Italian in America RANT!

[@metatronyt]

Get 20% off your first monthly box when you sign up at bespokepost.com/metatron20 and use promo code META20 at checkout!

[@luckimonster2298]

I'm happy for u n Mrs Metatron 😊 We r happy to have u with us in Amurica 😃

[@budahbaba7856]

Is BeSpoke a "GetWoke" merchant? :) So happy to have you and your bride here with us in the States!

[@Baraodojaguary]

how can you switch the glorius and gorgeous italian cities and architeture for ugly modern american architeture are you mad

[@Baraodojaguary]

Meanwhile in italy Metatron where have you been, you must return to Italy at once

[@Baraodojaguary]

im from Brazil and i left São Paulo for the countryside and im never going back and if i could i leave my town for Ouro Preto or any other historical city here like the Imperial city Petropolis, but sadly petropolis has recently being damaged by a storm and flood of a river many people died including the pregnant wife and daughter of the imperial museum curator. it is really sad, and here they dont preserve our history and our traditional architeture sadly since brazilian colonial archteture is gorgeous

[@todbenpal]

I worked as a waiter in the 90s and I pronounced the word 'bruschetta' correctly while doing so. As I walked away from tables I would constantly hear women whispering "OMG, did he really just pronounce it "bruschetta"?" The people mispronouncing were making fun of me for properly pronouncing.

[@sandrasaunders8777]

That's the trouble- at this point, the wrong way is so ingrained into the culture that anyone who does pronounce these words correctly is perceived to be in the wrong.

[@silverhand9965]

I noticed Americans are really prone to "correcting" people speaking their native language in full confidence You wouldn't believe how often I had to deal with being told my French pronounciation was "wrong" (being a French native) only to hear them use completely outlandish pronounciations in turn

[@jesse123185]

This is just the nature of language if everyone walked around making sure only the "correct" pronunciations were used English would sound more like Dutch. Just think how much it must have drove the Danish crazy when they conquered half of Britain and everyone started using their words badly

[@Aidames]

I'd constantly correct my wife's pronunciation of various French, Italian and Spanish words that are commonly used in recipes or at restaurants. Her answer? "We're in America."

[@todbenpal]

English is a Germanic language, and yes languages do indeed evolve...but scoffing at people for "mispronouncing" a clearly Italian word in an Italian restaurant is an entirely different issue.

[@clrobinson1776]

We used to live in Italy (3 years). When we came back to the U.S. people kept correcting us because we were using the correct Italian pronunciations. After being back a few years, we gave up. (We actually had a server in what was supposed to be an “authentic” Italian restaurant ask us if we drove to Italy because her sister drove to Alaska. Had to explain there’s an ocean between the 2 countries. So sad.)

[@Lttlemoi]

You _could_ drive through Alaska, drive over the ice to Siberia and then all the way to Italy, but I wouldn't recommend it if you're in a hurry.

[@MrRabiddogg]

my grandma and mom migrated from Sicily. I almost always pronounce foods the way grandma did. Got in yelled at by a friend who told me to pronounce ricotta right. I told her its an Italian food and I pronounced it in Italian. She got mad.

[@rebralhunter6069]

I had a waiter in the US ask us if we came to the states on train from our European country.....

[@Lttlemoi]

@@PacMonster0 I looked it up and there have been successful ice crossings of the Bering strait. On foot and with insane amounts of luck, so indeed no driving, but it is possible.

[@balancematters2776]

I’ve studied Italian, and have visited there often. In the States, I get funny looks whenever I pronounce words correctly, especially “ricotta” and “mozzarella.” Oh well.

[@cosimoalbaster]

Omg, thank you for mentioning the Pastrami part, Yes Pastrami is indeed Romanian, Pastrama comes from "a pastra" (to keep). It's literally salted jerky (Keepers). Pastrami was imported by the Romanian Jewish immigrants in the US, no it is not Italian.

[@tomhalla426]

All the pastrami I have ever had was smoked corned, i. e. cured, beef brisket. Which I understand to be New York Jewish delicatessen derived

[@SwordQuake2]

And in Bulgaria we have пастърма (pastarma) which is the same now that I've checked. Seems that Greece and turkey have very similar words for the same thing as well.

[@iota-09]

never had it, so it's odd that i know it only through american movies as a cured meat prepared alongside salame and all that seems good though... i wonder if it's up to the greatness that is alto adige's speck...

[@JmAnYoShI]

And here I thought Pastrama was a Romanian Motocross racer

[@jerrykofiadonu4763]

Here (in Italy) I never heard that Pastrama before, let alone trying it....

[@raskov75]

Caution: the vast majority of 'italian' restaurants in the US are staffed with non Italian speaking folks (esp the waitstaff). They WILL NOT recognize these pronunciations.

[@mishmashmedley]

kind of like Chinese restaurants: Almost every one I've been to has chinese folks out front, but only mexicans in the kitchen cooking the food... very weird

[@Blox117]

MAMA MIA

[@Deere66Bob]

​@@Blox117it's actually mamma mia !!!

[@masterjunky863]

​@@Blox117So funny and original

[@FinestFantasyVI]

This is an old comment, but your post reminded me of croatians who dress as roman leggionares for photo ops with tourists. And ofc they dont speak italian xD I do like to mess with them and speak italian and ask them what kind of a roman doesnt speak italian xD

[@thatonenerdwhoreadsbyhimse5429]

I feel like we Americans lose either way, when we try to pronounce foreign non-english words the right way we come off as pretentious, or when we don't we are considered uncultured idiots....

[@cristianespinal9917]

I say if you're speaking English, pronounce it in English. If you're speaking another language, pronounce it how they do. And if you understand what someone is saying don't correct them unless they want to be corrected.

[@johnv6806]

@@cristianespinal9917 how would you know if they want to be corrected?

[@cristianespinal9917]

@@johnv6806 I'd say that depends on who you're hanging out with and in what context.

[@squamish4244]

@@cristianespinal9917 Or whatever.

[@squamish4244]

@@johnv6806 Lol nicely spotted

[@earthcat]

Poor Raff...he's been here no time at all and we are already on his last good nerve.

[@datuputi777]

lmao imagine when he realize that the rest of the world only knows what usa tells them or at least believes Americans over Italians any day.

[@kalinkapavlova9398]

@@datuputi777 most of the mispronounciations regarding Italian occurs on their own in other English speaking countries. Not everything revolves around the US lol.

[@freedomm]

In which part of America is he? Makes a huge difference.

[@Nerobyrne]

Which is fitting since USA is on it's last good leg 🤣

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

There is a reason I will never leave my fatherland unless I intend to make my new homeland a copy of my original homeland.

[@charlesjohnson9879]

I lived in Italy for 3 years, and I do know how to more or less properly pronounce Italian. However, If I tried to order something at an "Italian" restaurant in the US with a correct pronunciation, first, the wait staff wouldn't understand what I was trying to say, and, second, I'd likely be judged amusingly pretentious. So, there's that. All of that said, having travelled extensively in Europe and Asia I find it charming how most locals naturally misconceive American words and customs, so there's that too.

