Learn Spanish Accidentally with Enrique Rojas!

7:56 himno nacional, 7:59 lanzamiento ceremonial, 8:05 #Giants sale al terreno, 8:07 primer pitcheo del juego. #SerieMundial2012

— Enrique Rojas/ESPN (@Enrique_Rojas1) October 25, 2012

Here’s a thing the author knows: that foreign-language acquisition is miserable, more a function of daunting repetition than engaged and creative thinking. Here’s a thing the author doesn’t know: Spanish. In light of the former point, however, the latter one is unlikely to change.

That said, as a follower on Twitter of ESPN’s Enrique Rojas, I sometimes — just by virtue of the common language of baseball — I sometimes find myself accidentally learning Spanish. Am I in danger of reading and then writing a compelling thesis on the works of Jorge Luis Borges? Likely not. However, even just owing to the tweet embedded here, I now understand, like, 50% more Spanish than I did a second ago — and I’ve derived the translations by means of context alone!

To wit:

Himno nacional? National anthem!

Lanzamiento ceremonial? Ceremonial first pitch!

Giants sale al terreno? The Giants go out to the terreno!

In conclusion, here’s a Learning Spanish Accidentally with Enrique Rojas! checklist: