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Old June 13th, 2005, 09:10 PM
Deep Foiled Malls
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On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 14:50:36 +0100, "Graeme Miller"
wrote:

Conversational Italian now...

The older language tapes suggest that "Ciao" is only for use between friends
of if you're talking to children. The more modern BBC late night programmes
sprinkle the greeting around quite liberally as if its got the same status
as "Hi" in English.

Lots of perfect strangers say "Hi" to each other in the English speaking
world, but would an Italian I don't know be affronted if I said "Ciao" to
them on first meeting?


Yes, they probably would. It's never done.

But then if it's obvious you don't speak the language, they would
likely forgive you immediately. The Italians are pretty good about
that sort of stuff. But they DEFINITELY appreciate it when you make an
attempt to learn their language, especially the difficult grammar.
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