[@als3022]

To be fair he is also in the South where we are even worse when it comes to pronouncing other languages words. Even English words at times depending how deep you are going. Why people ask me where I am from around here cause my Southern accent is very mild. And then I go New York accent.

[@iota-09]

oh yeah, we're not exempt from that, but here's the thing: that too makes us roll our eyes. it irks me so bad that the one place in italy where cheese steak is commonly eaten in (campi flegrei) now often calls it... cistecca... god it feels so wrong to write down like that, feels like i committed an unspeakable sin!

[@MrRabiddogg]

depends on who is there. When I lived in Syracuse, NY there was a large Italian American population there. One of my favorite Italian Cafe's was ran by an immigrant from Italy. I think he was from the Northern part but I used to order using Sicilian Italian as my grandma would pronounce it and he understood what I wanted. I don't speak much Italian outside the kitchen so past that I was a bit lost.

[@Astropeleki]

Haha, I feel you. I'm Italian and when my compatriots hear me pronounce Italian words in English they are horrified, because I pronounce them like English speakers do. The reasoning I give to them is exactly the same: if I pronounced those words as they were supposed to, most people would not understand me. Practicality takes precedence over linguistic accuracy 😆

[@gentronseven]

It's not possible to learn the proper pronunciations for every single foreign food, let alone keep track of foreign foods that have become American over 100 years ago.

[@jonsealartist]

Look… if we pronounce things **correctly** then we get made fun of as being affecting upper class. If we pronounce things in American English we get made fun of us as uncultured…. And I honestly understand this on a deep level because my native land (south Mississippi / Louisiana) is consistently in a battle with outsiders doing news reports in our cities and towns and culture and not pronouncing anything right

[@rh906]

Rebel...

[@JohnDoe-fv1fu]

Can’t please everybody. That is why it is important to just remain authentic to yourself.

[@InqvisitorMagnvs]

Why doesn't south Louisiana of all places not know how to correctly pronounce Latinate Romance words? New Orleans had old Italian American population for centuries. Plus nobody speaks Cajun French anymore? Many Louisiana Creoles have Italian ancestry. Even General P.G.T. Beauregard was Italian (son of Louisiana French créole father Jacques Toutant-Beauregard and Italian-descent mother Hélène de Reggio-grandfather Italian knight Francesco Maria de Reggio offered services to King Louis XV who appointed him governor of French Louisiane, where Francesco Maria took French name form François Marie.)

[@minuteman4199]

@@InqvisitorMagnvs Do people of Italian descent in New Jersey, New York and Chicago pronounce Italian words like Italians?

[@antonionpellegrini]

@@minuteman4199 Standard or contemporary Italian? Some 1st generation Italian-Americans, yes. 2nd generation and later, hardly any.

[@solanacea1939]

This reminds me of going to a Turkish restaurant in Dallas where almost every menu item was listed in Turkish, making the mistake of pronouncing my order perfect Turkish (my mother tongue), and being "corrected" by the obviously local waitress. :))

[@ChadKakashi]

@@zogwort1522 what the hell is even that?

[@ChadKakashi]

I’d have gone with their way personally.

[@irmar]

@@ChadKakashi I hope you understand that a native would feel very ridiculous in misprounouncing their own language just to please the uneducated waiters. If you work at an ethnic restaurant, it makes sense to try to learn at least the dish names.

[@5loaves2fish93]

My wife is from Firenze and she almost fell over laughing. She gets on me about spaghetti ALL THE TIME 🤣

[@OWnIshiiTrolling]

Just ask her how they pronounce sghetti in furensi then

[@alittlebitgone]

Yet I GUARANTEE she uses tons of English loan words in her Italian with fully Italian pronunciations, because that is how language works.

[@fixer1140]

Bro, how are you still alive?

[@alessandrom7181]

@@alittlebitgone The use of English words in Italian is just a recent thing for the most fortunately.

[@jonathanboerger274]

Bologna: I always wondered this myself. Especially as a kid wanting to spell it balloney.

[@dawnmichelle4403]

Balloony! 🎈

[@mjbull5156]

I think that is where it comes from. American accented children mispronouncing "bologna" and retaining it until adulthood.

[@Nerobyrne]

I'd just stick with that spelling, and when people correct you, tell them "no, that's pronounced "bo-lon-ja"

[@republicstarwing414]

I first said ba-Log-na when I read it for the first time and refused to be believe my dad on how he said it.

[@greynoise1409]

Blame rhe Germans: "My baloney has a first name...."

[@sb792079]

There’s a part of me (a Japanese Canadian) that’s always looking for the “correct wrong pronunciation” I saw the word “Bolognese” in a restaurant, and as a slight linguistic nerd, i more or less knew the right Italian pronunciation (something close to it, at least) But it felt weird dropping a “Bolo-nyeh-zeh” in a restaurant full of anglo-saxon Canadians. I knew nobody says that. But on the other hand, I also knew that NOBODY says “baw-log-neez” I was desperate to find the “right wrong way to say it”, but just couldn’t so… I ordered something else. Wrongly pronouncing words in English is kind of a skill in itself…it seems

[@buttercxpdraws8101]

Wow. You are super self-conscious. Maybe just care a little less about what other people think of you 😉

[@junichiroyamashita]

Thats was.... a very japanese reaction of you....

[@slinky6481]

I think that the "correct wrong pronunciation" you're looking for here is "bola-neez". Of course, that never stops me from saying it the correct way. I like to shatter their notion that they're saying it right by actually saying it right lol

[@beeitalian4086]

Oh no! You missed a wonderful dish tho! As we say in Italian: il gioco non vale la candela! (literally: the game is not worth the candle). 😄

[@jhoughjr1]

Like a street in St. Louis. Gravois Avenue. Should be grav wah but its grav o way. Cuz noone knows how to pronounce French.

[@Personofjid]

Thank you, Metatron, for bringing up the difference between panini and a panino. I lived in Italy for 2 years, and when I came home it drove me crazy to hear my family basically say, "Let's go get a sandwiches."

[@laurahubbard6906]

Worst thing I keep hearing is adding an "s" to pluralize a word that's already plural. "Raviolis" and "crostinis" leap to mind.

[@byletheisner5006]

I mean, we sort of do this in Italy as well in regard of foreign words, but we are more consistent, every foreign word in Italy must remain in its singural declination even when used in a plural context, so if I say console it remain "console" even if I am referring to two or more of them, (ex. A console, two console, etc...). While english does not seem to have a similar rule, some words are in plural form (ex. Panini) while others in singular(ex. Pizza), and all of them are "declined" in English plural form when talking about more than an item(ex. Paninis, Pizzas).

[@Yautah]

I cringed.. because in France there are fast food that sells panini..

[@antonionpellegrini]

@@Yautah Please, don't get me started on the frenchmen. 🤪

[@lingred975]

As a spaniard in London, going to a "spanish" restaurant was the last thing crossing my mind.

[@tyxeri48]

True. However, Italians always seek their mamma's food. In Erasmus partnerships, the Italian teachers used to leave the dinner table to go to a pizzeria!

