Category 3

They are actually, the unwitting helpers.


I am not talking about outright sex maniacs . I get them instantly tarred, feathered and banished to cyber Gulag for eternity. ( By pressing buttons on the Yahoo messenger called " Ignore" and " report as Spam" ) - Easily identified and get rid off...



I am talking about guys who are good at disguising their online erotic pursuits, waiting for you to lower your guard. Since I do not share their interest, I would cease from further communication once their ulterior motives are revealed.



However, there are a few instances that work out to my benefit in the end.



During my early days hanging out in the chat room In Italiano, I met a pleasant Italian guy who spoke good English ( without the Italian accent ). He offered to coach me some reading in Italian, using the voice chat.



I was eager to get help then so I accepted his offer. He typed this sentence on the dialogue box and read it for me:


" Mi piacerebbe abbracciarti".


Ah! An easy assignment with only three words. I stuck faithfully to his pronunciation and read it. He praised me for doing well and asked me to repeat my reading - which I naively complied with.



This time his voice became rather excited and he requested me to read the sentence yet another time, praising my lovely voice. I thought that was strange to read a sentence again and again. Also it was strange to praise my voice instead of my pronunciation. By then there was a change in the tone of his voice that made me uncomfortable, so I bade him a polite goodbye and ended our dialogue.



Later, I found out that I have actually said :" I would like to hug you ".



I scolded myself many times for being gullible but this experience made the learning of Il Condizionale ( the conditional tense ) almost effortless. I learnt it within a day, motivated by a desire to tell him in Italian: I would love to tar and feather you.



P.s.Piacerebbe is a conditional form of piacere ( like ).



_____________________________________________________


I have been meditating on the other cases. From among them, I interact with the minds of most gifted teachers and analysts.


For example, Max speaks only Italian. He is always quick in showing me the different ways of using one word. He is especially good in teaching me compound sentences. I am amazed as I reflect on how much he has taught me.


Yet, as I get to understand from his conversation with others that he is a classic unfaithful husband, I feel sad for him as much as I feel for fellow humans who fail to understand that life is too short to indulge in one's selfish desires at the expense of others.


So, I decide to stop here for this topic.