Hilarious video of a clueless American in Sicily

This has been going on for two thousand years!

He's lost some lard. He was really porking out there for a while.

He's a language savant. He can learn a new language in two weeks and has tons of videos surprising people who wouldn't expect him to know theirs.

This guy goes to countries surprising locals with his Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Cambodian, etc, and they're usually gracious about it, but Sicilians are a different breed. First, there is no standardized Sicilian. Each village has their own dialect of Sicilian, so sometimes even fellow Sicilians get confounded with each other. Second, their local dialect is a personal thing, shared with close friends and family, not some stranger from the US, so of course they're going to take the mickey out of him. Deep down they're probably delighted by his attempt, but they're probably thinking, "dude, just speak Italian!"

Oh, god, not this guy again.

Italians aren’t people who are going to kiss your ass. Yes, they actually embrace Americans who claim Italian heritage but don’t try to impress them and don’t even fuck with their food.

*ever

Why can't he order a meat dish from a street vendor, while he's still eating his octopus dish?

That's such a stupid "rule."

Just give him his fucking order and shut up!

Picture it. Sicily 2024.

Turkish massage

This guy speaks amazing Chinese. Beyond that, he goes around speaking thr basics of other languages all around the world. He is excellent at ot. Yes, he's a bit of an attention whore, but that's the nature of social media. At least what he does shows off talent and skills and encourages people to tear down barriers. Better than 99% of the influencers out there who make the world a worse place with their consumerism.

He lost a lot of weight recently.

Here he is getting a Turkish massage, and his body looks really good.

He's only 5'5 so it's kind of a turn-on seeing this tiny guy get man handled by a Turkish Bear.

I'd love to get a massage like that. Especially the cracked knuckles and the foot scrub.

He also has a great weight loss video, and you can see that his method works.

He also moved to Jersey from NYC. His reason? You guessed it. New York is too dangerous for him and his family.

OK, so he likes attention, still I've seen his videos and he seems sincere in wanting learn.

R9 it was the worst of times... it was the worst of times... 😂

Ozempic.

Nice back. Was that towel necessary? That guy has seen a bare ass before.

Yeah he should have just spoken Italian.

There is a guy in his 70s who claims he's a polyglot and speaks 19 languages. A polyglot speaks and writes in 4 or more languages fluently. He's a guest on several laguage youtube videos. His Italian at best is intermediate but his french is excellent but then he's from Canada. But if he's not fluent in something like Italian I would doubt he speaks the other languages all that much better.

That massage/bath at R12 was so amazing!

He looked so clean when it was all done.

I wish we had that in the US.

How is he Canadian if he’s lived in NYC his entire life?

What’s his business?

He already has a kid?

That video about moving from the city to NJ people have been saying for years. Nothing new there.

I'm strongly pro immigration but immigration is one of the reasons I left NYC. OK.

Okay this "prank" video is really good, and I usually hate prank videos.

In this one, he has a Chinese American friend who pretends that he doesn't speak Chinese, so the white guy translates for him to people speaking Chinese.

It's actually really funny.

PS, that Mormon missionary is really hot.

He has always screamed Bottom to me. And he's married to an Asian woman, which seals the deal.

I bet he uses the language videos as a front for escorting.

[quote] He has always screamed Bottom to me. And he's married to an Asian woman, which seals the deal.

I agree.

I Went Hunting Naked in the Amazon Jungle With Waorani Tribe

Wow, I didn't realize that Cajuns had their own language.

It's not English, and it's not French.

He does really good, attempting to speak their language.

People disrespect Americans now without fear.

[quote]I'm strongly pro immigration but immigration is one of the reasons I left NYC. OK.

You obviously didn't understand what he was saying.

Honest question - would it bet better to attempt mangled Sicilian (if it's an honest, not jokey and performative, attempt) or just speak English and hope for the best? Also, is it rude to use a translator app? Sticking a smartphone in someone's face might not be welcome.

As a rule, Sicilians tend to be low class trash. Night and day compared to mainland Italians, esp. Italians north of Naples.

esp. Italians north of Naples

Fuck you.

R30 In decent sized towns in Sicily they'll be very used to tourists speaking English, so you're likely to be fine.