[@AleMazza100]

"Imagine me saying "FRUIT" instead of "FRUT" Me, an Italian... "Ehm... yes! Of course! How can you mispronounce that!" 🙃

[@thenamelessking2730]

yes, I really wonder How? (I'm italian too)

[@rld1982]

Yes, you definitely don't pronounce Fruit Tella as FRU-IT Tella on every advert for it on Italian TV 🤣

[@staceyw.6608]

and funny nearly all of our Italian friends do pronounce it "Frueet". lol

[@mohamedak2648]

Team Froo-it

[@pippostenex2534]

Me a Furlan guy meanwhile reading FRUT: 🤯

[@meduseld6610]

This takes me back, I went out on a date with a girl from Tuscany visiting England. Took her to the pub with all my mates, most of the night was her shouting Italian food names at us while we semi-purposfully repeated it back in the most awfully drunken slurred English. Italian passion is a marvel to behold Edit: How does The Metatron feel about the corruption Spagbol?

[@beeitalian4086]

As an Italian myself I wonder how that girl must have felt! 😄

[@thewitch7342]

@@beeitalian4086 She was probably having lots of fun That tend to happens when you play with animals

[@beeitalian4086]

@@thewitch7342 I really don't think she thought they were animals. Anyway we are human beings, we are all animals.

[@thewitch7342]

@@beeitalian4086 Tranquillo stavo scherzando Lo so che siamo tutti uguali e siamo tutti animali Quello che intendevo è puntualizzare come l'inglese qua sopra forse non aveva capito bene la situazione e dal suo commento sembrava che la stessero prendendo in giro. Ma nelle serate tra amici si scherza così e sono sicuro che l'intenzione generale era quella di divertirsi in modo spensierato.

[@pyeltd.5457]

@@thewitch7342 you can translate now on the comment section Mario Bro.

[@hughmongus6191]

Ceasar salad was invented by an Italian man Caesar Cardini. He went to America and later Mexico. He went to Mexico to open a bar and avoid alcohol prohibition. The ceasar salad was an accidental invention. It often gets served at Italian restaurants in America as the salad was famous with man early Hollywood stars.

[@Nerobyrne]

so it's like Chinese buffet. Not actually Chinese, but was invented by a Chinese person.

[@KhanhPham-pv6gh]

@@Nerobyrne exactly. PF Chang's is "asian" food for Americans owned by Asians.

[@Nerobyrne]

@@KhanhPham-pv6gh I watched a video by a Chinese-American who said that since it's still mostly made by Asians, it's still Asian food. It's just a regional variation, due to the long separation time with the origin country. This happens to languages as well, to the point where Mexicans have problems communicating with Spanish people, despite both speaking Spanish. Or the Amish and Germans.

[@blaisevillaume9051]

I would like to find these recusants, and bring them to justice

[@KhanhPham-pv6gh]

@@Nerobyrne I am Chinese American...I don't consider it "asian" food...the same way most mexican people don't see taco bell as mexican food.

[@StefanAntonikSeidler]

I just realized the American pronunciation of 'Bolognese' sounds like a Italian word pronounced French. However in Austria you'll hear all versions possible. It would drive you nuts.

[@FrenchLightningJohn]

because it is an italian word pronounced french, i say it like that because i didn't knew how to say the word and didn't bother looking how to say it also

[@bandit6272]

"Bolog-neesey" Boom! NAILED IT

[@isgodreal1337]

In Brazil it's super easy since we say "Bolonhesa" it would be a shitshow if we used the "g", people would call it "bolog nessa" xD

[@bandit6272]

@@isgodreal1337 You Brazilians and your "R" sounds though, lol. "Rickson" being pronounced "Hickson", just flabbers my gast.

[@Tfin]

Yes, a lot of stuff, especially food, gets Frenched if we don't know better. I expect that's why the accented É. My great-grandparents on my father's father's side were Italian immigrants. I learned nothing from them.

[@Matt_Alaric]

Even as an Englishman finding out Americans pronounce Bologna as baloney was a WTF moment.

[@Dowlphin]

It is what it is. 😉 Now make me a bologna sendwitch.

[@nathankamerath7742]

Panino vs Panini. Has been driving me craaaaazy. Especially when I order a Panino and get corrected: "you mean a panini?" I die.

[@andersonic]

The trouble is you're so entertaining when you're worked up that I'm going to deliberately order spugetty bolonaise and baloney calzoans just to aggravate you.

[@jamieott7080]

🤮🤢

[@jamieott7080]

How about spaghetti with ketchup…

[@Nelsathis]

@@jamieott7080 Some people just wanna see the world burn..

[@a.sarnelli]

The best is when I say Italian words correctly to my American friends and they either don’t understand me, tell me I’m saying then wrong, or think I’m a pretentious snob.

[@iota-09]

"i don't tell you you're doing it wrong if you say a word in english wrong so that means you're being pretentious if you want me to pronounce it your way" is the response i may usually get and same goes for properly representing recipes(i.e. not putting freaking cream inside carbonara) to that i answer "no that just means you0re being willfully ignorant and accepting of getting something that isn't the way it was originally intended." which can be done, it's just not the way i like to live, like if i got at a restaurant that claims to be doing japanese cooking, i want recipes that match how they'd be done in japan, not something "adapted" to the country i'm in... unless it was a fusion restaurant, then all is fine.

[@MayYourGodGoWithYou]

@@iota-09 I'm going to hate asking this but .... why do you put cream in carbonara exactly? My recipe doesn't include it, but maybe that's because I live in Europe. (I mean the sauce for the pasta, not the concoction I recently saw being made on some cooking channel on KZbin which seemed to think carbonara was a form of pasta which you added a filling to before cooking)

[@iota-09]

@@MayYourGodGoWithYou you misunderstood me, i was complaining about people putting cream in carbonara, not the other way around, i'm italian dude.

[@MayYourGodGoWithYou]

@@iota-09 Why do people put cream in carbonara, my recipe doesn't include it. But equally I have found a recipe for something they call carbonara, Chicago Carbonara or something very similar to that, which is apparently pasta made into like a spring roll but with a sweet cream filling in it. a very sweet cream filling involving twice as much sugar as any reasonable person would consider adding to anything short of sugar syrup. It seemed to be a mix of sugar syrup and cream wrapped up in a sheet of pasta and then quickly browned under the grill. Sounded horrible to be honest, and I'm almost positive it wasn't an original Italian recipe. Take care and stay safe.

[@iota-09]

@@MayYourGodGoWithYou i think it's because they don't know how to get the egg be creamy, that really is just that. like they look at proper carbonara and say "that can't be just egg... i know! must be that they put cream in it!" i genuinely can't find any other explanation.

[@robertboyer5498]

I apologize for my own mispronunciations. My mother never taught me Italian, she used it as a secret language with her family. I only learned curses. 😂

[@mommachupacabra]

I feel your pain. Mom and Dad and my aunt and uncle had to switch to Polish, as my brother and I were fluent in Yiddish.

[@user-ts2ny8jg9d]

same here with croatian, had to learn it myself because my family would use it when they didnt want us to know what they were talking about

[@kalinkapavlova9398]

Same here with Samoan. My grandmother never taught her kids, yet expected my sister, cousins and I to magically know it somehow. 🙃

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

I've learned Russian on my own, but I can pick up Polish with some ease because of a Polish Church's parties, functions, that I have occasionally attended through extended family, and Polish music, despite not particularly studying Polish.

