Another Lesson (Victor)

Ali was waiting for him in the same room, she had out notes and ready to start this evenings lesson.

Victor limped in and smiled. "Good evening. "

"Buenas Noches." with a smile as he entered the room.

He chuckled and replied in Russian before going back to English


"How is your housing situation?"

"So far so good, but she's on hospice care so we'll see." with a nod to him.

"Home health worker? " he said curiously

"No the elderly lady that owns the house I stay in. I keep it clean and the yard taken care of. She is dying, so a couple more weeks." with a nod to him.

"Ah... sad. Still, life goes on. Let me know, I'll rent you a quality room for some token rate if you need it. "

"Thank you, but not yet." with a nod to him. "Shall we start?" with a happy smile at him.

"Of course" he said while taking out more lesson material and a big Red Army fur cap. "It's called a ushanka, you get plus three to Russian when wearing one" he smirked

"That's okay, I thought we were doing more Spanish tonight." with a nod to him.

"Yes. Apparently my sense of humor needs work. I brought it as a gag gift for you"

"Thank you. But it seems so overly warm for here in Florida, but I can see where it was humorous." with a nod to him.

'So what is the agenda for Spanish tonight?"

"Working on formal conversation, when and why it's used verses the more casual conversation." with a grin to him. She opened the book to the page she wanted to work with him this evening.

He nodded and opened the book to the appropriate section

She explained, spoke and walked him through the speaking; she was professional polite but very encouraging. "Any questions?" after about a 45 minutes.

"Is formal Spanish consistent across the Spanish speaking world?"

"It is used for those you don't know, those you meet on a professional level and those that are not close to you. Now I have noticed that Spanglish - doesn't use the formal form at all; but I can usually still communicate with them between Spanish and English." tucking a strand behind her ear, then pulling her hair up, with a drink of water looked at him to see if that made sense to him.

"Right, but like American and British English differ, would the formal Spanish one speaks vary from culture to culture?"

She took a deep breath, "This is formal Spanish, closer to Spain Spanish. MOST use the formal language. The problem is slang through out the Spanish language. What one would say is it's hot but another culture you could be saying that a girl is "hot". So that is an issue, especially with informal Spanish. Often when one isn't sure the formal is best to be used, for it shows that you are not being overly informal or familiar."

"Ah, that's understandable. "

She smiled at him, "Cuban's speak Spanish fast and cut off the end of the word." pausing while she was thinking, "Puerto Rican Spanish is rapidly spoke with no breaks."

"That is going to take some practice I think" he chuckled "Adapting to such a fast spoken language"

"That's why I am trying to stay fluid but not too fast." with a smile at him. "Really once you get the flow of Spanish it is easy to speak and understand. It's the most "basic" vowel sounds of any language."