Friday, July 15, 2011

My mom would be so proud

When I picked up the phone early this morning, Danielle yelled in Italian, "Wake up my little flower apple!" Or maybe she said something else. Between her Italian not being so great, and my memory of Italian being a little spotty, she didn't always use the right words and I didn't always recognize the words she did use. I'm better with phrases, like if you prompt me with How are you, I will automatically say good thank you, and you? But I am not good at talking specifics instead of formalities. Why the hell did we stop practicing Italian?

Now I am trying to remember when I heard my mother speaking it, and all I can hear is her yelling, "No, no, no!" and hitting our hands with a spoon as we'd try to take food, and her kissing me good night and buona notte, mia bella-ing me.

Josh kept whispering, "Why don't you just switch to English?" but I ignored him.  Half the fun was trying to talk in Italian. So here is what may or may not be going on in Italy. I'm not exactly sure.
  1. The dad-guy smokes but goes outside.
  2. They have a ... cat. Or maybe more than one. Micia?
  3. She is disappointed in/not impressed with the food they cook.
  4. Boys/men are flirty there.
  5. She is wearing sky protection, which I will take to mean sunscreen.
There was something else about the flirting that she couldn't quite say and I couldn't quite get, but Josh seemed to know exactly what Dani was trying to say, and claimed it's a European thing. So now my boyfriend and little sister have European secrets I guess. My mom would be really happy to hear us speaking her language again, even if we butchered it, because we tried and at least we got our accents right. 

5 comments:

Mizasiwa said...

Well done to both of you for trying - thats whats important, my sister decided five years ago to learn to speak portugues our great grandfather was from madeira so we have this lingering distand link which in our area is useful when people think we are portugues so she has been taking lessons for five years and is very good our younger sister and I joined the adult class for a year but it was really hard. I can understand it a little now but would love to learn more. maybe you guys should start a 'speak italian' night or somthing when she gets back??

Alisha said...

This post really made me smile. Glad that she called, that she's having fun, and that you're getting to share in her benefits of being there. Dani probably doesn't have as vivid memories as you do of your mom speaking Italian, and going there to immerse herself in it is also her way of connecting.

Lil'Sis said...

Wonderful on all fronts, except the super flirty Italian men and not so great food:)

Anonymous said...

Glad Dani finally called and that you had such a fun conversation.

Didn't realize you were actually taught and spoken to in Italian some as a child. Wouldn't have guessed that you would have been beyond various phrases.

Can you take an Italian language class this fall at school?

Combining the idea of practicing Italian and when you might travel internationally, through your school you might be able to go to Italy for a brief language immersion program. Check out what opportunities exist and what funding is available for them.

With enough planning maybe you could somehow swing leaving for a month.

Also, glad you and Alex are having fun.

Yankee, Transferred said...

So happy she called, and it sounds like the call was great. It must feel good to pull Mom so close.