The language barrier

If you ever laugh at foreigners in America as they butcher our sweet, melodious language, consider how you sound to them while you butcher theirs in their country. Fortunately, my command of the Serbo-Croatian language is good enough that people generally answer the question I just asked and then give me what I just asked for.

Now my Italian... that's another story. Boro and Chichi's kid's don't speak a word of English. When they ask me something, such as, "How much did your iPhone cost?" my answer is "____."

That was my answer: a blank. That's because, despite spending weeks of listening to language CDs and memorizing words and phrases, that one particular phrase didn't register in my mind. I assume that the look on my face - which I could actually sense as it was forming - was probably much like the look on a stuffed teddy bear's face if you asked him if he wanted another cup of tea.