Lesson Three....

Once again, Victor waited for Ali to continue their lessons.

She showed looking a little haggard but under 5 minutes late. "Hey took me a bit to find parking with school coming back in session."

"I can understand that" Victor said in agreement. "I had some trouble myself. I suppose I could have used the handicap parking, but I've never bothered getting the plate for it. Plus..." he chuckled "It would look funny on a Duesenberg."

"Well it's a beautiful car." with a nod and a grin at him. "A friend got back to town so between work and hanging out -I've been skipping sleep."

"You need your rest young lady. We can skip this session if you like."

"Oh not at all, just apologizing for being a little late and a bit scattered." with a warm smile at him. "Sleep is for the weak, life is short and all that..."

That made Victor laugh. "Life can be very long. As long as you avoid routine, then you'll never wonder at 'the years flying by' as some people complain about."

"Well I am balancing things, once school starts I'll be back in a schedule again." with a smile at him. "So ready for your Spanish lesson?"

"You'll be learning things though, so your brain won't slow down and adapt to a routine. And yes, yes I am."

In Spanish "What have you liked so far or disliked about Spanish so far?'

He replied in somewhat halting Spanish

"The speed at which fluent speakers use it"

"Well we can work on that." she said back in Spanish, her speed still easy to follow.

"how so?"

"I can slowly work on increasing my speed." with a nod to him.

"Of course, that makes sense."

"So is the Spanish spoken in Argentina different than that spoken by say the Cubanos here in Florida?"

"Yes Cubanos cut off the end of their words abruptly like this.... Hello My Name is Ali." mimicking the accent for him.

"Is that their informal mode of speech, or does it carry over to the formal as well?"

"All of their speech does that." with a nod to him "It threw me at first."

"Interesting. So would it behoove me, after mastering proper Spanish, to focus on the Cuban dialect you think?"

"To deal with the locals - yes." with a nod to him. "But give me a few more lesson's first."

"Naturally. I've been reading some of the Spanish language newspapers around here to try and acquire more of a feel for things."

"Mostly Latino's deal with Latino's very rarely deal with Gringo's if they can help it." with a nod to him.

"Yes" he noted dryly "I've noticed. I'm trying to expand my business dealings, and not all of the Latino population is happy to deal with a one eyed gringo"

"Who drives an expensive and rare car." with a smile at him, still speaking in Spanish

"Si" he chuckled, while continuing in Spanish. "You haven't met my personal assistant, Miyu Chen. She's a young Asian woman, trained in martial arts, and religion. A real gem. And mute. Makes it all the weirder dealing with me."