Gryph sat in his favorite chair in the corner and thumbed 
through the mail.
        "Bill... bill... may have already won... preapproved credit card
for Fury... have you considered a home equity loan.  Hmm!"  He flipped a
narrow envelope with distinctive red and blue airmail edging out of the
stack and considered it.  "This looks interesting.  Who do we know in
Mexico City?"
        "Nobody that I can think of," I said.
        "Here you go, Sakura," he said, tossing the envelope across to
his slightly surprised student at the end of the couch.  "You're taking
Spanish this year - see what you make of that."
        "Oh, sure, give it to third-language girl," she muttered,
slitting the envelope open with a thumbnail and removing a neatly folded
piece of paper from inside.  "A-h'-hm.  'Dear Gryphon.'  - El Grifo, if
you please!  'If we may introduce ourselves, we are... free wrestlers?
In the city of Mexico.  Your kind hospitality to those who visit your
home is,' um... "  She peered more closely.  "... Ah, OK.  'Legendary
among the... warriors of the street.'  Aw, that's nice.  'We would like 
to... know you that... '  No.  'We would like you to know that, if you 
and your famous student - '  I'm famous?  ' - come to our restaurant 
in... Milmáscaras?  We will show you the same warm... ghost?  Spirit.  
Spirit of welcome.  We would consider it a great honor to show you our 
home and... test our might against yours.  Yours very truly, El Fuerte 
y El Fuego.'  And then there's a phone number."
        "Hm!" Gryph said.  "Luchadores, eh?  I've never fought a
luchador before.  What do you guys think?  Who's up for a trip to Mexico
City?"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

woohoo! masked mexican wrestlers!

-Z

---
Remember kids: guns make you stupid, duct tape makes you smart.

Mexican Happy Fun Balls versus Icon of Stone. This ought to be good.

...does WL-Gryphon not speak Spanish, or was that just another test?

>...does WL-Gryphon not speak Spanish, or was that just another test?

Oh, that's just sensei mode. G speaks (and is literate in) a bunch of languages. As we've seen in previous episodes, his Russian is a bit half-assed and his Transbelvisch is worse, but his Spanish is pretty decent. It's a bit Castilian, because that's what they taught in his high school. (Ironically, he has the opposite problem in France, because his French is Québecois. So French people think he sounds like a lumberjack; I'm not sure what Latin Americans think he sounds like, since I don't know how the regionalisms translate.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>So French people think he
>sounds like a lumberjack;

Well, that's demographically appropriate, at least. Thanks for answering.

>Spanish is pretty
>decent. It's a bit Castilian, because that's what they taught in his
>high school. (Ironically, he has the opposite problem in France,
>because his French is Québecois. So French people think he
>sounds like a lumberjack; I'm not sure what Latin Americans think he
>sounds like, since I don't know how the regionalisms translate.)

At a guess, based on some comments I heard, if he has the true Castillian accent (complete with the slight lisp) they'll think he's an effete snob or an arrogant git. At least until they get to know him.

I know that's what many Québecois think of Parisians.

-John

"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

or, in other words, Vega.
(THAT could be amusing.)

>At a guess, based on some comments I heard, if he has the true
>Castillian accent (complete with the slight lisp) they'll think he's
>an effete snob or an arrogant git.

I think the th-for-s/z thing is more Andalusian than Castilian, but it has been a very, very long time since I studied the language in any formal context; in any event, it wasn't taught that way at my high school, so he doesn't do it. I had suspected, though, that someone speaking Spanish Spanish (as it were) in Latin America would be thought of as a bit posh, rather as American English-speakers customarily react to people speaking in, e.g., BBC Received Pronunciation.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ironically enough, I've had the dubious honor of learning Castillian Spanish in an area full of Mexican transients. The one time I heard one of them speaking, I couldn't follow him at all. They speak very rapidly and with an accent that's hard to describe. (Then again, I speak with a fairly significant southern drawl, so that might just be me. YMMV, as it were. The fact that the memory's ten years old doesn't help either.)

My Spanish prof in HS was from Galithia (his pronunciation of "Galicia") and as such all my cousins from Mexico said that I sounded very formal and distant to them. But they were really nice to me. My husband speaks S. American spanish, which also sounds different, and so now I sound like very weird to all of them. Like those guys on Univision.

t.

Trigger Argee
trigger_argee@hotmail.com
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST

LAST EDITED ON Jan-03-11 AT 05:10 PM (EST)
 
I grew up in Arizona listening to American Southwest Flavor Spanish (and got to the point where I could generally understand what was being said, though speaking it myself was sketchy at best). In high school I studied what they called 'conversational' Spanish -- the theory apparently being that this is what we'd actually use to talk, or something. It was very different than what I'd learned growing up.

Then I lived next door to a guy from Spain. Very nice gentleman, and we couldn't understand each other at all unless we used English.

*sigh*

--sofaspud
--I also studied German, but my teacher was a Russian native. You can imagine how confusing THAT was.

I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to more - the match, or the attempt at a meal!

In my case? Both!

Ha! Sounds like Sakura did a detour through the japanese pro-wrestling circuit. Either that or for some reason she really _is_ famous in Mexico, which would be pretty hilarious. (Sakura brand little red sneakers!)

I have to say though, this particular battle looks to be shaping up pretty well, and I'm sure that hilarity in some type of format is likely to abound.

I am SO looking forward to hearing you tackle Lucha attitude in dialog, chief!

----

...

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