Since our arrival here I have noticed something about Italians, while they do everything in life very, very slowly; they drive very, very fast. At first I thought it might have something to do with the heat, but it’s not hot here all the time. Then maybe I thought that the semi-socialist society had bred a kind of laziness, but many of the people I’ve met so far are very hard working. As far as the driving goes I thought maybe that had something to do with their great racing heritage; you know Mario Andretti, Ferrari and Lamborghini and all that. But there is NASCAR all over the south and nobody there drives like this. So I remained perplexed, until recently.
I voiced my confusion at work one morning while having coffee with several of my co-workers from other nations. It is a two or three times daily occurrence that there is a large gathering, informally of course, around one of the coffee machines at work. Sometimes it is the best place to accomplish business, sometimes it is just to pass the time. At any rate, I was voicing my curiosity and one of the Germans who has been here for some time spoke up and said (you have to imagine Col. Klink’s voice here) “Zee pace of livef is za same evwewhere, zo if you take 2 howars to eat, you must drive to za next appointment very quickly.” Riddle solved.
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You can learn a lot by observing; however, when italianos move to a new country they adapt quite well. Mi professoressa di italia says that although in her country, arriving in a timely manner has no significance, she insists on our being on time for class.
ReplyDeleteJust say piu lentamente, per favore (more slowly, please) -- I say it all the time in class:>)