How to speak Italian in 3 days

If you are considering to travel to Italy anytime soon but you do know nothing at all about Italian, aside from probably the most common words, such as pasta, pizza and shaking your hands, well that will not be enough to survive a trip to Italy at all.

Here I come to help you. How? Well first and foremost, I am not pretentious, I am just Italian, and secondly, I do speak several languages and therefore, I have been there. Finally, I had an experience in the Netherlands last month, where I wasn't prepared for any kind of communication, I cannot speak Dutch, well by then, I now have a little knowledge of the language. But I spent 3 days in Amsterdam and I came back home with the basic of the language and I can now at least survive if I go to the Netherlands again.

I know very well that you are thinking that once you know English you will be fine anywhere you go. First of all, if you have to study the basic of English anyway, then why not starting with the language that is spoken in the country in which you are going to spend your vacations? Secondly, there are countries where people do not speak English or better said, they do not like to speak English, they prefer to speak their native language, even better than better, they hate people that approach them directly speaking English because that behaviour would definitely piss me off as well. I mean, why cannot you try, at least, try to formulate a sentence in my language? Who the heck told you that I can speak English? Do not assume.

Above all, you are going to visit France. Not a stereotype, but a true story, french hate people that go to France and only want to speak English.

But Italy is a different story. So you are a lucky boy!

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Italians love to welcome foreigners and they do extreme things to make the experience of those foreigners remarkable. Therefore, they would not tell you off if you try to speak English with them, at all. However, depending on where you are going, there is a high possibility of people not being able to understand a single word and not being able to help you out. And that is why you should learn Italian, well basic Italian, for at least be able to communicate when at the restaurant, when at the hotel or when you are lost in the street, or else at the airport.

Ok let's start, shall we?

First things first:

Gestures

I know that this might sound such a stereotype, but it is actually very true that Italians move their hands a lot and they also use their facial expressions without even notice it. Which, I will be honest, I love the fact that Italians, au contraire than many other countries, can understand each other by simply moving an eye or a hand. In the case where the language will disappear, we would be almost the only one on Earth that will still be able to communicate quite effectively one with another. Therefore, I am not saying that you need to learn Italian gestures because we have a lot like really, we could do a dictionary with all the gestures and facial expressions that we have. You could, however, have a look online and see what the main gestures mean, so that when someone uses one, you can be able to understand straight away even if you don't speak Italian.

Basic Italian for tourists

I don't want to be harsh, but please do not go around saying that you can speak Italian when you can only say pizza, pasta e bongionno, also because bongionno is so, so, so wrong. The Italian language is beautiful and complex, it has a lot to learn and greetings are not enough for you to say around that you can speak Italian, it is not fair. But, to be fair, that would definitely be enough for you to communicate with Italians during your trip to Italy.

Greetings

Life is not that complicated as it seems. We use the word 'Ciao', literally for everything. When you arrive, when you are about to go, also when you are about to leave, you can use ciao.

All the other greetings are used to greet people that are older than you and that you don't know. Of course, if you don't know someone but that person has the same age that you have, then go for a ciao, you will never be wrong. Otherwise, you can use 'buongiorno' o 'buonasera', which are respectively, good morning and good evening, we don't really use good afternoon, because you can use good morning since morning until about 2 or 3 pm and then you can just say good evening. However, just for you to know, the good afternoon is 'buonpomeriggio'.

The pronunciation of "buon" is Bwon and than "jorno" (pronounce the r like it is a rolling 'r', like it is in "America"). Pomerijo and Sera should not be that hard to pronounce, but eventually, I give you a good substitute for those long words, that you can use as a polite way to greet anyone older and unknown person, which is 'Salve', the pronunciation is not like the word salt, where the 'a' is more of an 'o' in Italian, but as if you want to pronounce a name of someone called 'Salomon', and 've' as in the word 'verse'.

So you greet Salve when you arrive, so you don't have to learn all those buongiorno and buonasera and you can use 'Arrivederci' when you go away, and we always talking about being formal, because the informal way is Ciao for when you arrive and when you go as well.

• Henry- (without the n, of course) Arri
• Ve (of verse again)- ve
• There- der
• Chi (of Chipotle)- ci

There you go, not hard, is it?

Ok, so now you are done with the greetings and the gestures, so you want to ask for help, or just for something to buy in a shop on in a restaurant and therefore, you will need some approach sentences.

Wherever you go, start with a Salve!

Let's think about different situations you would face if you are abroad.

At the airport

You want to ask how to reach the centre and maybe how much it cost, and so you could use single words such as: 'Come? ' (Kome, but 'me' as in Mediterranean) for how and 'Quanto? ' (Kuan-toe) for how much. Now, the real sentence would be longer, but you could learn these single words and you would be understood anyway.

So if you want to ask, how do I reach the centre, you could say: "Salve, come (show a map or something and point your finger) centro (chen-trow)? "

Then ask for the price and it would be: "Quanto? " (and move your hands with the gesture of money, which I am sure is an international gesture).

If you are willing to learn the full sentence is:

1. Come arrivo in centro? - Kome arr (of arrow) ivo (as in someone is evil) in chen- trow?
2. Quanto costa il biglietto? Kuan-toe kosta (coast plus 'a' of fan, or simply as the Costa café) il (of evil) bee-yet-toe?

In the city

And you could use the sentence number one changing the word centre with any other place you want to reach and you will not get lost anymore for sure.

Like, how do I go to the hotel, restaurant or church, just say: Kome arreevo kwi (which is 'qui' as in herein Italian and means here, so you will have to have a map where to point out your finger). Otherwise, you could learn the word 'hotel' (same as English), 'ristorante' (ree-store-ant- e of m'e'diterranean again) and 'chiesa'(Kie as in Kiev-za as in the sound zzzz of you sleeping and 'a' as in fan again).

The sentence number two can be used to ask how much you have to pay at the hotel, at the restaurant, at the bus ticket station, basically anywhere.

Finally, you would say: 'Grazie' Gra (of grasp) zee- E (of Mediterranean again), which is Thank you. Say it every time you finish to purchase something or when you receive help and where you would normally use it in your language as well.

Polite formulas

• Scusi, per favore! - Sku-see, per fav- or- E (of Mediterranean, always).

You can use it when you can use it when you are about to ask something or when you are somewhere and want to call someone attention, like at the restaurant. You can add: Puó (pooOh) aiutarmi (A-you-tar-me, and me here is me as in 'you and me'?

• Prego - Pre- go

You can use it when you want someone to go before you inside the train or generally when you are about to give the right to pass to someone or finally when someone say to you thank you, Grazie, you would say 'Prego', because it basically means 'you are welcome'.

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Hollywood good try to copy Italian ice cream, which is well known all over the world, but trust me it is not the same as the one that you will be stuffing your face with in Italy!

Whenever you are and you want to ask for more, more coffee, more ice cream, more sizes of a dress, just say: 'Di piú' Dee pu (of puke) and if you want less, just say: 'Di meno' Dee men-oh.

And if someone does not want to listen to you and you want to scream to them that what you have is enough, just say to them: Basta Bast-A, grazie, which would mean: that is enough for me, thank you.

And that is for today, I think this is enough of a guide for you to survive if you would like to learn more, comment in the comment space below and I will be happy to help you out!

Hope this post helps you guys with the basic Italian and enjoy your stay in Italy, eat a lot of icecream (Gelato, jel- hat- oh).

Ciao!