{"id":283,"date":"2010-04-25T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T22:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/tuscany-umbria-cooking-vacation-blog\/?p=283"},"modified":"2019-07-16T11:25:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T09:25:47","slug":"boh-perfect-italian-words-phrases-translate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturediscovery.com\/blog\/culture\/boh-perfect-italian-words-phrases-translate\/","title":{"rendered":"“Boh!?”… And Other Perfect Italian Words & Phrases That Don’t Translate Well"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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When you split your life between two cultures with two languages, it is quite easy to get trapped in the wrong language from time to time. \u00a0I sometimes find myself speaking one language, then suddenly a word or phrase pops out from the other. \u00a0I don’t realize it until the person I am speaking with gets that glazed look in their eyes. \u00a0It is as though they are suddenly thinking “Did Michael just invent a word?” \u00a0“Is he trying to be cool, throwing Euroslang into his speech?” \u00a0“and why on earth does he keep throwing his arms around as he speaks?”<\/p>\n

No… I don’t even realize I am doing it. \u00a0Until I see that look, and I get a little embarrassed. \u00a0The thing is, that when you are fluent enough in two languages and sufficiently integrated in multiple cultures, certain concepts are better expressed in one language than another. \u00a0You don’t actually think<\/em> about what language you are speaking… you just speak<\/em>. \u00a0So when I have a thought, the easiest way to express that thought is what immediately pops into my head sometimes. \u00a0There may be one word in a language that takes a complete sentence to express in another…. so something inside says “This can only be said this way”, and it just pops out.<\/p>\n

This is my tribute to a few of these words and phrases between Italian and English. \u00a0There are so many more than aren’t coming to mind right now, so if you have others, please leave a comment and let me know!<\/p>\n

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Boh!?<\/p><\/div>\n

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