spanish - lesson one

Today has been a little better. Jonah took about 26 ounces, although it was more like 22 after a huge Niagra Falls tonight. We had to redress his chest piece and both arms. And now, he's smelly. He'll be the smelly kid at church. Sigh. That's the worst part of the huge throw-ups to me - not the redressing (although that's pretty crappy), but it's the fact that I can't just go throw him in the tub and get him smelling all "baby smell" again. He's either smelling like Aquaphor or drainage or spit-up most of the time. But so it goes. And it's so funny how even if it's not the greatest smell, it's still the Jonah smell, and that makes it wonderful...

But enough about all that.

Grandaddy was doing a little better today last I heard, but I didn't get a chance to call Matt's mom tonight like I wanted. I went to the grocery store while Matt and his dad looked after Jonah, and when I got home it was pretty much non-stop from then until now. But thank you so much for your prayers. We hope he'll snap out of all this, but it's just hard to know. He is off pain meds (besides Tylenol) now, so hopefully he'll continue to improve. He'll move into the nursing home on Monday. Hopefully his time there will be short-lived.

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So I've decided to teach you guys Spanish. I miss teaching (I can't believe I just said that), and I need to teach something to someone, so guess what? You're IT. Deal with it. (Yes, that's how I talked to my high schoolers.)

Lesson 1 -

Hola is pronounced O-lah, not Holla as some are accustomed to saying.
As in, "Hola, Amigo." Not as in, "Holla at your girl."

To say "My name is," you say, "Me llamo (pronounced: may yah-moe) ___________."
Not: Me llamo es ________________
"Me llamo" literally translates "I call myself" or "I am called," so if you say, "Me llamo es Susan," you've just said "I am called Is Susan." First name: Is; Last name: Susan.

Take this video clip, for example.



And lastly (but certainly not leastly), the restaurant Chipotle.

Being from the south, I understand that there are certain accents and linguistic tendencies that make this a tricky word, but if I might, I would love to tell you the correct way to pronounce this restaurant (which coincidentally has the best burrito bowl around... crazy that they are owned by McDonald's).

Chipotle is NOT pronounced Chee-poe-tuhl.

Chipotle is NOT pronounced Chi-pole-tee.

Chipotle is NOT pronounced Chi-pot-lee.

It is pronounced Chee-pote-lay.

So there you have it, folks. You can say Hello, My name is, and can pronounce Chipotle correctly... pretty much THE three most important things in the Spanish language.

Now don't you just feel accomplished? You got to learn. I got to teach. Now we should all be able to sleep just a little more soundly, dontcha think?

Let me know if there's something you'd like to learn (Spanish-wise that is... don't ask me about geography or geometry or well, pretty much any other subject. High school was a long time ago, and I've forgotten most of the useless crap very important, relevant, and necessary information that was imparted to me there. But Spanish - ahhh, sweet Spanish. Spanish I know.)

Buenas noches estudiantes míos. Que duerman bien.