"The Pastry is Closed", "Strong of Olives" and Other Difficulties with Understanding The Italian Language

An article by Phyllis Macchioni, from her blog, This Italian Life

...You can laugh, but those of us who struggle with a foreign language on a daily basis can well appreciate the obvious difficulties the translator had with the structure of the English language, not to mention the idioms.

One of the persistent problems I have with Italian is trying to decipher the sex of things – is it masculine or feminine – something I seem to have trouble doing with some of the people I see on the streets these days too. But unfortunately for me Italian is not androgynous, like some of my fellow citizens....

(Click for more of this great, funny story...)