What I'm going to write about is not a fresh event, it happened in December last year and maybe I'd not have written about it, if it wouldn't came up in a conversation with 
Photo by Igor Oliyarnik on Unsplash
The whole thing started, when my niece announced her visit and also notified me that she's coming with his Italian friend. I'm always happy to see her as she's living abroad and meetings between are rare, a few per year, but this time the news made me smile, even laugh I'd say. Why? You'll find out in a bit.
When I'm asked how many languages I speak, my answer is four, but if I'm honest, three and a half, which usually sparks curiosity and laughter as well as there's no such thing as speaking half a language, so I'm always asked, how come three and a half.
Photo by Julia Solonina on Unsplash
Some people say it's not normal to speak four languages, but this statement comes from those who only speak one and it seems too much for them. I usually say four languages is not much, or it's not a lot, and I mean it, but I am coming to realize people think I want to show off, which is far from the truth. Let me explain.
In my country, I'm part of a minority and my mother tongue is Hungarian and is different from the official language, which is Romanian. This means I am speaking two languages by default. This is not because I'm forced to, but because it's the right thing to do if you want to succeed in life. Then I speak English of course as by my standards, that's also a must, if you want to succeed. I always wanted to know English, so after I finished high school, started studying it, took some courses and exams, and have never stopped upgrading my knowledge.
Photo by Jakub Kapusnak on Unsplash
And we arrived to the fourth, or the half language I speak 馃槅, which is Italian. I've always loved it and watching Italian TV, helped me learn a lot. At some point, my plan was to get certified as an Italian speaker, so I started studying, but life shifted me away from it and this plan took a back seat. Regardless, till this very day I'm still learning, every time I have the occasion, by watching Italian movies, news, reading in Italian, translating to others and so on. I even read Italian posts here on Hive
This is all nice you'd say, but the truth is, I've never had a real chance to test my knowledge, to speak with an Italian. Till now. So you can imagine the grin on my face, when I heard I'll have an Italian guest in my house.
Photo by Liubov Ilchuk on Unsplash
When they arrived, after the necessary pleasantries, I let the guy know that it was the first time I spoke Italian and that I have learnt it from TV, which was really funny as I must have looked like a fool saying that, but his reaction was the best I could get as he said incredible and was really surprised and happy as well. (I'm avoiding using Italian words, as some do, in an attempt to look smart, as mixing languages is the worst thing you can do.)
So the visit was a lot of fun and although it required some effort on my behalf, to focus on providing my best language skills, it went well. I'm not saying I spoke academic level of Italian, but we were able to understand each other very well and apparently I didn't make huge mistakes. The feedback was more than good. Imagine a person who only speaks Italian (yes, he lost some brownie point here as in 2025, this is unacceptable for his age), coming to a country where Italian is not spoken, could speak Italian freely and understand everything we spoke about. I was told, he was thrilled and had a very good time, but still shocked that I've never spoken Italian before and still managed to converse freely.
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash
For me, this was a real test, as understanding what it is said is one thing, but speaking is a different matter. My biggest fear was that he speaks calabrese, as he's from Calabria, but he didn't, he spoke clear Italian, which was a huge relief for me.
I'd still rate my Italian as half as writing is not my strong suit, but with a little time and effort invested in learning more, could bring better results.
It was fun though and shows you never know when you need another language.
In case you're wondering, I didn't serve Italian food 馃槅. I have a rule. In my house, foreign guests are being served with traditional Hungarian dishes, unless there's a special request. So the menu was egg soup, which it not quite tradition, but it's my grandmother's recipe, whom my niece has never met unfortunately, she loved the soup and I'm the only one cooking it for her and my aunt, when we visit. The main course was Hungarian chicken paprikash, which the Italian loved a lot. He has never had any, so it was a win, but I told him if it's not for his taste, I could make him some pasta or pizza, which was a joke obviously.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
