Cinquantaquattro…

Somehow all my students found out that tomorrow is my birthday. Not sure how that happened…I must have mentioned it in connection with my mother’s birthday. No matter.

 

At any rate, on Tuesday my most comical student, “Colleague C” (see my May 21st post, “All in good fun”), asked me: How old will you be on Friday?

  

I answered: Forty-seven.


She lapsed into Italian: Coooosa??? Cinquantaquattro??? (= “Whaaat??? Fifty-four???”)

 

I was momentarily at a loss for words…and it dawned on her that she had misunderstood, so she exclaimed: Aspetta un attimo (= “wait a second”), could you repeat, please?

 

I repeated, more slowly this time: Forty-seven.

 

A look of comprehension. Ah, ecco. Infatti stavo per dirti, ‘come li porti bene!’” (= “oh, I see. In fact, I was just about to tell you, ‘you look pretty good for your age!”).

 

Then she hesitated: Questo è peggio del pane con la muffina, vero? (= “This is worse than the mouldy bread incident, isn’t it?”)…

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