Posted by pancho (148.244.221.56) on October 30, 2001 at 11:17:31:
One of the downsides of speaking what little Spanish I know without much trace of an accent is that people assume I understand all of it and am a stuck up honorary gringo who refuses to speak his native language. One of the advanatages is that they assume I am a wise man indeed who, after the briefest of preliminaries, prefers to listen and absorb, a man who knows that listenning is the better part of wisdom. Iīm developing a reputation as a thoughtful man, who gazes penetratingly at the person addressing me, taking it all in. And it works fine as long as I donīt mitakenly ask to have carnal relations with his sainted grandmother by mistake, when I meant to say I wanted three sheets of sandpaper.
I wish some of our sages, who understand English about as well as I do Spanish would follow my example...especially the ones who write letters on behalf of this Grat Peepil.