Some Shameless Ways to Practise Your New Language (Part II)

Confuse Restaurant Staff in Italy

One of the great things about bring in a foreign country is that you don’t really care that much about making a fool of yourself. I was in Rome and was so pleased to have successfully ordered a bottle of something called arancia rossa that I skipped into a take away restaurant singing arancia rossa and looking for something to wash down with it. I ordered a pastry which eventually turned out to be more unpleasant than I had originally expected. The problems began when I asked to take it away. I had no idea how to say this and simply tried to use the Spanish words in an Italian accent. After 5 minutes a light bulb went on about the cashier’s head and she said “take away?” If you are taking Italian lessons London Italian restaurants will let you practise being silly before you go away I assume.

Funny Faces in Paris

I have been shameless in Paris too. I was near that big arch type thing which some chap ordered to be built before he died. It looked jolly nice and I fancied a picture of it for my photo album. I asked a passing French person in broken French to take my picture and then whipped out my beret and proceeded to make a series of silly faces. I might have offended them and it might even be a criminal offence to seemingly mock the Arc de Triomphe but when you are a foreigner with little sense of dignity they tend to let you off lightly in my experience. If you want French lessons Edinburgh doesn’t have an arch that I can remember but I can recommend putting on a tartan hat and getting your picture taken in front of the castle.