[@andrewk.5575]

My grandparents were the same with German, their parents were all from the Old Country and used German all the time among themselves, but point blank refused to speak it in front of their children. In this particular case though there is an additional reason in that in the 1920's all the German Americans were terrified of the intense anti-German sentiment in America after First World War, with good reason. Ich spreche ein bischen von Deutsch, aber ich bin nicht mein Urgroßvater.

[@mcbain668]

I work with an Italian guy and I tried some of these on him And he knew I learned from a Sicilian 😂

[@jaykaufman9782]

As I understand it, Italian immigrants, especially those from impoverished, Bourbon-ruled southern Italy, quickly found themselves swimming in greater economic opportunities than they'd known at home, and they introduced more meat into their cooking, and more processed sugar. This explains the appearance of meatballs and sugar in their sauces, and meats of all kinds atop pizzas. They also adopted American-style sandwiches but filled them with vegetables, cheeses, and sauces that were more familiar to them, as well as cold meats that had become available after arriving in the U.S. and Canada.

[@kimpelalltheway51]

My maternal great grandparents emigrated from Naples in the early part of the 20th century. Like many Italians from that part of the country, they settled in and around New York City. Most of the menu at a place like Maggiano’s is the kind of Italian-American comfort food my grandparents’ generation contributed to American culture and cuisine. The odd pronunciations reflect two drivers: (1) pronunciations of the Neapolitan dialect circa 1900, which tended to drop the last syllable of many words and (2) an effort to anglicize pronunciations for English speakers who had difficulty pronouncing gli, gn and anything with an impure S. But if you go to other American cities with large Italian-American populations-Philadelphia, Boston or San Francisco for example, they tended to rely on dialects from other parts of Italy. Interestingly, I was hooked on the Italian crime show, Gomorrah, which features the modern Neopolitan dialect, and it is unintelligible to me.

[@scumbagnamechooser]

It is unintelligible for most of non napolitan italians as well :D

[@gantoniopatriarca9520]

I was just about to say the same thing. Also you will see a lot of Neapolitan S's turned into Z's in what I guess we could coin the Italian-American dialect.

[@ItalianCJ13]

@@gantoniopatriarca9520 ^ In CT we have the largest density of Neapolitans in the US. Father is from Pontelandolfo, In the Campania Region. Grew up listening to my families "dialect" and was shocked when i went to learn Standardized Italian, and the sentences took 2x as long to say, every word had a vowel at the end, and there were a lack of "shhh" sounds. "Come shtai". "Ashpett". Looking into the Neapolitan Language, I saw that most Americanized Italian Words have their roots in this Language and its dialects.

[@jtoo6060]

@@scumbagnamechooser , l grew up speaking Italian and when we went to Napoli I couldn’t understand any of their dialect. For me Spanish is much easier to understand than that dialect

[@lamwen03]

Blame it on all the French words in the English (and American) language. We're used to dropping all kinds of letters out of words.

[@TheSteam02]

@80sguy an anomaly.

[@jamess3395]

Yh t gts nsn smtms

[@stephenede-borrett1452]

Actually surely blame anything and everything in teh French 🤣

[@hulkbelowall9532]

@@TheSteam02 BUUURRNNNN

[@brandbienedell7971]

Smart

[@Justegarde]

I’m an American of Italian descent (with a really Italian last name), and I have to tell you, this video reminded me I have not seen a Fazoli’s in like 10 years, but it sure did make me miss its cheap, crappy Italian American food. God bless.

[@Clint52279]

I think there's one still operating in my town. I used to go frequently with my ex, but haven't driven by in a while. I called it, "Fozzy Bear's."

[@chuckhoyle1211]

The breadsticks are amazing and, really, the only reason to go there.

[@FaithfulOfBrigantia]

10:30 As a Portuguese I always struggle with ordering coffee abroad because most people in Portugal only ask for "a coffee" and it's always implied to be a simple expresso.

[@sensur1]

I'm Norwegian and when we order "coffee" we get a full sized cup of black coffee. So for me it was quite the culture shock when travelling in Portugal and Italy ordering a coffee and getting espresso as that is a very nice and unusual coffee drink in Norway :)

[@jimbeam8338]

The only issue I have with this is that if WE correct somebody else who mispronounces English words, then we're just being rude. So if we mispronounce things from other languages it's because we're uneducated, but if somebody else mispronounces something in English it's totally fine and we're not allowed to correct them or else we're made out to be rude for doing so. Kinda hypocritical.

[@alittlebitgone]

It's extremely hypocritical, every single language, including Italian, takes hundreds of English words into it's lexicon, and the pronunciation of these words changes to match. For whatever reason people only expect English speakers to sound like morons by switching how they say each word depending on what language that word came from.

[@AnkerPeet]

I want more language content like this. I always love this kind of stuff!

[@gojulas2009]

I would be interested to watch a video where you talk about this topic here many Americans tend to mispronounced certain words that were from the Japanese language.

[@jahirareyes1102]

I agree most certainly.

[@alittlebitgone]

Except he is 100% wrong. Ask any linguist, those words are not being pronounced wrong, they are being pronounced with their American English pronunciation. Every language in the world does this, Italian in particular does it more than most.

[@kalinkapavlova9398]

@@alittlebitgone no one's going to ask a linguist just because you're taking his rant video way too seriously lol.

[@UnexpectedTurnOfEvents]

This sounded just like my rants during my first years in the US. 😆 I especially loved it when overzealous waiters patiently corrected my native Italian with the americanized version: "It's pronounced 'broosh-ee-ehtta', like in SHore. That's how Italians say it". Nothing like having a foreigner insisting you don't know how to speak your own language. 🤣

[@faramund9865]

Can’t believe how bone headed Americans are, comment section is full of examples like this. It’s offensive, really.

[@My_Personal_Youtube]

I think a lot of Italian Americans don't realize that their ancestors who immigrated over never spoke standard Italian. They spoke archaic southern dialects. However, to this day, in certain places in italy like Napoli you can find people who say bruschetta with a hard sh sound.

[@alessandroscurti2053]

@@My_Personal_KZbin not true: what you can hear in Napoli is something like "brushketta" cause of a very heavy "sh" sound in a lot of words having "sc" sound (like "scuola" meaning "school" pronounced "shkuola"). Nowadays you'll never find someone in Italy saying "brusheta" tho

[@My_Personal_Youtube]

@@alessandroscurti2053 You're agreeing with everything I've said. Brushketta contains a hard sh sound.

[@alessandroscurti2053]

@@My_Personal_KZbin maybe I misunderstood, what I meant is that the sh sound you talk about goes with the "k" sound right after. I just wanted to point that out not to make people think that the word "brusheta" is a thing

[@swedishancap3672]

I had a friend who ordered "chilli con cane" at an italian restaurant. They got really mad XD

[@thebrognator3524]

Chinese-Mexican fusion food

[@glock4455]

Isn't cane dog in italian? Your friend is truly a multicultural man, integrating korean cuisine with italo-mexican food

[@pablodelsegundo9502]

My dumbass ex really thought 'pasta e burro' at an italian restaurant was pasta with donkey meat.

