Funny Italian Lesson

No gains, only pains

When in the mood, I try to practice Italian around Michele…so when we were shopping over the weekend, and I tried to say “100 dollars” in Italian, which is “cento dollari”

Michele’s reply was that it sounded like I said “cento dolori”, which is “100 pains”…painful indeed to buy one Anthropoligie skirt for a stay at home housewife! Recently, it’s just been no cash gains, only growing pains… funny how in Italian, dollar sounds like pain! ( dollari vs dolori)

However, the other day, Michele tried to say to my mom, over the phone “我愛 Chin”, (which is “I love Chin”. Not that he was showing off his affection for me, just because it’s probably the only few words he knows in Mandarin), but instead my mom thought he said”我愛錢”, which is “I love money”…And that is true, in both cases!

Qui, qua? Li, la?

Here, there, ...where?

The first couple of months I met Michele, I remember asking him instructions for something, and he would say, "you put theez here, and then thatta over there...and then theez thing goes into thatta thinga,"... and the patience in me would get all agitated, and without realizing how rude I was, I'd explode. "What? what here, what there? what this and that? Can't you use left and right, and descriptions instead of using 'here' and 'there'? Can't you be more specific?"

Only until I met my current Italian teacher, Cristina, did I start to forgive Michele =p

Our lovely, petite, very stylish instructor/ professoressa Cristina at the end of class, would use her finger, point to a page, and just simply say,

" for homework, write a little bit about here."

And our fellow American students, would ask, " Sorry, which page? which part?"

We are so used to being given clear instructions, clear step- by- step to dos. Which book, which page, which section, which number? Write how long - how many sentences, or paragraphs?

With directions, we are used to saying: head north or south, turn right in two blocks...make a left turn at the stop sign...etc

But in Italian, if you are asking for directions, you can just point and ask:

è di lì (and point your finger to one direction) o di là ( point to the oppisite direction)? ( li = here, la = there)

Or è di qui o di qua? (qui = here, qua = there)

Meaning, "is it here, or is it there", or in other words, "is it this way, or that way"?

I always tried to be specific, and I also preferred clearer instructions, because I was taught that that was the better way of speaking. I remember my dad used to make me ask clear questions, so I would have to formulate the question very logically in my head, before I asked. He would also very condescendingly say that some people rely on hand gestures to talk because they cannot clearly and accurately use words to explain. Thus they relied on hands and pointing.

However, I am starting to understand the Italian language and culture more after taking Italian classes. Quite to the contrary, Italians are expressive communicators. They are more emotional and demonstrative, as they they tend to use facial and hand getures to prove their point. And Italians are intuitive., and you sort of have to "get it" It's just a part of culture to talk in a way that requires you to use your body to express your feelings. At the end of the day, they understand each other perfectly. Maybe its us that's being too anal.