spare time, as I am wont to do in general. I like the idea of having something both educational and enjoyable to do wherever I am, and I figured that if I got stuck on a phrase or encountered an unknown bit of vocabulary (as is likely to happen quite often at first) I could just look it up on the ol' Internet aand use that to help me figure things out.

However, the last part of the plan would go *so* much more smoothly if I could get my translations on-the-fly, so to speak. What I wish I could do when I come on an unknown fragment is simply highlight it, hit "show translation", and have it transform into an autotranslated equivalent until I unhighlight that fragment again. Having to go to a different webpage or app and then type things in manually is a bit of a PITA.

Does anybody know an app for Android that provides something akin to this functionality? It would be sweet if it were some kind of browser or OS plugin but if it's part of a dedicated reader then that's good enough. II would be elated to find that this program exists.

Bonus question: Does anybody know of any Spanish-language fiction, written for adults, that is likely to be public domain or otherwise freely-accessible, and which is written in relatively simple prose such that it would be easier for someone with a shaky grasp of the language to grok it?
posted by Scientist to Writing & Language (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
How about Google Goggles?
posted by smitt at 10:30 AM on September 21, 2011


Response by poster: That is super cool and I definitely need it in my life but it seems to only work for Real Life. I want Google Goggles for the Internet, which sounds like a step backwards but is more a step, I dunno, sideways? It would work great if I decide to read paper books though.
posted by Scientist at 10:57 AM on September 21, 2011


google chrome translates on the fly...
posted by fozzie33 at 11:05 AM on September 21, 2011


Have a look at this.
posted by Lynsey at 11:10 AM on September 21, 2011


I use fbreader, which integrates with Fora dictionary. You can select a word, then press a button to look it up.

Disadvantages: doesn't do morphology very well
doesn't do phrases (maybe it does in Spanish?)
Advantages: hella convenient
You can select from various online dictionaries and thesauri
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 12:46 PM on September 21, 2011


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