[@thebrognator3524]

@@pablodelsegundo9502 it's not common, but we do it donkey meat in Italy

[@R_Forde]

@@thebrognator3524 Does donkey taste any different from horse?

[@ItalianoDelSud7]

A lot of the weird Italian-American pronunciation came from Napuletano. I’m sure you’re aware of the final vowel sound in Napule. Then that final vowel sound just slowly went away and the words end on the consonant instead. Pasta “fazool” etc etc. still drives me nuts though lol gabagool somehow from capocollo. Goomba-cumpà

[@AnotherDuck]

As a Swede, I've usually heard two variations of most foods (not counting the Internet): either the Swedish word for it, or something that attempts to sound like the original (with various levels of success). I think both are correct(ish). If a foreign word has developed into a native word, then you can use the native pronunciation, even if that's different from the original. In some cases, it's even appropriate, since if you're talking about a specific dish, for instance, then the recipe might've also changed a bit in the new culture. Edit: I've also not heard much about "sounding pretentious" for trying to order something with an Italian (or whichever) pronunciation. Might just be here, or it might be a European thing, where people are more used to hearing a multitude of languages.

[@kleinjahr]

There is a scene in the Sopranos, where they are at a restaurant in Naples and Pauly asks for gravy for his pasta. By which he means tomato sauce. You can imagine the waiter’s reaction.

[@itskarl7575]

Calling your dog "canoli" is actually like calling your dog "peaches" - which happens to be a thing, for some reason.

[@antonionpellegrini]

🤣👍

[@johnv6806]

Peach..I can eat a peach for hours

[@itskarl7575]

@@johnv6806 Peach is ok - what's _really_ good is peach jam.

[@johnv6806]

@@itskarl7575 i confess I hate peach and was quoting nicolas cage in "face-off"

[@itskarl7575]

@@johnv6806 Oh. Not the most oft-quoted movie, but ok. Peach jam is still great, though.

[@malfecto]

A Roman soldier walks into a bar and says “I’d like a martinus please.” The bartender replies “Do you mean martini?” The soldier replies: “If I wanted more than one I would have ordered them.”

[@JonBrownSherman]

Just so you know, the martini actually comes from and is named after the California city of Martinez!

[@malfecto]

@@JonBrownSherman - Yep, I knew that. Just using it as an example in a joke with no historical relevance.

[@malfecto]

@@JonBrownSherman - And the word “oxymoron”, from the Greek “oxus” (meaning sharp) and mōros (meaning foolish) combined to oxusmōros, is LITERALLY an oxymoron. I love etymology.

[@JonBrownSherman]

@@malfecto That's awesome, thank you for sharing!

[@Perrirodan1]

@@malfecto That's the kind of thing which makes me want to learn latin and ancient Greek.

[@Belzebubke]

7:46 fru-it... I'm dying here lmao

[@miguelsuarez-solis5027]

Imma go to Italy and make fun of how Italians say cheeseburger and New York strip 😂 It's not cheesehboogerr Metatron! It's not new yorke stripa Metatron! 😂

[@andersonic]

Recently I was learning about Italian immigrants here in California, and a fascinating detail was that later arrivals found the earlier immigrants speaking archaic and baffling Italian. It only takes a generation or two for a home country's language to change significantly.

[@allisk8001]

Are you saying the American pronunciation is based off earlier forms of the word?

[@marjanp]

@@allisk8001 They are.

[@sean668]

@@allisk8001 Not necessarily. They're often based on lower class regional dialects that aren't common in Italy anymore.

[@painlord2k]

@@allisk8001 Yes. Current Italian is heavily influenced by Florentine language (Dante). A few of the "dialects" of various regions are actual languages themselves (philologists say so). But a large part of emigrants went away immediately after the unification of Italy (it was actually a conquest of Italy by Sabaude Kings) before the government implemented a government school system to uniform the language of its subjects.

[@misss7777]

It's the same for the Russian Germans who went back to Germany after generations...

[@vodostar9134]

Caesar salad was invented by a Mexican restaurant owner - Cesar Cardini iirc, by the way. And what he invented isn't much like what's served in modern restaurants.

[@hughmongus6191]

You beat me to it. Caesar Cardini was an Italian who went to America, then to Mexico. He went Mexico to open a bar due to alcohol prohibition. The salad was an accidental creation. He couldn't fill an order so he made the Caesar salad. It became popular mainly due to his bar serving a lot of a lot early Hollywood stars.

[@vodostar9134]

@@hughmongus6191 Oh. I didn't know he was Italian, but makes sense. Cardini certainly sounds more Italian than Spanish. As I heard it, he made the salad to feed some Hollywood stars who were trapped at his Tijuana bar by bad weather. Romaine lettuce, worchestershire sauce, and raw eggs - not quite what we call a Caesar salad today.

[@es0teric76]

@@vodostar9134 Caesar salad can be almost anything these days as long as it's drenched in "Caesar salad dressing".

[@es0teric76]

@@vodostar9134 which I 'think' is made with anchovies generally.

[@laurahubbard6906]

Thank you for spelling Cesar Cardini's name right. There's no initial "a" in his name.

[@natknutson1482]

I actually did not know you moved here. If you want lots of Italian, go to the northern panhandle area of west Virginia as well as neighboring areas. Extremely Italian.

[@rkitchen1967]

I live in Fairmont and Northern WV is full of Italians

[@natknutson1482]

@@rkitchen1967 heck much of it was made by Italian brick layers

[@ximthedespot4673]

Intresting. Idaho apparently has a pretty sizable population of Basque people that live that and at least a couple of the Native American tribes have French names.

[@tacitozetticci9308]

I think you're talking about Italian Americans lol

[@natknutson1482]

@@tacitozetticci9308 no, Italians. Don't even pretend you know better about where I live.

[@innovativeatavist159]

I love how he's using his hands so much more in this one for extra Italian-ness

[@adrianomiguelfontes]

As a Portuguese i really appreciated the whole "un caffe" because the same happens here. Portugal is very "Italian" when it comes to café

[@Blox117]

im curious, why do people say "as a __" instead of "as someone who is _" i guess its just lazy/simpler to say?

[@adrianomiguelfontes]

@@Blox117 Like we say in Portugal. "Para bom entendedor meia palavra basta" "To a good connoisseur half a word is enough "

[@Blox117]

@@adrianomiguelfontes well I was curious because it's not just Portuguese speakers, other language speakers other than native English ones say that a lot

[@Dowlphin]

Imagining overweight Murk tourist in Europe: _Boy, gimme one o' them flapper chinooks, … pronto!_

[@ac9184]

It’s just a Latin thing, because I’m Mexican and we do the same

[@TheArthoron]

It's because most of our grandfathers that got stationed in Italy during WWII were stationed in Palermo, so they all learned how to say that one correctly.

[@Aswaguespack]

This presentation was an absolute hoot. Thanks for the corrections. My late best friend’s grandmother was from Palermo and his Mom’s Family were also Sicilian immigrants to America. Johnny’s Mom was regarded as the best cook among the Local Sicilian families and I learned how to really appreciate Italian Cuisine from her home cooked meals. I miss those days and her wonderful family meals. Welcome to Wacky America!

