Sydney’s Spanish

I am ashamed to say that despite studying Spanish in elementary school and college (both in Houston, by the way), my comprehension of the language is meager, and my ability to speak it is as close to non-existent as it gets beyond the few dozen words I still remember. I wish the schools (elementary and beyond) I had attended after moving away from Houston had kept up the Spanish classes, but I guess the farther north you get, the less value is placed on it…

Amy, on the other hand, has a better excuse for not knowing Spanish, as she grew up in states bordering Canada as opposed to Mexico. She does, however, have a great desire to learn the language beyond the "medical Spanish" she picked up during her residency.

All that is to explain why (after years of talking about it) we picked up the Rosetta Stone software as a Christmas present to each other this past Christmas. In the last week or so, we have finally started the lessons (when both children are asleep at the same time) and are learning a few words and phrases, though obviously we are still just getting our toes wet. Part of our desire to learn Spanish, though, is to be able to teach Sydney as she grows. She has discovered Dora the Explorer, and has some books that introduce a few Spanish words. She knows that the Spanish word for "Thank-you" is "glackias" for example. And "Please" is "Por Pabor". Not bad for a 3-year-old…

So yesterday we were having lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant after church, and we decided to get sopapillas after lunch as a special treat and introduce Sydney to them. We taught her the word, and she would say parts of it slowly, trying to string it together. Then Amy encouraged her to "now say it really fast". To which her response was a big smile, followed by "really FAST!"

Perhaps we need to cover pronouns and antecedents next…