XL REPUBBLICA - how Mika keeps himself busy ;-) - part 2

I don't think so -- it says that it was translated by Emilia Benghi, in the lower right corner, so I think it must have been written in English originally. But I will say that it was pretty easy for me to translate -- I only had to double-check on a couple words. I'm still not sure about "tata" though.

Yes, 'tata' is 'nanny' and I'd translate the very last sentence as follows: ' I don't know, what that means though' or something along those lines:wink2:

Best of luck for your exams sweetie

Oh good luck, Lucrezia. Fingers crossed that you'll do well!

 

And it was good practice for me -- I really do need to brush up on my Italian!

Thank you girls!!

OK, here's my attempt at translating -- please excuse any mistakes. Not only am I rusty, but my keyboard is sticking for sommee reasoson anand I'm geetting lootts of double letterers. Ugh.

 

Italian Lesson Nightmare: I Dream of German Nannies Named Simona

 

On the 52nd floor of the tallest bulding in Tokyo, Isabella, desperate, covers her face with her hands. She tells me that I have a really bad vocabulary (in Italian) and that my Italian is a disgrace. I reject her criticisms, claiming that I don't speak Italian badly, I speak it like a New Yorker. She raises her eyes to the sky and adds that she has never met anyone like me, beyond murdering the Italian language I have a terrible accent, I seem like the wife of the Spanish ambassador. I reply that then I should not have a Sicilian snob as a teacher. It is only one example of the lessons with Isabella, my teacher, an everyday presence in my life since I undertook learning Italian in two months. At the beginning of October I will put my new linguistic ability to the test, judging at X Factor Italian edition. If this is not a good motive for learning a language, which motive could ever be?

 

After my third show with X Factor in December, a production assistant, all excited, asked me if I would ever consider the idea of being a judge. I smiled, thinking that they were joking or out of their mind. I didn't understand. Then I found out that they were very serious and at the beginning of the year, shocking my management, I accepted the proposal. My managers couldn't believe that I would be a judge in a talent show (I had refused similar offers in other countries) and in Italian! My motives were very simple. Over the last few years I have been in Italy for my work and I have spent a lot of free time there. The Italian edition of X Factor seems to me the most independent and the least controlled of all these shows of this genre. To me, it's in the tradition of the singing competitions that have been part of the popular Italian culture for 40 years. Beyond that, I would be forced to learn Italian in a short time. This is why I undertook this crazy task, and why my 24-year-old teacher is traveling with me while I am touring the world.

 

How will it go? I have no idea, but I know that I want to enjoy this experience as much as possible. It is a bit like going on a roller coaster. Now I am in the most anxious phase of the ride, when they bring to me to the top of the ramp, and I don't know what to expect, you want to go down, but you want to go ahead. Studying grammar and vocabulary without a break, I feel like my head has been squeezed between the thighs of a sumo wrestler and I have taken to hating the person most important in this challenge, Isabella. The other evening in a moment of exasperated terror from jet lag, I had a nightmare. I dreamed of the hall of the hotel where I was the previous morning, in Jakarta. There a group of Indonesian children, whispering, scampering here and there. The (nanny? not sure how to translate "tata") began ranting at them in German and the children remained like stone, like me when I discovered it was none other than Simona Ventura. I never saw a (nanny?) more fascinating: perfect haircut, dressed in Prada from head to foot, diamonds around her neck and in her ears. She spoke to me in German and I continued to repeat to her in Spanish that I didn't understand. She knows that I am going crazy. Simona was the dearest of all with me in the show, the judge I spoke the most to.

 

I don't want to speak Italian like a beast. I hope that I speak it well. Isabella guarantees me that I have the chance to manage it, without seeming like the wife of the Spanish ambassador. What she will say then, I don't know.

Thank you for the translation.

So maybe, when it was rumoured that Mika had been asked to be a judge on the French version of The Voice, he actually had. But it was one of the judging jobs in other countries, he turned down.