[@betheva5917]

I learned it from the old timers. They spoke Italian by dropping or adding vowels. You took it in stride. If you wanted to fit in you did the same. When I hear real Italian I realize they all used the dialect they arrived with a thick layer of Brooklyn on top. Miss those Calzones.

[@jakeaurod]

First time I saw calzone on a menu, I thought it was a diet food...

[@betheva5917]

@@jakeaurod 😂

[@rosiej.1473]

I think this is my favorite video so far! I laughed so hard. More rants please.

[@64standardtrickyness]

Unpopular opinion nobody pronounces any non english city or food anything close to how it's supposed to be pronounced but the Italians are the only people with nothing better to do than correct everyone.

[@tomhalla426]

An odd thing is having to know whether a word is Spanish or Italian to know how to pronounce it. There is a fair amount of overlap, but Gallo, like the winemakers, is not pronounced the same as Spanish for rooster, also gallo.

[@mr.m4297]

Latin based languages usually do I dont speak either Italian or Spanish but I recognize a lot of the words that sounds similar. Like German words that sound English

[@tomhalla426]

@@mr.m4297 German does have a fair number of words similar to English, but some that are “false friends” like gift, which means poison in German.

[@bobon123]

Very true! In particular because pronunciation rules between Spanish and Italian are very different. "Ch" in Spanish is soft c, like ceviche, in Italian is pronounced like k, like bruschetta or fianchetto (chess term commonly mispronounced by amateurs). Or double "LL" like you mentioned, but also "gui" and "cui", "gli"... they are pronounced completely different in Spanish and Italian.

[@St1cKnGoJuGgAlO]

Not to mention French words in all things culinary arts related

[@byletheisner5006]

Gallo means rooster in Italian as well.

Moments in which I am happy to be Spanish-speaking, there is more understanding with Italian (I cannot say the same for Portuguese and French, who are like brothers estranged from the family). XD

[@tindekappa9047]

It goes both ways though, 90% of italians speaking a foreign language pronounce half the words in that very italian way and don't bother getting better.

[@bradyblackburn7877]

I'm 50. I just learned that calzone is a 3 syllable word. Who knew? Besides all of Italy.

[@kenninast]

No rant about gnocchi? 🤣 Anyway... The video reminded me a bit of "it's leviOsa, not leviosA..." 😁 And I grinned a bit that you complain that people say "expresso" instead of "espresso", while I heard you say "excetera" instead of "et cetera" several times, some time ago. But it's all good. Love by far most of your content!!! 😎

[@joshuawagner2590]

Actually, Metatron, I have found this video VERY helpful. I am someone who prefers to pronounce things the way they are meant to be pronounced, so I thank you for this video.

[@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight]

Congrats on your marriage, Metatron! May you and Kenzie have an everlasting love and great prosperity.

[@Pico_de_Guile]

As a Mexican American this is absolutely relatable.

[@noreavad]

This tangent video is quite delightful. Tonic accent and where you put it is a great factor with the italian language. I learned that with wines and their Denominazione di origine controllata.

[@TheDevilMethod]

How is Pizza Hawai called in italian? ;)

[@iota-09]

pizza hawaiana or pizza con l'ananas.

[@FeaNordica]

Che cosa?

[@soragranda]

The moment you said you move to America I KNEW! this was going to happen, eventually.

[@peterhiggins2928]

I've always found that once you learn a few basic rules (like these), Italian pronunciation is really easy if you actually try to make an effort. It appears (from the outside) far more rule based that English - where the only rule is there are no rules. Mostly, I've also found that attempting the correct pronunciation in Italy is well recieved and you will be politely corrected if you get it wrong.

[@eyywannn8601]

Definitely seems like it sticks to what the letters are as opposed to whatever the hell the french are doing.

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@eyywannn8601 🐒

[@eyywannn8601]

@@mrtrollnator123 How did you know?!?

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@eyywannn8601 I know everything

[@Appleblade]

Yay! Welcome to the US, Metatron. My grandfather was from Casteldaccia... I hope to visit someday (I'm in Colorado). These pronunciation tips are great ... you're welcome to drop them into any discussion, as far as I'm concerned. I often wonder about these terms. Thanks!

[@halmycroft194]

I think the plural name for a pet has some precedent: 'Waffles' makes more sense as a pet's name than 'Waffle', 'Sprinkles' more than 'Sprinkle' etc. And leaving the realm of food I know of people calling their dogs 'Snuggles', 'Snuffles', or 'Cuddles' but never the singular forms of those names. Which are, admittedly, all a bit twee as names go. On the subject of calzone (and also mascarpone) - is there a possibility that it's a bit of a preservation of a previously held particular regional accent of Italian migrants that has developed over time into something distinct? I gather that the reputation for Italian Americans referring to capocollo as gabagool is an example of this, which then got shot into the popular imagination due to frequent references in The Sopranos. On a similar note a relative of mine (based in the UK) whose parents were originally from Naples sometimes refers to mascarpone (etc.) with the American pronunciation, hence my question about divergence of pronunciation in diaspora groups.

[@magnificus8581]

As an Italian American who studied for a year in Firenze, I feel your pain to some extent.

[@MiaobuMiao]

I feel like intentionally messing up the words because I now know how to properly pronounce them. Welcome to America, Raf.

[@domenicogrimaldi591]

I'm Italian, as I'm sure you can tell by my name, and I knew very little of this. Why? Because my father was terrible and never taught me Italian growing up. Meaning today I have an aggressively Italian name and can't speak a word of it. Really sucks. I'll never forgive him for this.

[@FeaNordica]

Well, you are an american of Italian decent not Italian. From a european point of view of course. 😉

[@Great_Olaf5]

Parents often have the mistaken belief that trying to teach their children their native language will somehow detract from their ability to learn English. While this is nonsense, I've also known enough people who *were* taught their parents' native language, but now being a decade or more into adulthood can barely speak a word of it. Learning isn't a one way process, and language especially is knowledge that can be lost fairly easily if it isn't used regularly. I've even met someone who grew up in France, speaking French for the first fifteen years of their life, but now at 70 understands about as much French as I did after four years in high school and two semesters in college: a fair amount, with effort, but not really conversational.

[@juliannacolombo5584]

My grandparents and I spoke it as a child, my parents hated this and refused to. Made me angry that I had to personally put in so much effort to counter them. Italians were heavily discriminated against when first immigrating. (Late 1800s specifically I am thinking of) My mother had to learn English in school got made fun of. My grandparents understood my parents stance. Explanations I was given was that they made great effort and sacrifice for me to have the privilege of being American ..they didn't want to risk affecting that..

[@juliannacolombo5584]

Also..I changed the spelling of my first name in grade school so people who say it properly..the gi confused folks

[@juliannacolombo5584]

@@FeaNordica I only say I am an Italian American or first generation American because my parents immigrated from Italy. Curious of what Europeans would think of this? My grandparents always told me to say I am a New Yorker if I travel Europe?

[@andregon4366]

9:56 If they're vegans and your friends then you either have infinite patience or they're your friends for no longer than 23 seconds.

