ILE Spanish Resources

One of the most helpful tools I've found to help learn spanish on the internet is a little Firefox add-on called "Babelfish Instant Translation." It's ridiculously simple to use.

Installing it:

• Download Firefox web browser by clicking HERE. In case you wonder if you should use Firefox over Internet Explorer, the answer is YES for several reasons, unless you have a specific reason against it.
• Install Firefox.
• Go here to install the Babelfish Translation tool: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7004 
• Restart Firefox.
• It's ready to go!

Using it:

• Just double-click a word to translate it. (It is probably already automatically set to translate between English and Spanish, but if it's not, up under "Tools" you can select the "Source Language" and "Target Language." Chinese and Korean are included.
• Select an entire phrase, and hold down "Alt" while clicking it once. The entire phrase will be translated. Go to Costa Rica's newpaper website and read an article. If you have difficulty with a section, select the phrase and click it while holding "Alt."
• The translator works in both directions. Thus, you can translate from English to Spanish, but also read a page in English and translate portions into Spanish.  If you want to translate the opposite direction, select the text and Alt-click it as normal, and then click the (en>es) button at the top of the popup to translate backwards.