OK Raul -- I'll take you at your word. But my Spanish is so bad, I'm scared
to try it....

So, I'm mostly just fine-tuning your English rather than pointing out
glaring errors, of which there are almost none.

You said:
>b) I had to repeat five times "horseradish" to a fast food
>seller to get the stuff, and the operation was successful
>thanks to a lady in the queue that deciphered my
>pronunciation ("ho'sueidish" written in Spanish, as my first
>English teacher was an Englishwoman).

Part of the problem may have been where you were when you asked for it. If
you had asked for Texas Pete or Tobasco sauce or even picante sauce, the
Houstonians (if that's what they were) would probably have immediately
understood. Horseradish is not a common condiment in many parts of the US.

You said:
>Nevertheless I had some introductory training in languages
>at school and at the U, that includes French, German, Latin,
>ancient Greek and of course English. The classical languages
>develop a kind of intuition that helps a lot with modern
>languages in the written form, specifically it helps you to
>look at the root of the word and deduce its meaning. It
>works better with long words, when you wrote "daunting" in
>your message I had to look it over in the dictionary.

I very much agree with you. I'm convinced that studying Latin helped me
understand declinsions, agreement of noun and adjective, cases, and root
meanings before I tackled more than the two languages I had already
studied.

you said;
>Another problem is the American politeness. We receive the
>visit of our American commercial relations every three month
>or so, and this is my only opportunity to practice English.

It might be better to say:
Every three months or so, our American commercial acquaintances visit...

You also said:
My wish is that in
>this list you don't follow the same line, please correct
>everything you find wrong, I will be grateful for that.
>I'll do the same with your Spanish, if I see the
>occasion, also as an act of gratitude.

Perhaps you could say:
My wish is for you on this list to correct everything you find wrong. I
would be grateful if you did.


My comment:
I've enjoyed reading your posts thus far. You challenge me to improve my
Spanish so as to be able to express myself as eloquently and fluently as
you have done.

Welcome to the list.
Lynn