Unfamiliar Text

I was unable to get to the library to pick up a book in another language so while standing in the checkout line at Safeway I picked up the Spanish version of People Magazine.  I had Spanish in high school but you would never know it.  I know the basics: hello, goodbye, good morning/night/day, what is your name, and a few cuss words.  I also know a few art terms due to teaching art at a bilingual school for a few months.
While glancing through the magazine I could make out basic words but nothing in depth.  If the celebrity was talking about their biggest ambitions I could not tell you what it was.  The captions on the photos I could guess closely what was being discussed but it was only a guess.  If one was to ask me what the celebrity was famous for - I had no idea.
My son (5) has a handful of bilingual books so I grabbed one of those.  Not sure if I lowered my reading level or raised it seeing that the last choice was Spanish People.  Pez payaso by Carol K. Lindeen is translated into Clown Fish.  I have only read the book once to my son so I am not too familiar with it.  I do have some understanding of clown fish thanks to Nemo.  I could make out some words and concepts and if I had trouble I would look at the pictures.  If I still had trouble I "cheated" and read the English section and put words that I did know with the English words and then piece together what the rest were.  I was lucky to have it bilingual or I would have had to get out the translation dictionary to figure things out.  I have had to translate with a dictionary and that is not easy.  It is frustrating and takes time.  And most of the time it still does not make sense.  One realization was that maybe children's books should be bilingual with a little flip panel that you can cover up your native language and read in your second language.  When you have trouble reveal your native language to help yourself out.  How do I market this?  :)
I'm sure if I picked up a book in French or German I would have had a tremendous amount of trouble.  Even Italian may have been troublesome even though Spanish and Italian are similar.  I can understand the frustration ELL students must have in the classroom.  We as educators must become familiar with various techniques and strategies in order to help our ELL students become successful.