is a poco rusty. (I took classic Spanish the first time around at college--in 1955. I took conversational Spanish at night school in the 1990's) Here in California, conversational Spanish is considered to be of more value than classic, on the premise that we're far more apt to want to tell the waitress that we want the frijoles de ollo instead of frijoles refritos (beans cooked in a ceramic pot rather than refried beans,) than we are to read Don Quixote in the original Spanish. Also, that "tortillas" are thin, pancake-like discs (Mexican) rather than potato omelets (Castilian Spanish.)When Papa Elf and I were at the Sphinx in Egypt, we were hounded by souvenir salesmen, mostly young boys in their teens. I was particularly bothered by a very persistent boy of about 12. He was trying to sell me a T-shirt. Without thinking, I blurted out, "No me gustan." (They don't please me.) Without missing a beat, the boy answered, "¡O señora, tengro los otros!" (Oh, lady, I have others!) Thoroughly charmed, I bought a T with a pharaoh design on it. (I didn't read the label until I got home: "Souvenir of Michael Jackson tour of Egypt," from some years before. I suppose the boy got a lot of tourists from Spain, and I'd bet that he was also fluent in salesman's French, German, English (both British and American,) possibly even Japanese.) I also suppose he got a hefty discount on some years-old, unsold souvenirs.
