I have found a definition for that loss of words when someone asks me Come si chiama in Inglese ?- What is that called in English.

Of course my mind draws a blank and I cannot remember. Then I realized that I might not know because I learned the name for it first in Italian. Like names for trees and fish that we buy at the supermarket.

So often I find myself saying things in English that have a syntax derived completley from Italian grammar. Mind you I am not the grammar queen.

My mother used to get furious when I went back to the US, thinking that I was feigning and accent. Then she realized that I am living in the

CULTURE WARP


I can't image those of you that have lived in more than two countries and those of you that have kids that go to Italian school.

From now on I have the excuse for my unappropiate behavior. HA!

Angie - you are great....

CULTURE WARP!

That's exactly what it is....I'm so pleased to know that I'm not alone.
This has been happening to me since I lived here in the 'last century' (sounds quite good that), and now too. Every time I go back to the UK, or when British friends are visiting, the 'forgettery' kicks in and I end up looking and feeling like a candidate for the 'funny farm'!

You do forget words so easily. The other day I couldn't even remember what 'merluzzo' was!
Carole B.

My favorite example actually was perpetrated by a friend who's been in Italy far longer than I have. One day she said to me: "I'll make a jump at the new place on my way home."

Oh, and the other was a friend's kid who spent many of his young years in Italy. Back in the States, he would answer the phone: "Ready!"

quote:

Originally posted by Carole B.:


You do forget words so easily. The other day I couldn't even remember what 'merluzzo' was!
Carole B.

I had to think about it just reading your post. But then in many of the local shops you could ask for merluzzo and get it.

I know, I feel pretty goofy when something like, "I'll come and find you!" pops out (instead of I'll stop by or I'll come over ..).

I always get a huge headache when I go to visit the states. I am not used to making so much conversation in english anymore and of course, everyone loves to talk to me due to my 'accent'. The clerks look at my funny when I respond to them in italian and then everyone starts laughing. I am glad that I am not the only one with these problems!

this happens to me soo much, epsecialy during teaching, my students must think I'm nuts when I tell them I can't remember or don't know the word in English; there are so many words that I know in Italian but I wouldn't use their English counterpart in England.

Dare I introduce into the discussion the word PESANTE??

Especially when describing food, it takes me some time to think of describing a dish as something other than "heavy" - I had to force myself to re-introduce words such as "rich" or "filling," words that would have come naturally 3 years ago!

Then you can always bestemmiare in Italian while in the US and not many will know what your saying,

A friend of min from Carrara opened a company in the US and had this gorgeous germand shepard guard dog for the property. When he would come onto the premisis in the morning the dog would jump all over him and he would scream at it GIU'. He screamed alot. He was heavily criticized by some of his customers for this. They just couldn't image that the word had a different meaning than what is sounded like in English

quote:

Originally posted by Angie-tuscanartist:
Then you can always bestemmiare in Italian while in the US and not many will know what your saying,

Ah-ha! Beware with bestemmie when abroad. On one trip to Edinburgh Luca and I were buying some food. So, we were waiting in line, and there was this guy quite obviously very drunk or otherways intoxicated who was bestemmiando in a quite wicked way, but not really over the top. So, he stood in line properly, but muttering "porco qui, porco lì". Once served, my turn came up, and I turned to the guy on the other side. I asked what I wanted, he replied, and we both noticed Italian accents and moved to italian, commenting the bestemmiatore and laughing at him because the serving guy was from Livorno and I am originally from Mantova: the two places where people bestemmiano the most in Italy, and in the most wicked way.

On the reverse side of this, one of my wife's favorite moments of shame, not remembering words in Italian, was when she was telling someone in Italy about all of the 'preservativi' in so much American food ** OOOPS! **

quote:

Originally posted by Angie-tuscanartist:
Then you can always bestemmiare in Italian while in the US and not many will know what your saying,

okay, I've never heard that one before.. what is bestemmiare? I can guess a general meaning by the context of Alice's message... but....

Lori

Lori a lady just doesn't need to know those things

It's cursing.

quote:

Originally posted by MichaelK:
On the reverse side of this, one of my wife's favorite moments of shame, not remembering words in Italian, was when she was telling someone in Italy about all of the 'preservativi' in so much American food ** OOOPS! **

I fell into the same trap with that word - trying to be clever when first over here... 'oh well' I thought, just add an 'o' or an 'i' to any word and see if they understand. Boy did my DH go red -so did I when he explained what I'd said . Remember this was in the days before there was the freedom of speech that we have now. Italy then was so 'straight laced'!

Carole B.

You're not the only ones to have made the preservativi mistake! And I don't think the sensibilites of the audience have changed all that much in the course of time.

Fortunately I've never made the preservativi mistake, but every so often my boyfriend likes to remind me of the time I wanted to say scoraggiante but said scoreggiante instead.

I've noticed that I've developed a really bad habit of translating qualcosa di + adjective into English. The first time I did it I was teaching. I can't remember exactly the point I was making but I said something like, "this is really something of beautiful." The students all looked at me like I had two heads.

Karen

I still get mixed up (and made fun of) of the word casino. I can never remember what the 'good' pronunciation of the word is- casinò or casino.

Lori, a well.behaved translation of the verb could be "pronouncing the Lord's name in vain". And in a quite outrageous way...

It was years before I realized that sayin accidenti was saying goddamit.

I'm still a little confused because my dictionary defines accidenti as damn or damn it. The lords name is not mentioned. I guess I should be more careful. Here I thought I was just saying ...Damn!
(Art)

My MIL, who is a lay Franciscan and very religious, says "accidenti" on occasion, so it can't be that bad... !

It's actually an invocation to the divine powers to bring an accident on something or someone. But it's also one of those swear words that lost power and meaning as time passed. Now it's a very mild thing to say and the true meaning of it is lost; it's even used in (children) comics.

Thanks Alice, it's obvious now that you point it out, but I never thought of it that way.. kind of like 'mortacci.." oopS

A friend of ours from the south gets very upset when he hears that last one.. really mad!! He can't understand why in Rome it's not that big a deal and they use it pretty casually/sarcastically. "You wish my relatives a horrible death?!?!?" He takes it verrrrry seriously!

quote:

Thanks Alice, it's obvious now that you point it out, but I never thought of it that way.. kind of like 'mortacci.." oopS censored

A friend of ours from the south gets very upset when he hears that last one.. really mad!! Mad Mad Mad He can't understand why in Rome it's not that big a deal and they use it pretty casually/sarcastically. "You wish my relatives a horrible death?!?!?" electric He takes it verrrrry seriously! Mad

Now I remember that from when I was young in Rome! I left when I was 11 (39 years ago), so never understood what it actually meant, like quite a lot of my Italian. I keep discovering that what I remember is correct (like irregular nouns) but I don't understand the underlying grammar.