An Italian lesson I’ll never forget

And what fantastic food!

The only problem was that I hardly spoke any Italian. But I was a keen learner. And although I was often nervous, I tried not to let the fear get in the way. And besides, I usually had my Italian boyfriend to help me.

But a woman needs her independence. And so one day, for the very first time, I decided to go shopping on my own.

The plan was to cook some sort of pasta dish for some friends and for this, I knew exactly where to go. I had already seen the most wonderful pastificio near the marketplace. Superb!

It was a busy market day and I had to weave my way through the crowds and then squeeze into the shop. What a sight! What a noise! It was packed with elderly ladies for whom this was clearly a social event.

Slowly, we all shuffled our way forward to the long glass counter where I was able to feast my eyes on all the wonderful delicacies on show. So many different types of homemade pasta. Where do I start?

Caramelle, ravioli, penne, tortellini, fettuccini, linguine, lasagne, tagliatelle, vermicelli, penne, fusilli, macaroni, ginocchi …

Yes – ginocchi! Those delicious little balls of potato pasta. My decision was made.

I was still in the process of preparing what I was going to say – practicing the functional phrases in my head when …

“Mi dica!”

The rather flustered lady behind the counter was addressing me. It was my turn.

“Ah yes, si. Si, ummm… Per favore vorrei dei ginocchi!”

At that, the whole shop went silent and the shop assistant looked at me with a very confused face. In an attempt to salvage the situation, I pointed at the potato pasta, waved four fingers in the air and said:

“Si, si …. Ginocchi per 4 persone… per favore!”

This time, the whole shop erupted into laughter and I was the one with the confused face.

At least the shop assistant knew what I wanted. She gave me the pasta, I paid and thanked her, and went home, still confused.

Later, my boyfriend explained that I had asked for ginocchi, not gnocchi. In other words, I had tried to order knees for four people.

The funny thing is that this incident really broke the ice and became a running joke in the pastificio. I became a regular customer and every time I went back, the assistant would ask me, “Quante ginocchia oggi, Kate?” (“How many knees today, Kate?”)

Mistakes and miscommunications can allow us to make connections. They show that you are human. We should embrace them, not fear them. And ever since that day, this has been my motto for learning a language. And of course, I learnt from that incident and only make the ginocchi mistake now when I want to make others laugh!

P.S I would just like to add (especially for the Italian learners) that I further learnt that the plural of il ginocchio (s.m.) is in fact le ginocchia (pl.f) and i ginocchi (pl.m.) can be used if we want to refer to lots of individual knees (i.e. not pairs). So, for example, an orthopaedic can specialise in ginocchi.