In the waiting room of the doctor’s office recently, I read the “patient’s bill of rights” in Spanish. Pamphlets are extremely easy relative to other reading materials, since they stick to simple language and sentence structure so that people at any reading level can comprehend. They are therefore an excellent way to convince yourself that you know more of a language than you actually do. What a pick-me-up!

On a related note, here’s a sign I once saw in the hospital:

At first I thought dar a luz must mean something about giving out to the light, i.e. fainting, but then at the mention of del nino que aun no ha nacido (the baby that is not yet born) I realized I might be a wee bit off.

The English version confirmed my suspicion:

Isn’t it cool that in Spanish, “to give birth” translates literally as “to give to light”? I love it!

(Top photo:Landahlauts)