I have a young Japanese friend who goes to an English-as-a-second-language class in a local college. I gave her a cassette recording of José Carreras singing a Chinese folk song (from his recently released album, Pure Passion). I asked her to take it to her class, have her Chinese classmates listen to it and give me their feedback.

She was happy to do that because she was introduced to her first opera on video last week and found the young handsome poet "pretty cool" and his voice "beautiful." She wanted to show off her discovery.

I was, too.

She went on, "Then they asked me who this great singer is. Well...his name was on the tip of my tongue because you said it so many times, but I just couldn't remember. So I told them, 'He is one of those famous three opera guys singing together all over the world, you know?' 'Luciano Pav....?' asked a Chinese girl. I told her 'Yeah!' because it sounded right. Right?"

I hope she will get these names straightened out (and the local Chinese community will receive an apology and correction) by the end of this semester. And here's hoping I can do a better job next time.