Italian Tourist Fluent In Spanish After 8 Hours In Mexico
Picking up new romance language has been "molto facile," charming tourist says
MEXICO CITY — Luca Mancini, a 31-year-old Italian man from Verona, needed just eight hours in Mexico to understand and speak impeccable castellano Spanish, a feat which gained him both admiration and disdain in his first day in the capital city.
Mancini, who says he knew solo un po of Spanish prior to arriving in Mexico, was seen successfully flirting and cracking jokes in the new language by the time he got to baggage claim at the airport, according to eye witnesses.
“I haven’t really encountered any, como si dice, language barriers,” Mancini said charmingly as he rolled his own cigarette at a café near his AirBnb. “And when I make a mistake, I just say it with an Italian accent and everyone thinks it’s adorable.”
While Mancini said the learning curve for Spanish was steep for the first 90 minutes of his trip, by early afternoon he felt far more confident after reading a copy of Pedro Paramo cover to cover at lunch while sipping espresso.
By the evening, he was on his first date, where he appeared to be the perfect mix of charming, handsome and exotic, eye witnesses said.
“I think I hate this guy,” said Andrew Smith-Johnson, a 36-year-old American man who still sputters and clumsily speaks Spanish despite seven years living in Mexico City. “I know everyone’s all impressed, but Italian and Spanish are basically the same language.”