Italian gave us these English words but note the intonation

My previous posts have looked at the Italian words which are easy to recogize from the similar words in English.  If you like music you know or can easily see that we get the English words diva and maestro, piano and solo and sonata and soprano from Italian.

But you can also look at English words to find the Italian. If you want words in everyday language there are plenty more. I looked down the list in Wikipedia to select my favourites.

 Union Jack English flags in the UK. The English word coffee and the Italian word Gelato. 

English - Italian

balcony - il balcone

graffiti - writing - plural

Italian sounds smoothe and sonorous, a pleasing sound, even to speakers of Spanish, a language which is very similar. Italian, like Japanese, ends words with a vowel. The Japanese turn hotel into hoteru. The Italian for hotel is albergo. To remember the Italian I think of a lodging for the a followed by the l. But if you go to an Italian ski resort you just walk around and see the word Albergo everywhere on big buildings with balconies, so you quickly learn it.

The word graffiti is a reminder that the letter i is used to show the masculine plural. The names Maria and Mario are the singular masuline and singular plural.

I now have two common words acting as reminder for the masculine plural, spaghetti, and graffiti. 

English Intonation

English has German intonation, stamping loudly on the first syllable. Think of the word kindergarten, from kinder, child, and garten, garden. That is also a reminder of how the letters t and d occur in almost the same word in different languages. 

The English name Victoria sounds like VicTORia.

But Italian sounds the last vowel or the penultimate (last but one). We recognise this when we say Maria as MarIa. So the word Trattoria does not sound like Victoria but like Maria. 

Give Me The Chopsticks - I have Trouble Using A Fork!" How Do You Use A Fork?

 How to Use Chopsticks. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
My Chinese Singaporean friend says to the serving person, "I'll take the chopsticks - I have trouble using a fork!" For a moment I think he is joking. To be sure, I ask him: "Do you really have trouble using a fork?"

Answer
He replied, "Yes, I always eat with chopsticks."
I protested, incredulously, "I mean, using a fork is easy!"
"Easy for you you, because you are used to using knives and forks. Like you have trouble with chopsticks, I have trouble with forks."

"But, what's the problem? Holding the fork? Pushing the food onto it?"
"I can hold a fork. I used to work in an Italian restaurant as a waiter. But it's picking up the food."
"The way you do it is push food such as peas onto the back of the fork with your knife - I mean there are two ways, you can spear the peas with the prongs of the fork ...  Actually, there are three ways - you can also turn the fork upside down, like a spoon, so long as nobody is looking and you are not in a restaurant, because it's not good manners. Does that solve your problem? What kind of food do you have trouble with?"
"Spaghetti."
"Ah - English people have trouble with that, too. You eat it with a fork and spoon, not a knife and fork. You push spagetthi onto the spoon, then rotate your fork ..."
"Horizontally or vertically?"
"Well, first vertically, to get the food which is in the spoon wrapped around the prongs of the fork, then lift the fork horizontally, in mid-air, and twirl any bits which are falling off - I think you need to ask an Italian."

We didn't even get onto how Americans eat differently, by cutting up the food first, putting down the knife, then eating with a fork.

If you want a subject of discussion, avoiding controversial subjects such as politics, religions and sex. stick to discussing how to eat with chopsticks and knives and forks and spoons.

As for where you put the knives and forks on plates after eating, that's different and England and France.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. For more posts on table etiquette, knives and forks and chopsticks, see posts on Travel with Angela Lansbury. Please share links to your favourite posts.