Mía glóssa then íne poté arketí: One language is never enough

For my first blog post, I figured I would include a list of all the Italian and Greek I know. I apologize in advance for the brevity of this post. (This apology is mainly for all the foreigners who will spend countless hours over these next two weeks with me, trying desperately to make sense out of Spanglitalianeek —my mangled cross between Spanish, English, Italian, and Greek— while suppressing their laughter in the mean time.) I will start with the Italian:

• Mamma mia: not just a popular musical or 90s A*teen “HitClips” tune, but also Italian for “My goodness!”
• Ciao: a word I learned by eavesdropping on my Colombian friend’s phone conversations with her mother, meaning both “hi” and “bye” (Thanks, Steph!)
• Buongiorno: hello… a word I most likely picked up from The Lizzie McGuire Movie
• Arrivederci: goodbye… also a large probability that I picked this one up from Lizzie as well
• Scusi/scusa: my dad always seems to use this for “sorry” or “excuse me” when we travel to Mexico and receives blank stares in return… it turns out he had the definition right, but we were just in the wrong country!
• Capisco: translated to “I understand,” I’ve finally realized what Uncle Jesse was saying on Full House all these years with his slang version “Capisc” (Kah-peesh)
• Si: yes… these are the times when Spanish comes in handy
• Grazie: though I always thought it was spelt “Gratzi,” this is another word which my dad uses frequently in Mexican food restaurants… my brother always has to correct him on how to say “thank you” in Espanol, but at least I get a free lesson in Italiano!
• Prego: response to grazie, meaning “you’re welcome,” (see above explanation) but can also mean “please” in some contexts!
• Il bagno: today at lunch, Ellie brilliantly looked up Italian phrases on her phone, and though I still cannot count from 1 to 9, I still remember “the bathroom,” which I’m sure will prove useful in many a situation!
• Bellisimo: I’m not exactly sure where I’ve heard it, but there’s a large chance that it was on some cooking show where the chef does that thing where he kisses his fingers and then opens them to say how “excellent” his food tastes
• Bella Notte: beautiful night… and yes, I learned this from the song “This is the Night” by watching Lady and the Tramp
• Amore: not only is it the main line in a song of Dean Martin’s, but it also is Italian for “love”
• For the rest of my Italian knowledge, click here.

And now for the Greek portion:

• Ya: hello… another thing a learned from my table at El Gallo today!
• Opa: I heard it the first time in either My Big Fat Greek Wedding or in a restaurant when some one broke a plate –I’m not sure which—but apparently it is an exclamation of joy, often meaning “party!,” whoopee!,” or if you want to loosely translate it to Texan, “yeehaw!”

Sadly, that is all, but hopefully I’ll pick up more along the way… I’ll keep y’all posted. Ciao for now!