Deb, thank you for your translation , now it´s so much easier to wait for the English Version.

Lucrezia, good luck

Great tanks a lot deb!!

So here's the English version:

http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/mika-pop-up-xl-87-english-version-my-sicilian-teacher-says-i-speak-italian-like-a-butcher/3717/

I didn't do too badly with the translation.

So here's the English version:

 

http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/mika-pop-up-xl-87-english-version-my-sicilian-teacher-says-i-speak-italian-like-a-butcher/3717/

 

I didn't do too badly with the translation.

I think you did very well indeed, Deb

So here's the English version:

 

http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/mika-pop-up-xl-87-english-version-my-sicilian-teacher-says-i-speak-italian-like-a-butcher/3717/

 

I didn't do too badly with the translation.

You're a star Deb!

The article is really good and quite funny also.

Yes, thanks for the link. This article is funny and thank god it is not about politics. "Ambassador's wife" ;-);-):-P

So here's the English version:

 

http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/mika-pop-up-xl-87-english-version-my-sicilian-teacher-says-i-speak-italian-like-a-butcher/3717/

 

I didn't do too badly with the translation.

I read your translation - and it seems like you can assist MIKA in Italy, if he should need any help, during his stay

Funny article - and great with some more info about this "hot judge subject"

Love,love

me

So here's the English version:

 

http://xl.repubblica.it/articoli/mika-pop-up-xl-87-english-version-my-sicilian-teacher-says-i-speak-italian-like-a-butcher/3717/

 

I didn't do too badly with the translation.

Thanks deb:thumb_yello:

French translation for those who are interested

I love that blog

Au 52ième étage de l'immeuble le plus haut de Tokyo, Isabella se cache le visage dans ses mains tellement elle est désespérée. Elle me dit que mon choix de vocabulaire est "brutto" (mauvais) et que je parle italien comme un boucher. Je réfute sa critique en lui disant que je parle comme non pas comme un boucher mais comme un New Yorkais. Elle lève les yeux au ciel et elle me dit que c'est la première fois qu'elle rencontre quelqu'un qui non seulement massacre la langue italienne mais qui en plus la parle avec l'accent de la femme de l'ambassadeur espagnol. Je lui dis que dans ce cas je n'aurais pas dû engager une snob Sicilienne comme professeure. Ce n'est qu' une de mes leçons d' italien avec ma professeure Isabella, et un événement quotidien dans ma vie actuelle puisque j'ai entrepris d'apprendre l'italien en deux mois. A partir du premier octobre je vais mettre à l'épreuve mes capacités dans cette nouvelle langue en direct à la télévision en tant que juge dans X Factor en Italie. Si ce n'est pas une motivation suffisante pour apprendre une langue alors m*****, rien ne l'est.

Après que j'ai chanté dans X Factor pour la troisième fois en décembre dernier , un producteur très excité m'a demandé en coulisses si cela m'interesserait de devenir juge dans l'émission. J'ai éclaté de rire , je pensais qu'elle plaisantait ou qu'elle était complètement folle, soit l'un soit l'autre. En fin de compte elle était sérieuse et au début de l'année , au grand étonnement des personnes qui gèrent ma carrière j'ai accepté son offre. Ils n'arrivaient pas à croire que j'allais être juge dans un concours de variété (alors que j'avais refusé de le faire peu de temps auparavant dans d'autres pays ) et que cette fois j'allais le faire en italien! Mes motivations étaient simples. Ses dernières années je me suis rapproché de l'Italie pour mon travail et j'y ai passé beaucoup de temps. La version italienne de X Factor me semblait moins scénarisée et plus libre que tous les autres spectacles de ce genre. A mon avis cela prend la suite des compétitions de chant et d'écriture qui ont fait partie de la culture italienne populaire depuis les années quarante. Et en bonus j'apprendrais aussi l'italien, avec une date butoir. Pour toutes ses raisons je me suis jeté dans ce défi fou et voilà pourquoi ma professeure de 24 ans voyage avec moi tandis que je continue ma tournée dans le monde entier.

