ouch

No, Carey, I didn´t understand what the gypsy woman said. I think the piano might have still been playing and it was pretty loud. I wish I was almost fluent, but I have such a long way to go. I can tell I´m getting better, but my level of understanding still depends a lot on so many factors -- background noise, the person who´s speaking, the topic of conversation, how tired or distracted I am, etc. And last night my confidence was dealt a blow by Belén at dinner.

Merle was over, the three of us were chatting and talking about how Laura´s coming on Sunday. Belén asked if she knew Spanish, and I said yes, and was about to qualify it with ´´some´´ or something like that, but before I did Belén asked ´´more than you?´´ and I said no, and she said ´´well then she doesn´t know Spanish.´´ So that stung. With one sentence she offended me and the luvie. I didn´t say anything, but nonetheless couldn´t contain the shocked look on my face. She saw it, and said something about how I know English, and she doesn´t, but that didn´t help at all. How can she compare my Spanish to her English, granted she´s had mandatory english classes in school, but she´s not making any sort of effort at actually learning the language, whereas I´m here watching The Sopranos in Spanish with Spanish subtitles...