"C" for "Chatting"

Attaccare (un) bottone (literally: to sew a button) is an Italian expression
which means to start up a conversation.  

I have learned most of my language skills by talking to foreigners visiting Italy. I grew up in my family's workshop and that was my international language laboratory in the first place. Additionally as a teenager I started looking for people to chat with outside of Cama. 

Wherever I went I would strike up a conversation with foreigners. How would I do that? By starting a conversation with them. This action in Italian is described by an idiomatic expression that comes from the seamstress world: 'Attaccare bottone (tr. to sew a button)'. 

The expression's closest English translation by using the word button is: to buttonhole. However we should deprive this verb from its negative implications of stopping someone and making him/her listen to us. Forcing someone to converse or even convince them about something. Maybe accost and greet are better choices. 

'Attaccare bottone' is such a sweet and dear expression to me. Its origins come from this image: a seamstress stitching a button to a person who is wearing a garment that needs to have a button attached. You are standing in front of this person. You have to keep the other person's garment still. And it takes a little while to stitch the button. 

To bottonhole comes from embroidery. It is called
bottonhole stitching. It takes way more time than
sewing a button. 

Plus the person is wearing his/her dress. You have to hold on to the garment. This action of keeping the other person still for a while has given this expression the negative connotation of bugging someone in endless conversations. In truth this expression in Italian means that you are making contact with other people by being the first starting a conversation. 

This is the buttonhole that we like! 

Of course learning foreign languages by chatting comes easier if you study grammar and read books at the same time. That's what I have been doing all my life. I have studied foreign languages all along my entire school career. Studying is actually a must in order to learn foreign languages thoroughly. Otherwise you will never button it up! 

This is my second edition  of short  stories entitled "Cake Stands for Cama": stories about my favorites starting with the letter "C". 

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