Foreign language quiz. The answer is: French is not Spanish.
Anyhooo... I'm a bit surprised by how comfortable I apparently am with Spanish.
It has taken spending a couple of weeks with a young French man to show me just how much Español I must have actually picked up (and retained) during those long, boring classes throughout my life.
Who knew?
Every time I talk with Robinson, I have a tendency to want to switch to the Spanish word, because I know it, or at least a close enough word to get my point across.
But I have also learned that Spanish is not French. Even when the word is spelled similarly in both languages, the pronunciation's a killer.
Robinson just sort of stares at me...
Another French language note. The Country of France is pronounced "Frahnce." The language of the French is called "Frahn-say." So, there you have it.
Back to Spanish. I had a quick lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I could order most of the meal in Spanish "Sí, tres cervezas por favor, you heard me."
I could explain why I had a tape recorder and camera and notepad with me. "Yo escribo para los Rapids de Colorado football." I hope I said that I write for/about the Colorado Rapids football club.
So, there you have it. French is not Spanish, and I know more Spanish than my poor grades in the class reflected.
The plus is that when a French word is similar to the Spanish word, I can sometimes make out the translation.
One letter at a time.
Posted by BilFish at July 22, 2004 01:28 PM