Quel sera le résultat de tout ceci? Je n'en ai aucune idée mais je suis certain de vouloir en profiter le plus possible. C'est un peu comme une montagne russe. En ce moment je suis dans la partie ennuyeuse où je suis transporté vers le haut du manège et que je suis terrifié par ce qui va se passer mais ça n'empêche pas de vouloir continuer. Les leçons sans cesse répétées de vocabulaire et de grammaire me donnent l'impression qu'un sumo a serré très fort ma tête entre ses cuisses et j'ai commencé à détester la personne la plus importante pour réussir ce défi, Isabella. La nuit dernière, dans un moment de terreur amplifiée par le décalage horaire, j'ai fait un cauchemar. J'ai rêvé que j'étais dans le hall de l'hôtel où nous étions la nuit précédente à Jakarta. Il y avait un groupe de bruyants enfants indonésiens qui couraient dans tous les sens. Leur surveillante s'est mise à leur crier dessus en allemand et ils s'immobilisèrent en silence, tout comme moi quand elle se retourna et m'apparut sous les traits de Simona Ventura. C'était la baby sitter la plus glamour que j'ai jamais vue , avec une coiffure parfaite, habillée en Prada des pieds jusqu' à la tête et portant des diamants au cou et aux oreilles. Elle me parlait en allemand et je n'arretais pas de lui dire en espagnol que je ne comprenais rien. Je crois que je perds la tête. Et parmi toutes les personnes de l'émission , Simona était la plus sympathique avec moi pendant le tournage et la juge avec laquelle j'ai le plus discuté.

Je ne veux pas parler l'italien comme une brute. J'espère finir par bien le parler. Isabella me dit que j'ai une chance de réussir et sans avoir l'accent de la femme de l'ambassadeur espagnol, quoi que cela puisse vouloir dire.

Wow! Can l post a Russian version here too? if there is someone interested:$

Oh great thanks for the french translation!!

Thanks for the translation and link Deb!

"For those reasons I have thrown myself into this crazy challenge and this is why my 24 year old teacher is traveling with me as I continue to tour around the world".

What have I done wrong? Wait... I can't speak and read Italian at all!

The Italian is similar to Spanish but the character Bravo the Italians do the lenguage more ....diferrent.

i learn Itlaian every day cause is for me like the origin of LATIN lenguages. and for to understand all latinos people. But is hard spoke with wearing ...

comparisons of languagues "confronti del linguaggio". for to say something saying other words diferents... Sometimes more that own lenguage English wear to use litle words...

i think that your article is like a fresh air when you talk about your nanny dream...and lenguage German...

i can imagine that this is part real cause your learnig is sometime like a film.., a dream , a nightmare or a nany... any Sigmund Froidl could translate or investigate better... NO ya ...OK ..And why the title...??

The Years of the CAT i supose. That..

Oh great thanks for the french translation!!

You're very welcome sweetie

So any news on when this months edition is out, and if Mika has written a column this month?

So any news on when this months edition is out, and if Mika has written a column this month?

Unfortunately there's nothing on the fb page...i'll ask to them

Unfortunately there's nothing on the fb page...i'll ask to them

they wrote it will be out on July 15th, probably july-august issue

they wrote it will be out on July 15th, probably july-august issue

Thank you Robi. They are very inconsistent with their release dates aren't they?

they wrote it will be out on July 15th, probably july-august issue

Oh sorry didn't see it my phone didn't show it

Thank you!!

Thank you Robi. They are very inconsistent with their release dates aren't they?

It all depends on Mika's column delivery date

As I remember , last year Mika made a break untill September or so.

Who knows, may be this time we shouldn`t wait for July edition too(

But I always wait, I like his XL articles. I can find some really important things and his opinions beyond these texts.

there'll be one issue for both july and august

then, no new ones till September