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On the polite use of English
When it is appropriate to use English when traveling in Italy and how to do so without insulting your hosts
Here are some free online translators, handy for finding words and pasting in chunks of text from Italian-only websites:
• Google Translate
• Babelfish
• Bing Translator
• Dictionary.com
Free language lessons!
The venerable BBC provides free audio and video language courses at: bbc.co.uk/languages
Italian phrase books
• Rick Steves' Italian Phrase Book and Dictionary
• Eyewitness Italian Travel Phrasebook
• Lonely Planet: Italian Phrasebook
• Berlitz Italian Phrase Book
Translator apps
Unlike the vast majority of translator apps for the iPhone—merely interfaces to the Google translate engine—those listed below work without Internet access (so you won't incur huge roaming fees); the boldface are the better choices in each price range:
• World Nomads (free)
• 24/7 Tutor (free)
• Cool Gorilla (99¢)
• Word Roll (99¢)
• Odyssey ($9.99)
• Lonely Planet ($9.99)
TOURS FROM TRUSTED PARTNERS
The old joke goes that if you speak three languages, you're trilingual; if you speak two, you're bilingual; and if you only speak one language, well, then you must be an American.
TIP
Sometimes English isn't enough. Most train schedules and signs use the Italian names for cities. Here's a list (along with, for convenience, the name of the main train station so you don't accidentally get off in the suburbs)
Rome = Roma Termini
Florence = Firenze Santa Maria Novella
Venice = Venezia Santa Lucia
Milan = Milano Centrale
Genoa = Genova Porta Principe
Naples = Napoli Centrale
Leghorn = Livorno
Turin = Torino Porta NuovaAmericans are notorious for barging through Europe demanding, loudly, that everyone speak English.
These rude rubes seem to think that the proper way to ask after the toilet facilities in Italian (or French, or Spanish, or German, or Urdu) is to shout "WHERE...IS...THE...BATH...ROOM!"
(Actually: Dov'é il bagno? [DOH-vay eel BAHN-yo])
Use any Italian you have memorized, no matter how little
When you're in Italy (or any foreign country) never assume that the people there will—or expect that they should—speak English.
Nothing is more arrogant.
You are their guest; use their language
Let your fingers do the talking - The computerized travel phrase book
It's the size of a calculator, and it literally speaks 20 languages. The Lingo Xplorer 52 Talking Translator knows 1,000,000 words and 100,000 useful phrases in 52 languages. What's more, it can speak them in a native's crisp, local accent.
This makes it a much better learning tool than puzzling over the pronunciation guide in a Berlitz, and also provides a wimp's way out of actually learning the lingo. Just walk up to a hotel clerk, select the right phrase, and the Lingo will ask for the price of a double room on your behalf.
But wait, there's more! (Always wanted to say that.) It has a built-in FM radio, world alarm clock, voice recorder, calculator, calendar, metric and currency converter, and eight games for long train rides (since Mine Sweeper and Sudoku are the same in any language). My favorite phrase: "I have been bitten by a dog" in German. $249.99 from Magellan's.
(There's also cheaper Lingo Eurotalk 6-Language Translator does 360,000 words and 20,000 phrases—plus currency and metric conversions—in English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Greek for just $99.85.)
You speak into it, and it (a) recognizes your language and what you said, (b) translates it into any of eight other languages of your choice, and then (c) spits it back out in the foreign tongue. Wow.
It knows 3,370,000 words, and 14,000 travel phrases, in English, Italian, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish.
You can carry on entire, albeit stilted conversations by asking a question in English, having it repeat your question in Italian for the local, then they say their answer in Italian and the iTRAVL translates it into English for you.
Oh, and it also comes with a built-in language teacher so you can actually learn some Italian, plus a talking calculator, cultural notes, time zone maps, and Fodor's restaurant, hotel, and sightseeing info on 50 major destinations on five continents and the CIA World Factbook. Did I mention it can play MP3s and audio books (some travel ones are already included)?
There is, of course, a price to be paid for this technological Wunderkind: $499.95 from Amazon.
Or go really low-tech (and cheap: $14.85) with the laminated, foldable Kwikpoint card covered with cartoonish pictures off all the things a traveler might need—double bed, taxi, AAA battery, ice skates, pig, computer printer, toothpaste, cheese, gas station, can opener, policeman, etc. You just unfold it like a map, point at the thing you want, and throw on the local word for "please?"
Prove the stereotypes wrong by learning the basics of the local lingo before you arrive in town and by being eager to pick up more from anyone who will teach you along the way.
At the very least you can memorize the native ways to say "yes," "no," "please," and "thank you." (For the record: si, no, per favore, and grazie.) Not only is this polite, but it'll tend to get you better service as well.
Still, on occasion, resorting to English is the best way to get your message across clearly, especially if you're just starting out on learning Italian.
Just be polite about it, and always ask first "Do you speak English?"—preferably in Italian: parla inglese? (PAHR-lah een-GLAY-zay?).
Most will reply "Yes, a leettle English," and then prove to be surprisingly fluent.
Chances are they will speak it very well indeed; most Italians under the age of 40 learned some English in school.
How to speak English to a foreigner
When speaking English to an Italian —or to anyone who is being kind enough to converse with you in your native language and not theirs—follow these tips:
- Speak slowly.
- Enunciate clearly.
- Use short, simple sentences.
- Choose only simple, direct words.
- Do not use extra words.
- Do not use contractions.
- Avoid idiomatic expressions or strange turns of phrase that don’t translate literally.
Remember, folks working in the tourism industry will know at least the words and phrases they need to do their jobs—all those Berlitz phrases and words for booking hotel rooms, describing what's in dishes, purchasing train tickets, rattling off open hours and admission prices, etc.
What's more, they can probably handle these conversations not just in English but also French, Spanish, German, and Japanese with a few phrases in Mandarin and Arabic as well.
I don’t know about you, but that impresses the heck out of me, and I try to respect their talents by showing them I've at least mastered the basics in their tongue as well.
This phrase sheet will help.
Related pages
- Phrase sheets in Italian - All the basic phrases you need to know
- Phrase books and dictionaries
- Speaking Italian
- Italian gestures
- Language lessons and language schools in Italy
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This material was last updated March 2010. All information was accurate at the time.
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