South-of-the-border etiquette

COSTA MESA — William Harvey taught a class Friday titled “Learn Spanish in a Day,” but he’s under no delusion — no one can ever learn Spanish in a day.

So he’s not above teaching students how to fake it.

Take the word qué, for example. It’s most often heard as a beginning to the phrase “Qué pasa?” or “What’s happening?” Sometimes, though, it opens a much longer question that, when spoken at conversational speed, goes over the average English speaker’s head. And if that happens, according to Harvey, the best solution is to have a short answer ready.

“They’re asking you what’s going on in your life,” he told the class of around a dozen adults Friday morning at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center. “Just say, ‘Nothing,’ and you’re out of trouble.”

Harvey, an author and educator who grew up in Santa Ana, has taught basic Spanish skills for three decades to corporations, politicians and others. His workshop on Saturday, with registration costs between $50 and $60, benefited the Costa Mesa Library Foundation — and fortunately for the foundation, there turned out to be plenty of people in Costa Mesa seeking to brush up on their Spanish. Among the students who packed the community center’s classroom were librarians, officials from the nonprofit Share Our Selves and even city emergency personnel.

“We have several guys who speak Spanish or are learning Spanish,” said Keith Jones, a deputy fire chief for the Costa Mesa Fire Department. “It’s an environment we’re trying to encourage in the workforce.”

Harvey’s workshop featured a number of Spanish words and phrases, but he strayed away from the language itself to offer pointers on south-of-the-border etiquette. When entering a family gathering, he said, it was imperative to shake hands with every person in the room, and a man should grip only the upper half of a woman’s fingers rather than give her palm a hard, manly squeeze.

And often, he noted, tiny turns of phrase could dictate a social situation. Harvey recommended that American diners in a Mexican restaurant tell the waiter “muy amable” — “I appreciate it” — rather than just the usual “gracias.”

“You muy amable somebody, you’re getting free chips and salsa,” he said.