I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of differences in "proper" Spanish and Latin American Spanish, yet they all seem to be able to understand each other. The problem is, I'm finding it more difficult to learn vocabulary because some of my CD's are Latin American dialect, and some are Spain's, which is causing me a lot of confusion.

My question is, though I love altavista babelfish, it generally only translates from English to Spanish that is common to Spain. To get it to translate common Cuban, Puerto Rican, etc...Spanish, I have to already know the word I'm looking for in Spanish, then have it translate to English (ie. babelfish translates "table" to "tabla"...to get it to bring up "mesa" I have to do a reverse translation).

Anyway, are there any good translation sites that can help me with this issue? I want to learn as many forms as possible, so if I need the spelling help (I have trouble placing accents), I need a site that will translate the proper spelling of the word I'm looking for from my Latin American Spanish CD's...

Hope this isn't confusing.
I apologize if I've offended because when I said "proper", I didn't mean it to sound like I meant the right way...which is why I put it in parenthesis. I couldn't, for the life of me, think of the word 'regional'. That's why I'm looking for better translating methods, because I know that regionally, I would be more likely to hear the more it than the Spanish peninsular form.

I would like to learn the Spanish/ Castilian of Buenos Aires, Argentina, although, for many reasons, the Spanish of Mexico would be good to learn, too.

I have a language kit that purports to be of a "latin american dialect", but as this seems to cover such a vast territory, I have no idea what this means. Please advise & thank you.

Also, I have another similar, albiet slightly different, question going at the same time.