A Subconscious Moment...

of speaking the right word/s in Italian without even thinking about it!

Last year, I was a dedicated watcher of the FIFA 2006 World Cup Football action (Soccer for you back home). I diligently kept record of who won what match, the score, and who was moving up...I cannot say that I was 'supporting' the USA or even England, instead I was torn between France, Italy & Germany---right from the start. I digress...anyway, while I was watching the footy (as it's called here), the telly had various advertisments for newspapers and such. One particular news paper was offering Free CD's to help you learn a language---you could collect all 9 CD's and learn the language in a week. Well, I only caught on to the opportunity near the end of "French" being offered, so I tuned in to see which language was next...Italian. So, I decided I would attempt to teach myself Italian---with these 'tried and tested' cd's.

Well, after being in Palestine--and learning some more Arabic--I returned to the states. Only after I returned to Scotland in September did I work to 'live' the decision I made about learning italian. The first cd has 63+ minutes of vocabulary, dialogue, verbs, and exams for yourself. I only just 'graduated' myself to the 2nd CD at the beginning of February--so much for learning italian in a week! LOL!

Still, my diligence seems to be paying off because just last week I was having coffee in an Italian restaurant with my friend/colleague Monica. (She is from Italy--coincidence?) This is when I had the subconscious moment...

The people who run/work at the restaurant happen to all be Italians, and they communicate to each other in italian. It's really impressive. Anyway, the lad brought me the mocha I order. When he set it on the table, he 'dribbled' part of the liquid down one side of the glass---no big deal to me, but it was to him. So he went away to fetch a cloth and present it to me without the dribble. He then apologized to me. I replied (without thinking) in Italian. I said "Dienente" (deen yen tay), which means 'it doesn't matter' or 'don't worry about it'. Anyway, the lad turned to face me with a surprized look and asked if i was italian. :o) Needless to say, it made my day!

Jamie