[@willmosse3684]

I was under the impression that dropping the vowels at the end of words, like Calzon for Calzone, Projut for prosciutto, etc., was a Neapolitan dialect thing. Dialect vs standard Italian. All the poor immigrants from the South of Italy 100 years ago brought their dialect pronunciations with them. I am British, not American, but watch the Sopranos. They drop the vowels at the end of all their words - Moozadel for Mozzarella, Rigat for Ricotta, etc. Calzon is just another example of this. Baloney though - no idea! This one has never made sense to me. For about 30 years I did not know what it was at all. It took me until then to realise it was what Americans call Bolognaise. In England we pronounce it to rhyme with Mayonnaise, so we don’t pronounce the e at the end, but it’s still nowhere near as bad as Baloney (though for us it tends to mean a pasta sauce rather than a cured meat). And I never thought Pastrami was Italian. I always thought it was an Eastern European Jewish type thing that you get with Bagels.

[@merydoesstuff]

The Neapolitan dialect doesn't just drop the final vowel, most of the time the word is written or pronounced in a different way. For example, calzone is written in the same way, but pronounced "cazon" or "cazone" depending on which part of Campania you're from. Naples is written "Napule" but it's pronounced "Napule", "Napul" or "Napuli"

[@elizabethsloan3192]

Ok, you got me on pepperoni! My grandmother was Italian (she came to the USA at 11) and I knew the rest. I still miss her cooking!

[@TempvsMortis]

A lot of the altered city names (including the name of the country) come from French. And some of the weird "mispronunciations" like for 'bologna' are actually from Sicily IIRC. Sicilians immigrated at really high rates to the US, and their language and cuisine had the largest impact on the US. It's just a regional thing. Certain dialects drop the final vowel like in French.

[@Matt_Alaric]

Just to clarify, you're telling a native Italian how his own language works?

[@TempvsMortis]

@@Matt_Alaric I'm explaining the history of migration in the US. I don't remember if it's Sicilians exactly that it comes from, but there's an Italian dialect that disproportionately influenced American pronunciation of Italian. I assume he knows about all the dialects, but I was just making sure. People can have gaps in their knowledge. Also, he's not the only one reading the comment.

[@Panzer_Scott]

I have tried to correct the pronunciation of bruschetta so many times in the US. Let me know if you find a good pistachio pasta in Nashville. I am only a couple hours away. The best ever was in Aci Trezza near Catania. When I lived in Italy and asked for pizza pepperoni they assumed I meant diavolo because I am American. I always loved peperoni and cipolla

[@h.h.amford702]

Italians: "What's a good word for these delicious little boiled potato balls? Right, Gnocchi, we're gonna call them gnocchi. A beautiful, delicate word, the sound descriptive of their small shape and delicious juicyness. Easy enough to pronounce, too!" Germans everywhere: "KNOTSCHI!"

[@Great_Olaf5]

One thing to keep in mind (you might already know this with your love of history) is that Italian-American culture and cuisine is almost exclusively derived from Neapolitan and Sicilian roots, where the vast majority of the major wave of Italian immigrants came from. So names and pronunciations will have come through that filter, as well as the fact that they were coming at the same time as a large Polish wave, so Polish pronunciations would have had just as much of an impact as the local American pronunciations, plus the century plus time gap for pronunciations in all of the countries to shift around. Your mention that lasagne is pronounced similarly to the southern Italian way here kinda sparked this memory for me. One other thing to keep in mind (sparked by the comment on spaghetti being designed to appeal to Americans) is that immigrants were forced to work with local ingredients. If they didn't have access to something they had back in Italy (or wherever), they would either just ignore it, or come up with a substitute, if something that was expensive back home was cheaper and more available, they might increase the proportions of that (this is why Americanized versions of food often contain more meat than their source, meat was much cheaper here than in most of Europe, to the point where even the relatively impoverished could afford to have it with most meals, something that would have been a luxury in Europe, and this is not unique to the United States, a lot of Latin American cuisine is heavier on meat than Spanish or Portuguese are or were).

[@thefutureisnowoldman7653]

He's Sicilian so Americans can't use that as a cope out

[@Great_Olaf5]

@@thefutureisnowoldman7653 Yeah, I wasn't aware of that at the time I made this comment. The remainder of it still stands though. There's been over a century of linguistic divergence between modern Italy and modern America, language change doesn't require outside influence or mistakes, it just happens no matter what. And the entire second half is still valid, not having anything to do with the source culture specifically.

[@freki9940]

as a german i know exactly how you feel. anglophones butchering german words gives me a headache :)

[@laurahubbard6906]

And nobody understands the final "e" schwa sound in German and French.

[@VORASTRA]

You know how we, Russians, pronounce Einstein? [EinSHtEin]

[@Wade8419]

I mean this happens when languages borrow words. For example if you ever hear english words borrowed into another language, japanese for example, they are not pronounced correctly at 7. There's nothing wrong with that. They are modified to fit the language they have been borrowed into. Continuing with the japanese example. If i were to say a word with the proper english pronunciation while speaking japanese, it would be both confusing, and sound very strange.

[@Gloops01]

It works both ways. I remember a German girlfriend laughing at my English pronunciation of the American brand Colgate (kol-gayt). "It's kohl-GAH-teh!"

[@Matt_Alaric]

Now that is complete shy-sir.

[@bradsbassadventure]

This video brought back memories of my time in Belluno. Nearly every day we would have lunch at a restaurant called La Conchiglia. One of our coworkers was of Italian descent and he spoke Italian fluently. We knew how to pronounce the name of the restaurant correctly but we would call it "The Con Chig Lia" just to get under his skin.

[@scootergsp]

Congratulations on your wedding. I didn't realize you had moved to the States. Welcome. Maybe we may cross paths someday. And yeah, we do have have a tendency to butcher other languages, but we'll do it to our own words too. 😏

[@williamjohnson7963]

Excellent rant! 👍

[@Luinedhel]

As an argentinian myself, i thought I was pronouncing all of those right, since Argentina has a very strong Italian influence on its language. But you got me with fettuccine. Here we also call them fettuccini.

[@jeromemckenna7102]

The US restaurant industry loves mixing French words with anything else. You won't win that argument with menu writers.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

You can't reason with the lowest common denominator.

[@Dowlphin]

That's nothing. Discuss "beef jerky" with a Native American. 😅 It's like if Italians introduce spaghetti to 'Murks' and they start selling it as "sperg tea" everywhere. We also have a cringer like that in Germany. We turned "Château Morel" branded cherries into "Schattenmorellen" (shade morells - whatever that is).

[@charlesvincent4127]

I need more Italian lessons, I feel like I've begun learning a second language from this video.

[@alexyoon-sungcucina7895]

When teaching English in Korea, one guy from America ranted how his Korean students kept saying 로마 (Roma) and not Rome and 이탈리아 (Italia) not Italy. He also bashed the local pizza for having "inauthentic" seafood on it, while demanding authentic pizza like Papa John's. Korean pronunciation and pizza has many sins, but those are not any of them.

[@carolthedabbler2105]

Well, to be fair, if his students were learning to speak English, they did need to learn the English translations of those place names. Otherwise it'd be just as odd as calling them "Rome" and "Italy" when speaking Italian.

