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'Sounds like the title of a '50s musical gone astray! Seriously -- well, a bit less unseriously -- the article wasn't much, though the supposed responses appended to it did draw a chuckle from me.

Fluency: able to conduct conversations on any topic (excluding those on which I can't speak knowledgeably in my native tongue, of course!). "Near it": I generally can be fluent, though I lack some more arcane vocabulary (perhaps the words just don't exist in Spanish); I occasionally must...

I'd guess that only English-speaking lands are crazy enough to offer these!

Call the cultural attaché at the Vietnamese embassy and ask the names and addresses of all the known Vietnamese restaurants in gran Bs.As. With what should be the fullest possible list, you can make your own enquiries and assessments.

About three months. I'll plead middle-aged lack of resiliency (and, perhaps, too much sampling of the porteño nightlife), as Spanish is not a difficult language to learn.

If I remember correctly, a bit less than the equivalent of US$10 an hour for the professionally educated tutor who taught me; there were, however, people who charged as little as US$3 an hour and as much as US$50. I think my tutor's skill deserved a higher fee but was glad to pay so little for...

Think about engaging a tutor. Learning individually is faster and more certain, and you may set the hours. As I've written before, I've my own tutor to thank for a comparatively rapid movement from near ignorance of Spanish to near fluency.

Let's hope that the school prize for penmanship was the last award we thought given for genuine merit! This award is itself a peace offering, given to show that the world (well, okay, perhaps just the West) still loves America: it just hates some of our rulers.

Isn't that really "equine jerky"? :)

Please do stay! Quite a few non-Englishspeakers contribute. Being an expatriate certainly doesn't seem a requirement, simply a focus. I've Argentine friends and relatives but don't know what "IGCSE & IB" stands for. Might you be so kind as to expand the acronym? Thanks!

The native porteña who brought my Spanish from near ignorance to near fluency does go to students' homes and offices. She's excellent -- actually educated as a teacher, unlike most out there. If you send me a PM, I'd be happy to send you her name and contact information.

Why, N.B., you naughty boy!

A trenchant observation.

I'd suggest a brief appointment with an Argentine lawyer: quick and reliable advice, even if you do pay for it.

I'm very comfortable in Belgrano and particularly like parts of Belgrano "R"; it's where I generally stay in Bs.As. On the other hand, had I the money, I might choose to buy in Barrio Norte.

Ah, another cowardly American!

Would you be so kind as to elaborate this observation?

I found my Spanish tutor, Stella Maris ("Stellinha" -- she's something of a Brazilophile, I think) García, to be superb. She is a native porteña who has lived abroad, was educated as a teacher, has taught Spanish to foreigners for years, and is competent in French, Portuguese, and English. I...

I like the sound of Argentine -- well, porteño -- Spanish, with the "zh" redolent of Andalusia and the still slightly exotic (less and less so, as more and more present-day Moslems come to the West) epoch of the Moslem occupation of Spain. Even without that, though, Spanish of educated speakers...

I've worked as a volunteer with two charities in C.F., and I've both friends and kinsmen who've worked with several others. None have many paid positions at all: for historical and social reasons, there's much less tradition of personal charity in Spanish-speaking lands than in...