In Europe English is largely seen as an 'international' language in that most people from all European countries can speak some English. So whether you're Swedish, French, Dutch, Spanish, etc if you know English you'll be fine in Italy or Sicily.

He uses a formula from language to language…and lots of editing.

[quote]People disrespect Americans now without fear.

What do you mean, R28?

The American guy was stumbling very crudely trying to speak a dialect of Italian that would only partially be understood in other parts of Italy. As noted, dialect is used in with family and among intimates. It would be strange that some American shows up in Palermo, mangling bits and pieces of the local dialect but professing to not know Italian and days that he's there for two days and wants to learn the dialect.

In fact almost everyone he encountered was gracious and/or good humored about his rather ridiculous attempts to use a dialect that isn't used by strangers in a shop or a restaurant; you would speak first un Italian and only in dialect if you forge some sort of connection beyond selling a gelato.

Where did anyone "disrespect America"? You must be very thin skinned. In most any other place they would have asked to to just speak the national language or English (and save them the bother of listening to nonsense he learned in a few hours.)

He's an asshole being obstreperous to gain clicks and followers and commercial backers to do it all again in another place. (Why Babbel spinsters this shit is a mystery, I guess to put forth the idea that you too can spend a few hours "studying" a dialect used in family settings and be a clown asking again and for "octopus water" when it's clear he's using words that are not even remotely right.

People treated him well considering the small effort he put into his "learning" and his obvious closing for clicks. It would not have gone over so well in many other countries.

[quote]People disrespect Americans now without fear.

What a sinister sentence. You really want Americans to inspire fear when they're travelling abroad? Everyone walking on eggshells around them because they're afraid something might happen to them if they step out of line?

Real self-confidence comes from not caring about any of this, or even laughing it off if you're next-level confident.

I see this fun guy has brought out the haters.

[quote] Honest question - would it bet better to attempt mangled Sicilian (if it's an honest, not jokey and performative, attempt) or just speak English and hope for the best?

Most people appreciate it if you try to speak their language in their home countries, though after I kept trying my imperfect German in Vienna with salespeople and shopkeepers and was then frequently angrily corrected for making errors, I just gave up and spoke to everyone in English (after first saying a quick apology: "Das tut mir leid dass ich kein Deutsch spreche").

He was kind of cute before he got fat.

Germans are great, Austrians are fucking stuck up cunts.

Yes true. Dialects are for families and close friends and others in the region. An outsider is ridiculous unless he/she learned it from a young age speaking it with their immigrant parents. They as well take Italian as a second language in school thinking they are going to ace it and find themselves thinking what did I get myself into.

Oh dear, this is part of my own ancestry and I would even attempt such things.

Wouldn’t**

[quote]I see this fun guy has brought out the haters.

Fun? He somehow combines those cornerstone American tourist qualities of "ignorant and proud of it" with "arrogant and proud of it," all the while telling us how worldly and what a brilliant polyglot he is. He's 100% American Asshole.

Once you've seen one or two of his videos you've seen them all - complete with the same annoying sounds he uses when (usually) a Chinese person gives a surprised "he speaks Chinese?!" look, along with the obligatory zooming in on their faces.

I saw one recently where he and his Chinese American friend played a prank. They went to markets and restaurants in Chinatown and the people there immediately spoke Chinese to his Chinese American friend. The 'joke' was that the Chinese American guy couldn't speak any Chinese, so Xiaoma translated for him. The idea being it was 'hilarious' that a white guy was the one who spoke English and Chinese. It wasn't funny, but it was made worse by the fact the friend wasn't very chatty or expressive, so even when they revealed the prank, he would just quickly say "yeah I do speak Chinese" while looking awkward.

Sounds like silly fun, r45

That sounds exactly like the dumb fun I was talking about, r45. Hate on, folks. Based on the positive reactions in his comments and on social media to his videos from people from the places he's visiting, he's doing a good thing. Heartwarming fun. Too much for the DL.

Outside the tourist traps, Italian's appreciate white Americans and genuinely seem to like them. They have so many relatives in the states. Blacks and Asians beware.

R47 As with most things in life, some will like them others won't. I'm in the former camp with this guy, but if others like him, fair play to them.

*Latter

Though it probably doesnn't need clarifying!