How to Embarass a Canadian Girl, Part Due
Let me update on the Italian lessons before I go into this story. My old teacher Silvio has no moved to Toronto, so he was replaced with Laura (pronouced Louwra, like the ou in ouch), a youngish, hip woman. I was somewhat put off on the first day because she spoke only Italian and expected us to speak Italian back. I know, it was a crazy concept at an Italian language school. I have noticed my Italian has been definitely improving since her arrival in our classroom.
Still, there are some words I just don't get, and even though most people say Italian is very easy to pronounce (not like throaty French or raspy German), I have struggle ennuciating vowels on word endings. Think of it as always having to say the e or o at the end of a word, like, hellooooooooooo Daddyyyyyyyyyyyy, how are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu today?
We were studying the past tense, and I had to tell the class that I placed the pen on the table.
Pen = penna
Apparently I said it wrong, and she repeated the word for me to grasp better. So I said again "penna". We went back and forth for a few minutes with her stressing the parts of the word she wanted me to say. I thought I was saying what she was saying, when finally she broke into an explanation and said (in Italiano) "Make sure you say penNA not peNE because that is a part of a man." Of course I had no idea what she said because I was so frazzled trying to pronounce it correctly that I told her "no capisco Laura". Ha. Then she whispered: PENIS. Only it wasn't a whisper.
Lesson learned: don't tell anybody you would like to borrow their pene, use their pene, or that you put their pene on the table.
Still, there are some words I just don't get, and even though most people say Italian is very easy to pronounce (not like throaty French or raspy German), I have struggle ennuciating vowels on word endings. Think of it as always having to say the e or o at the end of a word, like, hellooooooooooo Daddyyyyyyyyyyyy, how are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu today?
We were studying the past tense, and I had to tell the class that I placed the pen on the table.
Pen = penna
Apparently I said it wrong, and she repeated the word for me to grasp better. So I said again "penna". We went back and forth for a few minutes with her stressing the parts of the word she wanted me to say. I thought I was saying what she was saying, when finally she broke into an explanation and said (in Italiano) "Make sure you say penNA not peNE because that is a part of a man." Of course I had no idea what she said because I was so frazzled trying to pronounce it correctly that I told her "no capisco Laura". Ha. Then she whispered: PENIS. Only it wasn't a whisper.
Lesson learned: don't tell anybody you would like to borrow their pene, use their pene, or that you put their pene on the table.