@Roberta,
Roberta wrote:
I got a phone message from Bellevue about a test I'm having on Monday. Message not in English. I managed to pick up the phone in time and say, Hablo ingles.
That's funny, Roberta. Did they, then, in fact hablar Ingles? I had a similar experience in a hotel room in, if I remember aright, New York. My Spanish is fairly limited but, like everyone else, I'll throw in the occasional
que pasa or
hasta la vista into an otherwise English language dialogue.
Well, I had ordered something or other from room service and was doing something like knotting my necktie when there was a knock on the door. Ahh, room service. I yelled. "
Momentito!" and headed toward the door. The bellhop who had my order was standing at the door, beaming, apprently soooo happy that he had a Spanish-speaking customer to deal with. He broke into fluent Espanol, apologizing profusely for having taken solong to make the delivery (I understood that much) and saying how it was all the fault of his
jefe who had made him make another delivery first etc. etc. etc. Apparently he assumed that I, too, was a Spanish speaker from that one innocent
momentito (boy, my accent must really be good!
).
I assured him that everything was
bueno, bueno, tipped him more than I had intended to, and broke down into laughter once the door was closed.
