Italy: half the language is not in the words

Italian was the first language where I could follow a conversation before I understood the words in it. The information is not only in the sentence.

Hands do real grammatical work here. A shrug, a flick, a hand held palm-up in the air — these are not decoration, they are punctuation, and leaving them out makes you sound flat.

Then there is "prego", which appears to mean everything. You're welcome. Please. Go ahead. After you. Come in. Sit down. It changes job depending on where in the exchange it lands.

Ordering coffee taught me the rest. A caffè is an espresso, drunk standing at the bar, in about ninety seconds, usually while talking to someone you already know.

My favourite word is "magari": if only, maybe, I wish. Tone decides which one you mean, and there is no safe neutral reading of it.

Italy is where I started teaching intonation deliberately instead of hoping students absorbed it. You can say the right sentence with the wrong music and be understood as rude.