My Spanish is like your Polish - good enough to ask questions, not good enough to understand the answers. I did some business in Puerto Rico. I had a contact there with whom I would occasionally dine. We had a practice of speaking each other's language. That way, we understood each other's questions and each other's answers.

Two things stand out about our dinners. First, my friend enjoyed practicing his English as much as I did my Spanish. Second, the more we drank, the better my Spanish became. That hesitation and fear of saying the wrong thing is an inhibition, and we know what a little bit of alcohol can do to inhibition. They call it "liquid courage" for a reason.

Salud y pesetas, y veinte mujeres con cuarenta tetas!