Reading in Spanish: is your enjoyment crushed by the weight of the dictionary? | Photo: Tom Walton
If you want to learn Spanish — or any other language — you've got to read, and read a lot. Reading lots will give you a huge amount of exposure to the language, and with that comes more vocabulary, more comprehension, more enjoyment, more confidence and, consequently, better Spanish.
But what if you pick up a book and the vocabulary in it seems overwhelming…?
Here's a couple of examples from a collection of stories Xavi suggested last week, , together with some tips to make reading Spanish easier. We're assuming that you already have an intermediate level of Spanish…
Tip #1: Work out unfamiliar words from context First, here's a passage from "El hombre" in which there are three words which you have maybe never come across before — sabinos, chachalacas and parvadas:
The man found the line of the river by the yellow color of the Sabines. I did not hear. Only he saw him squirm under the shadows. Chachalacas saw coming ...
But you can work out from the context what they probably mean. A logical guess tells us that sabinos are probably a type of tree, lining the river, for example.
Tip #2: Carry on reading regardless You've got no idea what chachalacas are but let's just carry on reading regardless:
... The previous evening had been following the sun, flying in flocks behind the light. Now the sun was out and returning them again.
You don't understand parvadas either — and it seems to be getting worse and worse. But if it's the chachalacas that are "volando" (flying), then "en parvadas" must mean in a flock, and chachalacas must be some sort of bird.
Tip #3: Living with uncertainty Of course, you still don't know exactly what kind of trees and birds sabinos and chachalacas are. But if we tell you that chachalacas are one of the groups of cracid birds, of genus Ortalis, you probably wouldn't be any the wiser, would you?
In reading in your own language, you'd probably put up with a certain amount of uncertainty — and you've got to accept that in a foreign language. Let's just live with "some kind of tree", "some kind of bird" and get on with reading (and enjoying) the story.
Tip #4: Resort to Google You could also resort to Google if you are really curious, at least if we're talking nouns, like chachalacas, and .
Tip #5: Don't resort to the dictionary You could also turn to a Spanish dictionary (possibly an ) — but we suggest that you don't. Dropping the book and ploughing through a dictionary is a sure-fired way to spoil the story, so try to work it out from context first.
In the story "Luvina" night is falling in the village, with two men sitting drinking beer:
Termites came and bounced off the oil lamp, falling to the ground with singed wings. And he kept coming out at night.
If alas chamuscadas means burnt wings then the comejenes must be some kind of insects, probably moths of some kind.
Let's suppose that's correct, and carry on reading:
But take your beer. I see you have not given even a taste. Take it. Or maybe you do not like and warm as is. And here there is no choice. I know that she knows evil; grasping taste like donkey piss.
(Yes, that does mean mule piss, if you'll excuse the expression…)
One of the two men is to travel on to the village of Luvina:
Here one gets used. A faith that beyond even this is achieved. When you go to Luvina he missed. There you can not prove but a mezcal they do with a herb called hojasé, and the first drinks will you be giving somersaults as if chacamotearan. Better take your beer. I know what I say.
Now you could guess that is an alcoholic drink from context. If you had read the previous stories in the collection you'd have come across the word several times. If you'd still not guessed what it means from context, then that's the sort of word you want to look up in your dictionary (or wikipedia) — the ones that you keep seeing that you are still not sure of.
Hojasé must be one of the ingredients and let's not look that one up, as doing so isn't going to aid our understanding of the story, or our enjoyment. Tip #6: Not words, phrases Los primeros tragos means the first few sips and then let's guess that the phrase "estará usted dando de volteretas como si lo chacamotearan" implies that it's a pretty heady variety of mezcal — and let's not bother with the exact meaning of volteretas or chacamotearan.
Concentrating too closely on the individual words, not the phrases, is a mistake. Guess what the phrase means…
Tip #7: Be like Grissom Reading in a foreign language is a bit like playing at detectives: you've got clues, and a few red herrings, and basically you're trying to piece together understanding from what you know and what you can make guesses at.
You watch CSI? Reading is a bit like being : it looks like he knows, but really he's only making smart guesses based on the evidence in front of him…
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