For people with a basic grasp of grammar, vocabulary is the primary issue. When reading a foreign-language newspaper, even a good browser toolbar does not eliminate the tedium and distraction of vocabulary look-up.
So my little webpage at Semi-fluent.com speeds things up. You can paste in a chunk of text from the source of your choice and each word will be hyperlinked into any available bilingual dictionary. Clicking on each word will pop-up a window containing the word entry and its grammatical analysis. One can skip over known words and word forms and research unknown words with ease--and most importantly, without breaking one's concentration on the text at hand.
At the moment Spanish, Italian, and Latin are available.
If anyone knows of other good on-line bilingual dictionaries which accept(and, preferably, analyze) inflected word forms, let me know. I'm eager to broaden my site's capabilities.
(New Feature as of 9/12: Automated Vocabulary List Creation)
I am also developing a plug-in for bilingual blogs and websites to render pages more accessible to non-native readers. This should be a great boon to such webmasters.
The site is still under construction, but I believe it is close enough to completion to receive public input. Comments on layout and functionality are welcome here, though I will soon have contact information set up over at the website.
Should you find the site useful, please spread it around. Websites, like manure, work best that way.
1 comment:
Oh, no! Where has it gone? It was just what I needed today, but all I see is a domain name squatter. Woe is me!
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