Learning Mandarin in B.A.

I know it’s been Chiwanese (Chinese/Taiwanese) 24/7 in these parts recently, but this was too good to pass up.

CS Monitor: “East meets West, with an Argentine twist”:

BUENOS AIRES – Like many in Latin America’s most Eurocentric country, 26-year-old Emanuela Gavezza has long fancied the West. Her grandparents hail from northern Italy, which she has visited almost yearly.

During the ’90s, when the economy here was booming with the Argentine peso pegged to the dollar, she started traveling to the United States. She even studied at the University of Richmond in Virginia for six months, perfecting her English.

This year though, Ms. Gavezza is looking East. She began studying Mandarin with a private tutor. She now relishes sopa de wan-ton in Buenos Aires’s two-block long Barrio Chino.

She is not alone.