Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-26
\ LESSON IN SPANISH
low Tourists In Mexico Wrestle With the Language.
! QUEER RESTAURANT ORDER.

The Way an American Woman shock- cd . Waiter With . Demand For .
 Dish That the Cook Would Not Pre- pare .,..- Its no wonder that men who go from the States down to Mexico on business do not get along better" said
 . returned New Yorker. "They don't
 study Spanish as they should. In tho
 clubs half of the stock stories are about these half educated Americans.
 Tt was in restaurant where only Spanish is spoken that party of @American tourists assembled. TheSe { were woman and her two daughters and, of course, the attendant and pa-
 dent papa with the wad. "'Let me order.' said the mater. I want to use my Spanish And she pro-
 ceeded to pull out handy book of < conversation. Let me see,' scanning the menu; we want oysters, Pm sure. sA small fry for each would be just the thing Running her fingers through the A2eaves, she found that 'chiquita' means \ 'smalI and 'frita' means fry Perfect lly simple. Chiqufta fritas' would mean small fries She held up her { fingers to indicate four and said com placently to the expectant and polite Wafter:
 'Chiquitas frttas.'
 Tho walters eyes bulged out, and ais Latin politeness got shock. oh, no. senora,' he cried as he backed away; no chiquitas fritas.
 Why noty returned the patron. yDon't you have 'emY for in her sur prise she had fallen back on her yer nacular. Then she remembered her role and consulted her book.
 Nothing doing. No end of gesticu- slations on the part of the waiter.
 Nice country where one can't get 4ried oysters piped the woman, and she added, I wonder whyY
 You can get lem, ma'am,' said a mans raucors voice at an adjoining cable. He continued: You ordered fried babies, and they don't serve lem 1n this part of the republic. The word ~chiquitas" means babies, a term of endearment, but you're all 0. K. as to the fritas. If you had asked for 1ostras fritas" the order would have gone through all right
 "And she ordered 'em, though she leaked daggers at the stranger, who wA New Yorker and had lived in Mexico for twenty years.
 @It was the same sort of woman" csA4Dced the traveller, "who tried to air her Spanish by asking the amount l o2 Ger bill after she had taken her dt21G7 in 8 restaurant in the City of AeN,o. With bland smile she ad- dse~ed the head waiter with Como NlcaOY intending to ask how much.
 ''MoN, Che word como not only | HAals Tow but also T eat,' 80 that | e loman had remarked to the wait 1T, ' 6&t good deaL' This was as sCEch os to say that the dinner was so RcnA that she had eaten all or more 9kan 1he ought In fact 1t s~1 g compliment and such a compf s-'sss ss> 0 highly "re eountry.
 "y7lth a aeep DOW the servitor ex- | BEe1sed his delight that his. humble NaaFsss should have found appreciation tn the Sight of the most excellent seneca. It was expressed in the Ralce phrases that 50 readily lend th<ssselves on such occasions through the Castiiian tongue.
 sBut my Lady didn't understand a word of the lingo. She meant busi- ness, and she repeated in a louder tone. Como mucho? Como mucho? She was sure of her correct Spanish, but somehow she couldn't get the wait q to do anything but bow and scrape md smile.
 'The puzzle was solved when the proprietor. hearing the excited voices, entered and learned that the lady merely wanted to pay her bill Had she known that not Como mucho? but Que es la cuentay cWhat is the accomt7o is the correct expression she would have been saved trouble and modification.
 Time and again United States con- suls have set forth in federal publica- lions the advantages of a real knowl- edge of Spanish to the business man. The need is growing more emphatic with every day. as our relations in trade are growing with Mexico daily. But I guess that federal publications don't hit the people at large as a gen. eral rule
 'One of the easiest ways to learn a foreign language is to read good nov els in that tongue. You get so inter- ested in the story that you just have to go on to the end to learn whether the tero and heroine come out all right.
 Students of Spanish don't adopt that method in New York. guess, for you can't find any Spanish novels on eAe secondhand bookstore tables up or down or across the city. The only gpecimens I have found have been spanish novels translated from the French novels. It is strange, too, for there are many excellent novels nowa- days by Spanish writers.
 "Of course an instructor is needed to obtain the correct pronunciation. bu. on visiting Mexico with a good. ready Knowledge of the language you can ~<.,n ax-urIire the needed nronunciation