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Now as my employers previously stated I would be living with the boys grandmother and great grandmother. What they failed to mention was that both women couldn't speak or understand any English...none...zilch...zero. So being left for four hours in a basement kitchen with these two very lovely (I think) ladies was somewhat uncomfortable with my Italian knowledge being 'si', 'ciao', 'grazie', 'neno possible per me' and 'Il treno e in ritardo', that last one from watching 'Because I said so' repeatedly going through my Gabriel Mact phase, now there's a man who could steal my heart...back to the point. So yeah as of yet there haven't been any major repercussions of the language barrier, I did accidentally make nonna (newly learnt Italian word meaning grandmother) go out of her way to buy me a coke, to be fair I heard coca cola and assumed she was asking if I liked it and not would I like it but hey got a free coke out of it!
Then there was sitting next to bisnonna (newly learnt word for great grandmother) and letting her speak to me for a good 10 minutes before making an 'I have no Idea what you are saying but I'm smiling and apologetic so please don't hate me' face. She still didn't get it and had to be told repeatedly by nonna that I didn't understand her.
Another issue with the language barrier is jokes are completely lost. The amount of times I've attempted to give a funny or witty answer but had to rephrase to the point of "don't worry about it" my comedy brain can't handle this. I'm sat watching a slideshow presentation of an artists travels in Indonesia and in one of the pictures a little boy is in the background completely naked showing off his bits and bobs, we all laugh and he changes the slide but look little boy is in this one too and the next and 90% of the rest of the photos, standing in random places. For everyone else it stops being funny at 2 but for me it gets funnier by the photo to the point where I leant over to the person next to me and quietly said "where's willy?" Of course she didn't understand and looked at me like a deranged pervert.
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Brian Skroski The beauty of travel is...the language barrier. Having to communicate without language is where all the fun begins! Happy traveling.