… Crepi!
So far the only way I have discovered to say ‘good luck’ in Italian are the preceding 2 Italian phrases, translating roughly to ‘in the mouth of the wolf!’ to which the reply should be, nay has to be: ’crepi!’, implying something about the wolf dying after you jumped into his mouth. I could be wrong, since I suspect there’s conjuntivo being used.
Of course, if you where to – the madness – something like ‘buona fortuna! Grazie!’ brings bad luck, Naturally.
Sigh.
That is to say, the Italian language is many things, but ‘compact’ or ‘efficient’ is definitely not one of them. Beautiful? Colorful? Rich and expressive? All those it is in spades though!
I spoke a fair bit of Italian before I arrived here – though it’s been a while, and, frankly, it’s quite mentally exhausting (but in that good way!) to speak it all the time here. If you have experience speaking with a native speaker in a language you are still into getting, the following dialogue should be familiar to you:
[Some fairly safe and anonymous everyday situation, in which at some point you mumble...]
Me: ‘Hi’ or ‘Thank you’ or ‘My Name Is Wouter’ or ‘one from that (while pointing) please.’
Native speaker: ‘Oh wow, you speak Italian really well!’ (loud and enthousiast, also where did that spotlight suddenly come from)
Me: ‘Naaah, not really… But hey, thanks I guess!’
Native speaker: [friendly follow-up babble in Italian that is totally incomprehensible to you]
Me: sheepish smile / blank stare
[Author's note: this post is actually an unfinished draft, but since I'm back now, it's unlikely I'll ever finish it so I'll just post it as it is]