Old school carry!!

[Abraham]

For reasons I'm not sure of, Skiprr and TAM's discussion reminds of a a Spanish speaking girlfriend I had who initially felt insecure about working in an exclusive French restaurant, but quickly learned she understood most of the French spoken with her knowledge of Spanish.

Another Spanish speaking girlfriend I had, moved to Italy with her mother. She too initially felt insecure about not being able to speak Italian. On their very first night in Italy, while she was drinking a glass of wine while sitting in a one story balcony over the very busy sidewalk which afforded her the ability to overhear the boulevardiers while they conversed in passing, she quicklyrealized she understood 80% of what they had to say as Italian is much akin to Spanish...

[The Annoyed Man]

For reasons I'm not sure of, Skiprr and TAM's discussion reminds of a a Spanish speaking girlfriend I had who initially felt insecure about working in an exclusive French restaurant, but quickly learned she understood most of the French spoken with her knowledge of Spanish.

Another Spanish speaking girlfriend I had, moved to Italy with her mother. She too initially felt insecure about not being able to speak Italian. On their very first night in Italy, while she was drinking a glass of wine while sitting in a one story balcony over the very busy sidewalk which afforded her the ability to overhear the boulevardiers while they conversed in passing, she quicklyrealized she understood 80% of what they had to say as Italian is much akin to Spanish...

I remember having that experience in Paris as a lad. It's not so much that you actually understand verb declination and such, but French, Italian, and Spanish are all Latin languages, and so many of the words are similar because they share common Latin roots, though they may be spelled somewhat differently. Hearing them spoken, you don't so much "understand" what's being said, as you can kind of piece it together. Add in a 4th language with a lot of common Latin roots - like English - and it gets even easier. But that said, for me, these days the Spanish, Italian, speaker must be speaking slowly enough so that the words don't all run together, or I won't hear the distinct words themselves, but just jibberish.

[Vol Texan]

We have GOT to have a beer together some day. I could talk about this stuff all day long. I've got to get down to Houston sometime this spring to talk to the French consulate there about obtaining my French passport. Maybe we can have dinner or something.

If we can pull that together, I'd love to do it. But not if you only speak French to me. You start stringin' paragraphs together in French, I'm outta there and you're stuck with the bill.

I promise not too. I'm a little ashamed of it, myself.

TAM, you make it down here to Houston, and perhaps we should all get together and have a TexasCHLForum meetup dinner!

[The Annoyed Man]

We have GOT to have a beer together some day. I could talk about this stuff all day long. I've got to get down to Houston sometime this spring to talk to the French consulate there about obtaining my French passport. Maybe we can have dinner or something.

If we can pull that together, I'd love to do it. But not if you only speak French to me. You start stringin' paragraphs together in French, I'm outta there and you're stuck with the bill.

I promise not too. I'm a little ashamed of it, myself.

TAM, you make it down here to Houston, and perhaps we should all get together and have a TexasCHLForum meetup dinner!

Did you say "FOOD"? Count me in.