El Hobbit (español)

"Smaug parecía profundamente dormido cuando Bilbo espió una vez más desde la entrada. ¡Per fingía! ¡Estaba vigilando la entrada del túnel!... Sacado de su cómodo agujero-hobbit por Gandalf y una banda de enanos, Bilbo se encuentra de pronto en medio de una conspiración que pretende apoderarse del tesoro de Smaug el Magnífico, un enorme y muy peligroso dragón..."

Title: El Hobbit

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Language: Spanish (Iberian)

Pages: 310

1^st reading progress: Completed!  
2^nd reading progress: ...Pending...

3^rd reading progress: ...Pending...

 [Why 3 times?]

Drácula (español)

Coming soon

The Method

My Method

The strategy I'm currently using for Vocabulary acquisition in Spanish is through reading a selected text with at least 3 or 4 passes.

Pass 1: Read through the text without writing down unknown words. I allow myself the use of the google-translate app when a word is just begging to be translated. Reading out-loud is encouraged.

Pass 2: Read through for the sake of writing down unknown words. Once the words are compiled, meanings are sought, studied, and hopefully memorized.

Pass 3: The text is read again with the new vocabulary (hopefully) fresh in the mind, and with the vocab list handy, in case anything is forgotten. Reading out-loud is encouraged.

Pass 4: The text is read a fourth time 3 or 4 weeks after having finished the third pass. The delay is for the sake of transferring words from short-term to long-term memory. Ideally, I won't have to refer to the Vocab list by this point.

Recommended Practice

Pass 1: Download, print, and study my provided vocab list(s). Study the the words one chapter at a time. Actually read the book chapter by chapter in between memorizing words. Start with "Cajas de Cartón" if you haven't read Spanish books before.

Pass 2: Read the text, again, with the vocab list handy.

Pass 3: Same as Pass 2, except you might not need the list.

Enjoy your expanded library, and thanks for reading!
¡Buenas Suerte!

Vocab Extraction Method: Batch Processing

As you read books and articles in your target language, write down unknown words from the text. Later, type up the list of unknown words in Excel. You can copy/paste hundreds of entries from excel into google.translate, and back to the excel list, with only a few clicks. The only downside being google.translate doesn't know everything, and so you have to comb the translation list for typo's, translation errors, or ambiguous translations.

When google fails to give me a good translation, Spanishdict.com is a wonderful resource.                                                   



    

Cajas de Cartón

Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez) 600 words.

"Al igual que la obra clásica de John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath, los relatos de Jiménez combinan un crudo realismo social con un estremecedor drama personal." -Hazel Rochman, Booklist









Title: Cajas de Cartón
Author: Francisco Jiménez
Language: Spanish (Mexican)
Pages: 125
1^st reading progress: Completed!
2^nd reading progress: Completed!

3^rd reading progress: Completed!
[Why 3 times?]



Phrases of interest:
"¡Vuelve la burra al trigo!" ::Meaning::
Phrase of Mexican origin expressing frustration at having to revisit a conversational topic that had already been closed.

"Dar a luz."
Literally means "to give light", but is understood to mean giving birth.

Download 600 word vocab list

Read the sequel, "Senderos Fronterizos".














See also:
Metro 2033 (Glukhovksy)
Peter Pan y Wendy (Barrie, Ingpen)

Need to track the Foreign Language Vocabulary that you know you know? Want to know what you don't know? Don't know what you don't know?
Check out the Vocab Tracker.

Peter Pan y Wendy

"Todos los niños, menos uno, crecen. Muy pronto saben que crecerán, y Wendy no fue una exepción. Un día, cuando contaba con dos años de edad y jugaba en el jardín, arranco otra flor y corrió con ella hacia su madre. Supongo que debía de estar encantadora, porque la señora Darling se llevó la mano al pecho y exclamó: "¡Ojala pudieras quedarte así para siempre!". Esto es todo lo que ocurrió entre ellas acerca del tema, aunque desde entonces Wendy supo que tenía que crecer. Siempre lo sabes después de cumplir dos años. Dos es el principio del fin."







Title: Peter Pan y Wendy
Author: Barrie, Ingpen
Language: Iberian Spanish Pages: 216
1^st reading progress: Complete
2^nd reading progress: N/A  
3^rd reading progress: N/A
[Why 3 times?]

[Download 649 word Vocab List]

See also: Metro 2033 (Glukhovksy)
"Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez)

Need to track the Foreign Language Vocabulary that you know you know?
Check out the Vocab Tracker.

Metro 2033 (Español)

"Año 2033. Tras una guerra nuclear devastadora, amplias zonas del mundo han quedado sepultadas bajo escombros y cenizas debido a la radiación. También Moscú se ha transformado en una ciudad fantasma. Los supervivientes se han refugiado bajo tierra, en la red de metro. En cada una de las estaciones, convertidas en pequeñas ciudades Estado, sus habitantes se agrupan en torno a las más diversas ideologías, religiones o movidos por único objetivo: impedir una invasión de las criaturas mutantes del exterior."

Title: Metro 2033
Author: Dmitry Glukhovsky
Language: Iberian Spanish (Get used to Vosotros)
Pages: 541
1^st reading progress: Completed!
2^nd reading progress: 6/20
3^rd reading progress: N/A
[Why 3 times?] 

Favorite words (so far):
Lanzallamas (flamethrower),
Lanzagranada (grenadelauncher),
Aniquilar (annihilate).

Mushrooms/fungus has 3 different words used for it in "Metro:"
Fongo, hongo, champiñones
Favorite dialogue:
Hermano Ioann: "¡Durante los mil años  del reino de Jesús, los creyentes transformarán la Tierra en paraíso, y Dios resucitará a millones de muertos!"
[...]
Artyom: "¿Y qué les dice Jehová a los mutantes sin cabeza?"

Download 800 word Vocab list

See also:
Peter Pan y Wendy (Barrie, Ingpen)
"Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez)

Need to track the Foreign Language Vocabulary that you know you know?
Check out the Vocab Tracker.

Spanish Reading Vocab

Excel vocabulary lists:

Metro 2033 (Glukhovksy) 800 words. (In progress)
Peter Pan y Wendy (Barrie, Ingpen) 649 words. (First pass Completed)
"Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez) 600 words. (Completed)

Recommended Practice:

Download the above referenced Vocabulary lists, but don't just read them.
Study the them prior to, and in conjunction with, reading the selected books. Vocabulary is separated by chapter, so relevant words can be reviewed within minutes of reading them in context.

As I developed this method, I've experimented with different word layouts within Excel to optimize printing, and also the copying of information. As my Excel experience is limited and largely self-taught, this is an ongoing work-in-progress. Recommendations for streamlining are appreciated.

"Cajas" and "Peter Pan" are divided into sheets by chapter.
For Metro, check the "Printable" sheet.

Excel vocabulary lists:

Metro 2033 (Glukhovksy) (In progress)
Peter Pan y Wendy (Barrie, Ingpen) (In progress)
"Cajas de Cartón (Jiménez) 600 words. (Completed)

Vocabulary Tracker

"...as we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."
-Donald Rumsfeld


At 500 words, you're in the silent period, also known as pre-production.
At 1,000 words, you're in the language production phase.
With a vocabulary of 3,000 words, you are speech emergent.
At 6,000 words, you can construct more complicated sentences: Intermediate Fluency.
Advanced Fluency arises around 10,000 words.
[Wiki: Fluency levels]


Do you know what level your vocabulary is at?

Download OxEnglish to Foreign Language vocabulary counter.