I noted an interesting milepost on the language learning journey yesterday. I was at the Astrais beach bar when an older couple came up to ask the server if the places behind the bar were for rent. He didn't know and went on. I told them that we had rented a place. They asked how much and about the features. They were from Uruguay and traveling in a motorhome, but liked Matadeiro and were interested in renting a place for a couple of nights. I told them what I knew. A few things seemed hard to communicate, but I'm used to that. I know they speak Spanish in Uruguay but didn't think much about it until the woman described something using "caliente" for 'hot" instead of the Portuguese word "quente." I asked her what language were we speaking in. Tuns out they were speaking Spanish and I was speaking Portuguese and I had no idea. They laughed at my surprise and pointed out that we did just fine. I'm not sure whether not knowing what language is being used is a good sign or a bad sign, but it was certainly interesting and made me think differently about language and languages and what it means to communicate.
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