Sunday, October 6, 2024

Bergamo Street Sign Language Lesson XLVII - Birthday Party Invitation

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In this Bergamo Street Sign Language Lesson (TM) we analyze how to say you will or will not come to a birthday party.

We were on a group WhatsApp chat inviting many people to a birthday party. What stood out for me were the ways to say that you are or are not coming. Also, ways to say thank you. (For more on that, see Thanks for All the Fish: How to Say Thank You in Italian With the Prepositions di, per, or a.)

An aside:
We just finished reading the book Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939–1943 (2011) by David Khan. In that book, you learn about the incredible effort to unlock the German naval codes to stop the disastrous sinking of Allied ships in the North Atlantic. (We were surprised how close German U-boats came to points on the east coast, blowing up ships within the glow of major USA cities!) 
In a very simplistic way, we feel like those involved in codebreaking at Bletchley Park (Britain) or later at the US Signal intelligence Service at Arlington Hall, Virginia. We look at these birthday greetings like codes to crack because and understand because we never feel secure of what we are hearing or saying. 😘

With no further ado:

I/we are coming:

Ciao, mi dispiace ma non riusciamo😞
Io assente
Ciao Xxxx, mi spiace ma siamo già impegnati 😢 Grazie comunque per l’invito 😘
Ciao Xxxx, purtroppo abbiamo già un impegno. Grazie lo stesso e buoni festeggiamenti!! 🥳🍾🍸
Ciao Miss Xxxx, anche non ci saremo ma ti facciamo tanti cari auguri 🥳
Cara Xxxx purtroppo non riusciremo a esserci sabato. Grazie dell’invito e buoni festeggiamenti 😘
Sono via...
Ciao principessa noi non ci siamo mandiamo tantissimi auguri 🥰🥂

I’m/we are coming:

Ci sono, ci siamo
Io presente
Presenti
Anche noi
Yuppi! Come poter mancare!
Noi presente 🙋🏽‍♀️🎉




An AI-birthday cake - Microsoft Designer An Enigma-like machine a la Microsoft Designer
Right: An AI-birthday cake and a depiction of my mind (a la Enigma machine) decoding the Italian language.



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