Hey YouTube!
I’m Tia from America and I’m today’s EF Guest Vlogger.
Although I’m from America, I live in Italy and I speak Italian.
One of my favourite things about the Italian language is the way the people express themselves.
Some of the most fun phrases to say in Italian are slang words and other phrases
that you just don’t learn in the classroom.
As an American who didn’t have a great grasp of Italian before going,
it took me a while to pick up on these phrases.
So, I’m going to help you guys out and I’m going to tell you guys what I think are
the 10 most useful and fun phrases to know if you’re going to study abroad in Italy.
This first word you’re going to use is in the place of ‘I don’t know’
except it’s a million times more fun to say than ‘I don’t know.’
It’s ‘Boh.’
What’s he talking about? Boh.
It’s just a B with a very …. ‘oh.’
If you’re going to study abroad in Italy, you’re going to take exams there.
This phrase is going to be pretty useful during exam time.
When you want to tell somebody ‘good luck,’ You use the phrase ‘in bocca al lupo.’
Literally, this means ‘in the mouth of the wolf.’
Now, there’s this crazy back story to it as to why people say it when they want to say ‘good luck,’
but I don’t remember it.
All you need to know is that when people say ‘in bocca al lupo,’
they’re saying ‘good luck’ to you and you have to respond by saying ‘crepi.’
Since they’re saying ‘in the mouth of the wolf,’ it doesn’t really make sense to say ‘thank you.’
You have to say ‘crepi’ which means ‘I’ll kill the wolf’ or something like that.
Practice with me!
Oh yeah, I have an exam today. In bocca al lupo! Ah, crepi.
Now, I’ve been told that this phrase is mostly used in the north and the centre,
but I use it all the time to refer to my friends. It’s ‘raga.’
Raga is a shortened version of ragazzi and it just means ‘guys.’
Hey guys, what’s up? Ciao ragazzi, come va?
This phrase will probably be one of the most useful for you guys.
It’s ‘figo’ or ‘che figo!’
‘Figo’ means ‘cool,’ and ‘che figo’ means ‘how cool!’
So now, whenever something cool happens, you’ll finally know how to respond to that situation.
Che figo!
On the opposite spectrum we have ‘che palle.’ You use it whenever you’re irritated.
Is someone annoying you? Che palle!
Do you have to do something that you don’t really want to do?
Che palle!
I didn’t study for this exam and I didn’t know that we had it today.
Che palle!
Another one of my favourite words is ‘dai!’ In Italian, it’s spelled D-A-I.
And it literally means ‘come on!’ Dai! Hurry up! Sprigati!
If you’re going to be studying at EF’s language school in Rome,
you might more commonly hear ‘daje.’
‘Daje’ can mean ‘dai,’ but I guess it can also mean a million other things.
‘Daje’ is kind of a placeholder in the city of Rome.
Daje!
Schifo. Che schifo! This one means ‘gross’ or ‘how gross.’
If something happened and it’s kind of disturbing you in an uncomfortable way,
you would respond by saying ‘che schifo!’
If you want to say that somebody’s gross, you would say ‘fai schifo!’
Figurati! Figurati means ‘no problem.’
If somebody does something for you and they say thank you, you can respond with ‘figurati.’
Or it means ‘don’t mention it.’ Grazie mille. Figurati!
Zio or Zia.
Literally, this means uncle or auntie,
but you can use it to refer to your friends as brother and sister.
I know, I know.
The next one isn’t so much slang
as it is a phrase that people use a lot.
It’s ‘buon’ bla bla bla bla bla. Buon anything!
Buon lavoro, buon studio, buona giornata, buon manga, buon pranzo.
You could say ‘buon’ in front of anything and it lets people know
‘have a good whatever you’re doing.’
‘Buon lavoro’ is ‘good work’, ‘buon studio’ is ‘have a good time studying,’ or ‘good study,’ literally.
‘Buon pranzo’ is ‘have a nice lunch. ‘ ‘Buona giornata’ is ‘have a nice day.’
If you put ‘buon’ in front of just about any action,
Congratulations! You’ve passed your first lesson on Italian kindness and manners.
Those are my top 10 useful phrases and slang words for incoming Erasmus and study-abroad students.
They’re Italian words that aren’t usually taught in the Italian classroom,
but I think could be pretty useful for everyday life.
And now you don’t have to live in Italy for two years to finally get them.
I hope that this video could be a help to you guys and I hope that you found it entertaining.
Moving to a new country and learning a new language has really been one of the best experiences of my life.
I’m always recommending and pushing other people to do it as well.
If you guys want to know more about my international life, go into my channel.
It’s going to be below in the description.
I hope you guys liked this video and I’ll see you guys around!