Spanish words (20) with magical memory aids

 

Spanish flag

Spanish - English

agua - water

área - area

conflictos - conflicts

dinero - money (to dine you need dinero, money)

las dunas - the dunes

Espagna - Spain

especial - special (add e before the initial s in Spanish words, like the name of the country)

fuerte - strong (as in fortify or make stronger, a fort or stronghold)

golf - golf

Julio - July

lago - lake

las/los - the, plural, las is feminine plural, los is masculine plural, as in the American city Los Angeles meaning the angels, who were male messengers in Greek myths 

marzo - March

miles de - thousands of (Looks like miles of. Not millions of which is millones de, drop the i and add an e)

millones - millions

nacional - national

natural - natural

oasis - oasis

palma - palm tree, las palmas means the palms

parque - park

pico - peak

plan - plan

playa - beach - where you go to play yo-yo on yellow sand, joyfully play on the beach in the bay, on a sunny day with beach toys. Letter Y.

plaza - town square - letter z, zillions of people zooming about in a city zone with stores, place, near a city zoo. Letter Z.

quedarse - stay (when you dig a place you queue up and dig in, d in the middle and sit down, arch your back)

reserva - reserve (nature reserve)

reservar - to reserve

ventura - venture, as in adventure or go towards a venture

viajar - to voyage / to travel

Spanish Words ending in o

banco, dinero, lago, marzo, pico

Spanish Words ending in a

Espana, agua, playa, plaza, reserva, ventura

English - Spanish

park - parque

peak - pico

reserva - reserva

to reserve - reservar

Spain - Espagna

To find more easy to recognize words look in the Spanish version of Wikipedia.

Useful Websites For the Spanish Language

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portada

See the Hospital Of the Future With Greenery in Singapore

Problem
How do you get to the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital?

Answer
During the week and Saturday mornings there's a free shuttle bus from Yishun MRT station (on the red line) every fifteen minutes. On Saturday the shuttle bus is mornings only. We must have caught one of the last buses before 1 pm. Presumably, I thought, we will be told when we get there or the main entrance will be the last and only stop.

We had no trouble getting ready to alight. As the bus went along the main road we  could see the name of the hospital and a grand building, white effect with lots of green.

We got lost on arrival because we were not going there for physical health problems but to a speech contest in the training area. Two hospitals are adjacent. We asked for tower E and got sent to the next building. Clearly no room twith the name we needed.

Is it unusual to have two adjacent hospitals? Back in London, England, the well-known Northwick Park hospital, has a secret twin, St Mark's, the isolation hospital. I discovered this when a family member had cacer treatment. Visitors are limited to prevent the introduction of infection to patients with  reduced immune systems.

I thought about this hospital pairing as I ran from the Yishun hospital to the Khoo Teck Puat hospital.

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Plants
What strikes you on arrival is the number of plants, some in huge pots; others up the sides of the walls, others in a quadrangle in the open top middle like the quadrangles in ancient times. Seats all around allow you to rest while waiting.

On the ground floor see a large bust of the founder, Khoo Teck Puat. His family's fund financed this development.

Another bust of the man is in Goodwood Park hotel. I took pictures of it years ago when I visited Goodwood Park hotel for their Durian lunch with a Chinese friend. But my laptop only has space for the most recent third of my photos, so I raced to handy Wikipedia, a great source of royalty free photos.

Bust in the Goodwood Park Hotel. Photo by Jack Lee in Wikipedia.

If you return from the hosptial Saturday late afternoon when there's no shuttle bus, you have to cross the road outside for the stop for the bus, just a few stops on a normal bus back to the MRT station Yishun. On the journey towards the city cetnre I commeneded to two friends, one French, that few hospitals in the UK have so much greenery, most are plain barracks type buildlings. My French friend  agreed that France also had older, ordinary buildings.

Greenery, restful greenery, is becoming more and more common in Singapore. It is also seen increasingly in new or refubished buildings in London, England, and other parts of the world.

Back in the centre of Singapore, passing the Goodwood Park hotel, I now have a new interest in the man whose legacy has helped transform health and architecture in modern Singapore.

Useful websites
www.goodwoodparkhotel.com
visitsingapore.com
google maps

Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.