{"id":3724,"date":"2013-08-02T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2013-08-02T14:34:27","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T14:34:27","slug":"how-embarrassing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/how-embarrassing\/","title":{"rendered":"How Embarrassing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you speak a foreign language, it doesn\u2019t matter how well you know it, the possibility of embarrassing yourself is always waiting for you round the corner, especially when you are faced with sounds that are not familiar to your own language. For Italian people the worst possible sound to pronounce in English is, probably, the \u201cth\u201d. We are incapable of putting our tongue behind our upper teeth and letting out a soft breath without sounding like a snake! Things get worse when we are faced with two words which are fairly similar. In my case I don\u2019t seem to be able to differentiate between \u201cthighs\u201d (cosce<\/strong>) and \u201ctights\u201d (collant<\/strong>). Every time I have to stop and think: Qual \u00e8 cosce e qual \u00e8 collant?<\/strong> and more often than not I choose the wrong one, so Geoff\u2019s favourite winter\u2019s joke is: \u201cDarling, have you got your woolly thighs on?\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Embarrassed\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another problem we have with spoken English is the difference between long and short vowels, therefore to our ears \u201cthis\u201d and \u201cthese\u201d sound the same. I remember a friend of mine, whom I attended a language class with when I first moved to England, telling me: Ho sempre paura di fare una figuraccia quando chiedo le lenzuola pulite alla mia padrona, per cui esagero da morire<\/strong> (I\u2019m always scared of embarrassing myself when I ask my landlady for clean sheets, so I exaggerate it a lot): \u201cExcuse me, can I have some clean sheeeeeets?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, my most embarrassing memory is of when I used to teach Italian to adults in England. It was my first year of teaching and one of my very first classes. In that lesson I had explained how to use the different types of Italian definite articles (il, lo, la, l\u2019, i, gli, le<\/strong> = the). At the end of the class, as I was setting the homework, I wrote a list of Italian words so that the students would have to choose the correct article to put in front of each word. One of these was asola<\/strong> (buttonhole). While they were copying the list somebody asked the meaning of asola<\/strong>. Now, in Italian button is bottone<\/strong>, which sounds similar to bottom, so with my nice Italian English accent I promptly said \u201cbottonhole\u201d and saw a row of shocked faces staring at me. Realising that I had said something wrong, with trembling hands I picked up my coat from the chair and pointing to the asola<\/strong> I said in a shaky voice \u201cthis one\u201d. A sigh of relief came from the students.<\/p>\n

Do you have any embarrassing language mistake you\u2019d like to share with us? Leave a comment.<\/p>\n

P.S. When Geoff proofread this blog he noticed that I had written \u201cWe are incapable of putting our thong behind our upper teeth! \"Surprised \u201c  Luckily for me he picked up on it, or that would have been another one for the embarrassing list!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

When you speak a foreign language, it doesn\u2019t matter how well you know it, the possibility of embarrassing yourself is always waiting for you round the corner, especially when you are faced with sounds that are not familiar to your own language. For Italian people the worst possible sound to pronounce in English is, probably…<\/p>\n

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