Viva la musica!!

"Oudooey"
I nodded. It was a band I had never heard of. I turned to the next person.
"Si. Anch'io. oudooey."
I was perplexed. The young man saw my expression. 
"The big, grande, group from Irlanda. Con Bono."
I shook my head. It wasn't ringing any bells.

"Irrem," was the next answer. 
I repeated, "Irrem?" 
"Si, from America."
"An American group?"
"Si, famosissime, verrry famous."

My gaze turned onto the last student in the class.
"The Queen," he said. 
I looked at him , "the queen doesn't sing."
"Ma si, The Queen. Freddie Merrcurrrry."
"Queen."
"si, the Queen."

I had just asked my students what their favourite group was. 

I hadn't realised then (about 15 years ago when U2 and REM were huge) just how much was translated. Even the French, strong proponents of translating everything try to say 'you two,' albeit with a strong French accent for U2.

Over the years, erroneous translations have led to some bizarre conversations. 

To wit:

"There were the  bitches on the Tiber Island."
I registered the word. "Bitches. As  in female dogs? How could you tell?" 
Strange look from student, " No, bitches, you know."
" Female dogs."
"No, women," he whispered, a shade red in hue.
"Malicious women? How did you know? How could you tell?"
He shifted in his seat, bright red by now, "they wear the shorts."
"Ahhhh." The penny dropped. Like the women who line the Via Salaria or the Cristoforo Colombo at night.

A too close attention to the translation of 'figlio di puttana' as 'son of a bitch' had led my student to the wrong conclusion that a puttana and a bitch were one and the same. 

Or pity the student when faced with a test said "ma questa é la prova?"
My confident "yes," reassured him. I had understood the French meaning 'une épreuve' for 'prova' ( a test) he had meant, a mock test. He handed in an incomplete paper and turned up the following week with a confident, "I'm ready now. I've studied." He had failed already.

And for a while I couldn't understand why so many students were going on holiday to 'Monaco', in my mind, a rather small principality most famous for its casino and Grace Kelly. It turned out they were talking about 'Monaco di Baviera' aka Munich.

That was years ago when my Italian was shakier than it is now.

 But every now and again, as I deal with language, a pearl turns up, such as the young student who recently in an essay wrote "hand jobs are rare nowadays." 
Go figure what he really meant!