Who needs Rosetta Stone?

I often get funny looks from some of my patients when I start speaking in Spanish. I know they are thinking, "does not compute...does not compute..." They always ask me where I am from, then I launch into how I know how to speak (relatively) fluent Spanish.


1. I lived in Puerto Rico for a year in elementary school (nope, not a military brat, although that is what everyone assumes) and went to a Spanish-speaking Mennonite (random, I know!) private school. When you can't figure out what the heck all the other kids are singing at weekly chapel or what they are gossiping about, you learn the language real quick.

2. I took Spanish 1 through 5 Advanced Placement Spanish in junior high and high school and got to skip a year of Spanish 3 (probably not such a good idea). Apparently Spanish 3 is where you really learn to conjugate verbs. Kind of important. And the reason I can only speak in present and past present tense. Oh well...

3. I watch Go, Diego, Go! and Dora the Explorer with the Kid. I can't tell you how many words I have learned from watching these shows. Almost all of the developmental milestones for infants I know in Spanish I learned through these mind numbing cartoons.

• "Gatea" = "crawl" as featured on the armadillo episode of Go, Diego, Go!
• "Salta" = "jump", good for testing motor skills in toddlers
  
• "Bajate" = "get down", helpful for telling siblings to get the heck off of the examining table and to leave my otoscope alone.

Michael Phelps, eat your heart out!