[@raymondsmith6870]

This sound exactly like the rant the Italian chef Tony Shalhoub does in the movie Big Night to his brother Primo (Stanley Tucci) when an American customer wanted meatballs in her spaghetti. The part I find funny is being born here in North America your still called Italian but when you go to Italy they insist your American (even if your from Canada).

[@toastwriter617]

Here’s a question, I’m a comic book fan, and I’ve had Italian Americans trying to tell me that Carmine Falcone doesn’t have the i or E sound at the end. They say it’s FAL-COWN as opposed to FAL-CONI. Which one is correct?

[@onironauta1303]

Neither of them...It's pronounced Fal-co-neh

[@paulpski9855]

When we returned from Italy after being stationed there for three years and having been living outside the US for almost six years, my wife and I went to an Olive Garden for the first time. We both got sick from the so called "Italian" food.

[@markantony3875]

Yes, Olive Garden is not good food.

[@paulpski9855]

@@markantony3875 I do enjoy some of their desserts. LOL

[@markantony3875]

@@paulpski9855 Ok, but you have to sit through the shitty meal there to get the desert. 😁

[@wolfsmaid6815]

German cities have also been renamed by the english speaking population. I was so confused after moving to the UK and none of the other children at school knew my hometown "München" despite it being quite well-known here.... - yeah, "Munich". It´s even worse with "Cologne" being "Köln"

[@latronemastrucato7288]

So with Köln the funny thing is, it's the Germans who are saying it wrong. It was founded by the Romans as Colonia Claudia. So calling ik Cologne instead of Köln is just an older version of the original name for the settlement.

[@viysnjor4811]

English has no ü sound and "moon chin" sounds weird in English, so I guess somehow that became Munich. Or maybe it's some old dialectal version? Prussian maybe?

[@alittlebitgone]

You're aware that every language on Earth does this, right? Even German?

[@pyeltd.5457]

@@alittlebitgone it's all England folt simple

[@gamerito100]

I mean, every language does that, if you speak a different language you will adapt names of places to ease the pronunciation and writing.

[@jasonscottjenkins]

Someone needs to start a KZbin channel dealing with the history of Italian food.

[@robinderue8801]

This video made my day, I love your sense of humor, especially with languages!!

[@coopersand911]

I hope you enjoy it here brother, welcome and glad to have ya! Also, have fun with hearing Americanized Italian food for your stay here in the USA

[@elijahc.brooks3493]

@Metatron, I want to teach you Southern Slang English. The first one is “y’all” meaning you all. The second is “ain’t”, and this means is not but in a informal slang context. God bless you! Welcome to the South, my Italian brother in Christ.

[@Anthony-kw4en]

And here I thought “y’all” was a Twitter phenomenon 😉

[@elijahc.brooks3493]

@@Anthony-kw4en Well, now you’re learning the truth from a Southern Gentleman.

[@MrGouldilocks]

I wouldn't want to live in a world where I didn't hear and use the word 'y'all" on a daily basis.

[@Anthony-kw4en]

@@elijahc.brooks3493 hah, I loved my time in VA, NC, and SC.

[@sloth_e]

@@Anthony-kw4en yeah y'all has become a lefty twitter thing these days. Esp when being lecturous. 😆

[@Drakkar2992]

Hahahah, i feel you! I happen to speak italian as well, and it's funny and horrendous to see italian words butchered like that. Big congrats on your wedding, wishing you both a long, happy life together!

[@ikad5229]

I'm a Spaniard living in Italy and I get you, I can't stand people mispronouncing words and thinking they do it right. I guess for me it's easier to pronounce than to an English speaker, but come on, some people don't even try. But what I hate the most is English speakers that come to Europe and start talking to you directly in English, and then get mad when some folks don't know how to speak it. So, wait, you are so entitled that you want people abroad to speak English and when they go to your country you get mad if they don't speak English? Do you think you own the world?

[@viysnjor4811]

Well it's "right" in that, in English it's correct enough. The point of language is to be understood, and in English you will be better understood with "bolonee" than "bolonya"

[@ikad5229]

@@viysnjor4811 Of course, I don't pretend to change how English speakers talk, because changing a whopping 380 million people it's extremely difficult, but it would be good if, at least, they knew they were pronouncing it wrong. And when they come to Italy (or any other country), for God's sake, learn the basic phrases and pronounciation. Everyone will treat you better if you let them know you are trying to blend with the country. I don't speak fluent Italian yet, but hey, I try, and people really aprecciate and even compliment you.

[@viysnjor4811]

@@ikad5229 Well it helps that you already speak a Romance language, you have most of the grammar and sounds already, English has very few sounds in common with Italian however. I agree people should try to say things properly when abroad, but English sounds don't go over well into Italian compared to Swedish or Danish, for example.

[@ikad5229]

@@viysnjor4811 That can go both ways. As a Romance language native, it's also more difficult to me to pronounce English words than to a Swede, yet I try to improve my pronounciation all I can. All I ask for is common decency and respect. If you come here, try to blend with the natives, respect its people and its culture and you will be treated the same way. It's not uncommon to see how prices go up when selling things to an American, because A) they don't usually know they are being fooled and B) if they are bad tourists at least why not make a profit out of them. I'm not saying every American/British is a bad tourist, but my experience tells me that they are the least welcomed in Southern Europe.

[@IAmMarshicus]

@@ikad5229 Justifying tourists being conned if they don't have a grasp on the local language. Lol. Don't be bitter, be better.

[@Dowlphin]

I was eating spagettis while watching this and had a frappelatte thingie afterwards. I love the stuff. 7:44 In Dinner for One, Freddie Frinton actually says "fru-it". I suspect you are mixing advocacy for proper pronounciation with advocacy for practically authentic pronounciation. "Maggiano" probably originally had an audible but quick "i" and then people got sloppy and claimed it is not said at all just because it is hard to perceive.

[@MikeA817]

10:05 from my understanding, the practice of spaghetti AND meatballs as a single dish started because of the relatively cheap price of meat and shortened time to eat (because working long hours or multiple jobs with less time to sit and eat multi-course meals).

[@alexissjc409]

Congratulations Metatron! I do hope you enjoy he american italian restaurantts and pronunciation even tho different XD love your videos.

[@SpartanWolf222]

*Watches this video when you're American but the mother side of your family are Sicilians and you're used to homemade Italian cuisine, but they use a lot of these American pronunciations.* "I'm in danger."

[@TheSteam02]

(Identity crisis ensues)

[@SpartanWolf222]

@@TheSteam02 My father side is German, so I'm well past that point.

[@RC-om9nh]

Welcome to the US! Please don't judge us for Olive Garden @_@ those of us who retain any familial connections with Italy don't call that food.

[@bencruz563]

I am thrilled that you made this video. I don't know if you knew, but some Americans adore any oportunity to butcher words. This video is a wealth of how to annoy/tease any Italian one may run across. Welcome to America! Fuck yeah!

[@staceyw.6608]

This was hilarious. You have a new sub from me. I'm an American living in Italy...so yeah...let's talk about all those misspellings on the Italian to English translations on menus here...hahhahah. No, seriously, you're soooo right. Loved the video.