Lost in Translation?
- Andrea Wylde
- Jun 24, 2022
- 1 min read
I downloaded a book of short stories for people learning Spanish and have been pleasantly surprised at how much I have been able to understand, despite being a mere three months into my Duolingo learning.

Though it's a short story, it's presented in chapters, with a summary and questions at the end of each chapter (in Spanish), plus a glossary, so you can check your understanding. If I had a physical book, I'd be all over that glossary like a rash but it's a bit of a pain on my kindle, so I take the advice from the (English) introduction and take an educated guess at unknown words.
Having read the first chapter and got a feel for the storyline, I translated Chapter 2. Having read the summary and questions, I can say I'd pretty much got it, although how the character came to get the wrong bus had passed me by.
I'm not sure my translation would pass any serious exam, or a non-serious one for that matter, as the little sample of my scribbled notes will demonstrate.


The book is called "Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners" by Olly Richards.
I’ve also been using DuoLingo to learn Spanish, and am at 60 days. Thank you for the information about the book - I’ll keep an eye out for it!