Words Matter

Puente de San Xoan de Furelos: Palas de Rei to Arzua on the Camino de Santiago, Spain

Due to the pandemic and my retirement in August, I’ve had more time on my hands than ever before. One thing I’ve engaged in is to take virtual Spanish lessons through the University of Tennessee. I started the third and last course in the series this week and it appears to be engaging but challenging.To increase my vocabulary, I’ve been reading my morning meditations first in Spanish and then in English (Forward Movement- Day by Day). I’m fascinated when I find that Spanish often has 2 or 3 words for one English word, and then also vice versa, one word in English has two different meanings in Spanish.In my readings this week, I encountered the word “la oración” which I knew to mean “prayer” from my morning meditations. But the context didn’t fit. I learned that “la oración” means both “prayer” and “sentence”.  Translating the word to “sen