{"id":69,"date":"2012-10-17T08:22:25","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T08:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=69"},"modified":"2017-06-22T15:51:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T13:51:44","slug":"the-friendly-vaffanculo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/the-friendly-vaffanculo\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cFriendly\u201d Vaffanculo!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When teaching English in a foreign country, you gain a new and profound appreciation for the minutiae of communicating across languages.\u00a0 You soon discover that\u00a0the\u00a0cultural context\u00a0adds yet another layer of complexity and so\u00a0there are limitless opportunities for misunderstandings that transcend mere differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.<\/p>\n

For example, there is a Roman word (which has long been used throughout Italy) that even many of us Americans know: Vaffanculo.\u00a0 We could debate the subtle variations of a direct translation, but it is essentially equivalent to the imperative phrase, \u201cf*ck off!\u201d in English.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Friendly Vaffanculo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know about the rest of you English speakers<\/a>, but to this American, there really isn\u2019t any sweet, gentle way to spin this expression. \u00a0It is always an insult at best; and at worst, an invitation to a physical conflict.<\/p>\n

Yet, it seems that in the Roman dialect, there can actually be an affectionate way to invoke this colorful invective.\u00a0 Or so said my Italian girlfriend.\u00a0 She had given me the \u201cvaffanculo\u201d on several occasions and I had always laughed it off.\u00a0 \u201cWhen in Rome,\u201d and all that.\u00a0 Besides, expletives in a foreign language don\u2019t really touch us viscerally\u2014it\u2019s more like being privy to an inside joke.\u00a0 And in fact I felt almost pleased with myself to be bantering in her native tongue.\u00a0 So that was fine.<\/p>\n

But then she made the mistake of assuming that the same phrase, translated into my language, would produce the same jovial reaction from me.\u00a0 One day while enjoying a nice conversation and some playful back-and-forth teasing, she told me to \u201cf*ck off.\u201d\u00a0 Well, I\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0really prepared for this and I must admit that my reaction was anything but jovial.\u00a0 The prolonged silence echoed throughout the apartment and it took several minutes for me to regain my composure.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course we laugh about it now and have even used the incident as a reference point in subsequent linguistic mix-ups.\u00a0 But it highlights the fact that language goes beyond the meaning of the words\u2013cultural differences must always<\/em> be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s my take on it anyway.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t like it\u2026vaffanculo!!!\u00a0 (Of course I mean that in the friendliest possible way).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When teaching English in a foreign country, you gain a new and profound appreciation for the minutiae of communicating across languages.\u00a0 You soon discover that\u00a0the\u00a0cultural context\u00a0adds yet another layer of complexity and so\u00a0there are limitless opportunities for misunderstandings that transcend mere differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. For example, there is a Roman word (which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,5],"tags":[31,35,15,32,33,30,14,34],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}