You simply have to love the Italians!
So! What really are the chances that you write to a language school asking them details about their classes so you may learn the language and the response you get is in the very language you need to learn. Not in English. Not even in half English. But in Italian! Seriously! I could not stop laughing when I read the email. I simply couldn’t till my hurting tummy made me stop. Post the laugh my first reaction was “am I over reacting because I am feeling that lost and displaced?” but then my own head told me “No! this really is that funny…”
But like I always say, when it’s me and things around me, the most improbable will most likely happen. Like in this case getting a response in Italian about a query that said, “Hi! I am new to Florence and to Italy and I am very keen on learning Italian. I saw your advertisement in The Florentine and I am now writing to find out when and where are the classes? How many times a week? And when should I come to register? Cheers, Urvashi.” Lost in translation I guess.
And well that brings me to the next thing I noticed today. Now I know a lot of you will say “you dirty mind” when I tell you this but a sign fixed near one of the smaller printers in office made me snort with amusement too. I did not laugh out loud. I swear. And there is a very good reason for that. And I will come around to that and another very amusing this that happened in just a little bit. So I am walking past the printer and suddenly I see something that doesn’t seem to fit. So I read the sign again. It reads in effect like the “small printer” is requesting people not to overuse it and for bigger jobs they should use the bigger printers where they have the “front and back facility available”. Funny! No?
Anyway! So the reason I held myself back is because most likely I would have been lost in translation if I had tried to explain what was so funny for me. To give you an example: the guy I have spoken to twice about the air conditioning in my room not being cool enough. The first time he came to check he simply said, “You door. Its open. No cooling if door open.” Well agreed. But all attempts to tell him that the door is open because the room was oppressively hot failed. So I sat at work, sweating on my second day wondering how to approach the problem. Today, unable to take it any more, I spoke to him again and this time he came and said “lower temperature” and pushed the knob to 15 degrees! Wow! When I tired telling him optimum cooling is between 20-23 degree and I had pushed the knob from 17 to 20 to see if that would make a difference given that his last setting (17 degrees) had had no effect, I got lost in translation again. He simply told me, “more cool then push this down. Up is no cool”, shrugged his shoulders and left. He must think I am very very stupid. I am sure he does. I’ll figure it out. I will just go shrug my shoulders tomorrow and say, “still no cool.” I think that will work.
Its amazing how hot Florence can be. I am still amazed and I have been told that July and August are worse and also humid! Yikes!! And most home don’t have air conditioning. Oh! Or even fans! I still have not seen a single ceiling fan here. Only table fans or those taller ones on wheels. Thank god they are the silent ones. We should have some of those back home too. I have never seen such silent table / mobile fans. But guess what a mini cooler is called? Penguini! So cute! I found this out when I asked the agent showing me apartments if the flat she was hard selling to me had air conditioning, given it was on the top floor and it is only getting hotter, and she said “no no, but I can get you a penguini. You know penguini? That little thing with cool air.”
I love this place. Constantly amusing. And by the way, so is Italian tv. The adverts are so bad! If I though the British ad industry could learn from their Indian counterpart, the Italian ad industry definitely should. Jeez! At least the visuals should have been a saviour even if I do not understand a word (barring some very generic ones!). But so far I am still waiting to be surprised on that front. What has been more predictable but awesome regardless has been the food. This by no means is to say that you cannot get bad food here. You can. But more on that later. Chances are by then I will discover a few more food related facts and it will simply be more fun to write about then. And frankly now its time to get to bed. Yes! The Urvster is going to bed early these days. Lets see how long this lasts…
Ciao my lovelies…
So! What really are the chances that you write to a language school asking them details about their classes so you may learn the language and the response you get is in the very language you need to learn. Not in English. Not even in half English. But in Italian! Seriously! I could not stop laughing when I read the email. I simply couldn’t till my hurting tummy made me stop. Post the laugh my first reaction was “am I over reacting because I am feeling that lost and displaced?” but then my own head told me “No! this really is that funny…”
But like I always say, when it’s me and things around me, the most improbable will most likely happen. Like in this case getting a response in Italian about a query that said, “Hi! I am new to Florence and to Italy and I am very keen on learning Italian. I saw your advertisement in The Florentine and I am now writing to find out when and where are the classes? How many times a week? And when should I come to register? Cheers, Urvashi.” Lost in translation I guess.
And well that brings me to the next thing I noticed today. Now I know a lot of you will say “you dirty mind” when I tell you this but a sign fixed near one of the smaller printers in office made me snort with amusement too. I did not laugh out loud. I swear. And there is a very good reason for that. And I will come around to that and another very amusing this that happened in just a little bit. So I am walking past the printer and suddenly I see something that doesn’t seem to fit. So I read the sign again. It reads in effect like the “small printer” is requesting people not to overuse it and for bigger jobs they should use the bigger printers where they have the “front and back facility available”. Funny! No?
Anyway! So the reason I held myself back is because most likely I would have been lost in translation if I had tried to explain what was so funny for me. To give you an example: the guy I have spoken to twice about the air conditioning in my room not being cool enough. The first time he came to check he simply said, “You door. Its open. No cooling if door open.” Well agreed. But all attempts to tell him that the door is open because the room was oppressively hot failed. So I sat at work, sweating on my second day wondering how to approach the problem. Today, unable to take it any more, I spoke to him again and this time he came and said “lower temperature” and pushed the knob to 15 degrees! Wow! When I tired telling him optimum cooling is between 20-23 degree and I had pushed the knob from 17 to 20 to see if that would make a difference given that his last setting (17 degrees) had had no effect, I got lost in translation again. He simply told me, “more cool then push this down. Up is no cool”, shrugged his shoulders and left. He must think I am very very stupid. I am sure he does. I’ll figure it out. I will just go shrug my shoulders tomorrow and say, “still no cool.” I think that will work.
Its amazing how hot Florence can be. I am still amazed and I have been told that July and August are worse and also humid! Yikes!! And most home don’t have air conditioning. Oh! Or even fans! I still have not seen a single ceiling fan here. Only table fans or those taller ones on wheels. Thank god they are the silent ones. We should have some of those back home too. I have never seen such silent table / mobile fans. But guess what a mini cooler is called? Penguini! So cute! I found this out when I asked the agent showing me apartments if the flat she was hard selling to me had air conditioning, given it was on the top floor and it is only getting hotter, and she said “no no, but I can get you a penguini. You know penguini? That little thing with cool air.”
I love this place. Constantly amusing. And by the way, so is Italian tv. The adverts are so bad! If I though the British ad industry could learn from their Indian counterpart, the Italian ad industry definitely should. Jeez! At least the visuals should have been a saviour even if I do not understand a word (barring some very generic ones!). But so far I am still waiting to be surprised on that front. What has been more predictable but awesome regardless has been the food. This by no means is to say that you cannot get bad food here. You can. But more on that later. Chances are by then I will discover a few more food related facts and it will simply be more fun to write about then. And frankly now its time to get to bed. Yes! The Urvster is going to bed early these days. Lets see how long this lasts…
Ciao my lovelies…
