An Italian fluff
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I work in a bank in Canada and I had a friend of mine who was originally from Brasil. When she was working the front line, a customer was asking why their account was frozen (funds not available). She didn't quite get what the customer meant and after pondering it for a minute, she walked over to the manager and asked to have the account defrosted.
My cousin was in a cafe in Italy and thought she had asked for a salad roll with no meat (carne) but instead of meat she asked for a salad roll with "no dog" (cane)
While visiting Rome a long time ago, I said in Italian that one of the best things about Italian gelato was that there weren't any preservatives in it. Unfortunately, 'preservativi' means condoms. I got a lot of startled looks before they realized the mistake and said next time I should say 'conservativi'! I'm very glad Italian gelato has none of the above.
When my mom moved from England to
Canada, she made the mistake at a dinner
party, to say to one of the guests "Would
you kindly knock me up in the morning".
His reply was "Gladly" and said with great
enthusiasm in his voice. My mom thought
his retort was a bit strange. In England,
you can have someone wake you up in the
morning by knocking on your door...kind of
a cheerio...time to get up...kind of gesture.
But, here in Canada, if you "knock someone up" it means to get them pregnant!!! This was an embarrassing
moment for my mom, one which was
never repeated again. So it goes to show
that even two people speaking English
but from different countries, can have major misunderstandings! i thought it
was a very humorous anecdote to her
introduction to the Canadian way-heh!
My mother has lived in Italy for many years. As often happens she muddled her words one day and spent 20 minutes in a chemist asking for anti-wrinkle cream, when the girl in the shop looked confused she explained she liked to rub it on her face - trouble was, she was asking for anti-rust cream.
As an "italian abroad" I am writing a blog about all the silly mistakes I made along the way, it's interesting the others did the same while learning my mother tongue. I am loving this pages.
When my friend went to Italy for the first time, she knew only a few phrases in Italian. She was walking around, coming into the shops, and when she found something she wanted to buy, she asked "Cosa nostra?" instead of "Quanto costa?". And after a number of attempts to buy something, she discovered her mistake.
My native language is Danish. In one of my early Italian lessons, I was asked to translate: "Dietro il bar sta il barista." I knew "barrister" from English. In Danish it means "advokat". So my Danish translation became: The barrister stands behind the bar". Lots of laughs!
I asked for a succo di pomeriggio once (afternoon juice) rather than succo di pomodoro (tomato juice). Got a rather puzzled look back before my sister noticed the error.
I asked for an ice-cream flavour fish - pesce- when I wanted a peach -pesche-,flavour. The ice-cream vendor just held his nose and smiled.
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