Non-Native Speaker Idioms

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, buongiorno. This is Paul from Dallas, Texas.

Buongiorno!

Come sta?

Sto bene, voi?

What can we do for you, Paul?

Sto bene.

Well, I live in the Tower of Babel.

My wife is Italian, and we’ve lived in different countries across Europe.

Mm—

And now, and we’ve picked up languages along the way,

And children and children who speak languages to varying degrees.

And so when we sit down for dinner, there’s sort of a confused atmosphere.

Not everybody understands what everybody’s saying.

And, of course, if we have dinner guests, there’s nobody there.

Oh, right.

Oh, man, I want to come to your house for dinner.

That sounds like a blast.

Well, yeah, the food’s good, too.

I bet.

My wife has these sayings from Italian that even when she’s speaking English now, they’re sort of misunderstood.

And I was wondering if you knew what some of these might actually mean.

Oh, okay.

Going to give us a quiz then?

Yeah.

Okay.

Sure.

All right.

The first one is I can put my hand on the fire.

I can put my hand on the fire.

Is it something that has to do with you’re looking for something and she’s trying to tell you that you’re really close to it?

Like you’re getting warm?

Yeah, you’re like you’re getting warm.

No, you’re cold.

You’re cold, yeah.

Well, you know, I live with an Argentinian and I think, you know, and there’s a lot of Italian influence there.

So I may have to disqualify myself from that.

Oh, you know the answer.

Go for it.

I think I might.

If it has to do with I could put my hand on the fire, it means I swear it’s true?

Exactly.

Oh, very good.

But I never knew why.

Well, yeah, and I don’t know exactly.

I’ve only heard rumors.

And I think most of these expressions you never really know where they came from.

But it comes from ancient Rome.

And that’s something that they did in maybe one of the temples or the rites

To swear to the god you would actually have to hold your hand over some sort of fire on the altar.

Oh, I see.

Yeah, so you really believe it’s true.

Yeah.

I’m not sure I believe the origin’s true.

What else did she say?

Here’s another one.

The watermelon isn’t always red on the inside.

The watermelon isn’t always red on the inside.

What does that mean?

Is that you can’t tell a book by its cover or?

You’re getting warm, yeah.

I don’t know.

Yeah, it’s similar to that.

They eat a lot of watermelon there.

And, of course, the good watermelons are red on the inside.

So sometimes when you do something, it doesn’t come out right.

And so it’s sort of the, I guess it’s sort of the Italian equivalent of life is like a box of chocolates.

Oh, you never know what you’re going to get.

But sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.

Oh, very good.

So she just tosses these things off, assuming that there’s the same expression in English?

I think so.

Yeah, yeah.

I think so, although over time what happens is her, and this happens to me when I’m speaking foreign languages,

Eventually you realize that people don’t understand you.

Exactly.

But then your language becomes really bland because you stop using these wonderful, colorful expressions even if nobody understands.

Paul, this is rich stuff.

Never a dull moment in your house, it sounds like.

No, it’s not.

My life has been compared to one long episode of I Love Lucy.

Oh, yeah.

I can totally see that.

Only she’s the Ricky Ricardo character, right?

Yeah, you’ve got the explaining to do.

Well, Paul, I want to thank you for sharing your stories with us.

This is great.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thanks.

Love the show.

Thanks a lot.

Ciao.

Holy moly.

Oh, man.

Well, I know that there are lots of great stories like that out there.

Tell us about your Tower of Babel in your home.

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