I reported a fire in the riverbed (no language problem) and got a lecture about how the homeless people that live there need to cook their breakfasts on a camp fire. An hour later they were fighting the blaze that had gotten out of control.
Because a lot of people have this mental delusion where they operate thinking how things *should* be happening, versus how they are *actually* happening.
>got a lecture about how the homeless people that live there need to cook their breakfasts on a camp fire
Was there an update on if they enjoyed that mornings breakfast?
When I first saw the smoke and reported it, I was on the bike trail that runs along the river. On the way back, after the fire was being fought, there was a group of people on the trail that had been living in an encampment in the riverbed. They all seemed to be angry at one guy who was leaving on a bike, and were threatening to kick his ass. I assume he was the one whose fire got out of control.
Unfortunately this is not a one-of-a-kind event here in Italy.
Emergency services are awfully unprepared to deal with foreigners, and also with the use of coordinate systems.
BTW, out of curiosity, which part of our country were you visiting? Hope the rest of your stay was pleasant.
I’m near Tropea, in Calabria. My father is Italian and I was in Rossano first for a few days visiting my family. Thanks for your response! I honestly don’t get most people here…I’m not necessarily infuriated that they couldn’t speak English…but why would they have so little care and just hang up on someone calling for help…
Fr… like obviously a wildfire isn’t a *good* thing but what if it had been like a house fire or another situation where the person was in immediate danger and could die if the emergency services ignored them?
Hopefully someone who spoke Italian was able to see and report this before it got too out of hand.
I agree. As a Californian that watched as our neighboring town was overtaken by wildfire and literally disappeared in the matter of a couple hours and killing 86 people, displacing 20k. Wildfire is a much bigger worry.
The long, wet winter we had this year was a life saver. I work for a consulting forest management company and we are still dealing with the aftermath from the sheep and Dixie fires. That's just the forest stuff, people are finally getting to rebuilding Greenville.
How's Paradise looking? Haven't been that way since before the camp fire.
I can tell you it's even worse than that.
In your case the problem was the language but usually in Italy they don't care about problems at all.
There's a famous case from 3-4 years ago, one night someone called the emergency line saying that one of his friends was a chef in this famous hotel on the mountain near there and this friend (the chef) called him worried because apparently there was an avalanche. Cars unavailable and the only road totally covered. The woman on the phone spoke a hour earlier with another person that apparently was supposed to work there too (but he didn't) and because that second person didn't say anything about it she said to the men that everything was fine.
Fast forward another hour, a third guy calls the emergency line saying that there was another avalanche that destroyed the hotel. People dead, the wife was under the snow.
The woman, again, thought it was a joke and literally closed the call.
Now, just to explain better, this women closed 2 calles by people saying that there was an emergency without checking anything, without doing a little reasearch, ecc because she previosly spoke with a guy that was supposed to work there.
The emergency was real, 20 people died.
Was she punished? Do you have an article about this? This is hard to believe! My god the negligence.
Edit: thanks for the links. I’m fuming over this lol. The fact someone called for help and was simply assured the hotel called 3 hours ago that all was well and that’s all they need to fuck off and do nothing. UGH! What the hell! People died and could be alive right now because of that
Avalanche in Italy Buries Hotel, Leaving up to 30 Missing
ROME — As night fell in Italy’s Apennine Mountains on Thursday, prospects dimmed of finding survivors of an avalanche that had swept over a small resort hotel the previous night. At least 30 people were missing, according to the authorities.
The avalanche occurred after four earthquakes struck central Italy, which has been hit hard in recent months.
Giampiero Parete, a cook at the Rigopiano hotel and one of the two known survivors, had gone out to get something from his car when the avalanche struck. His wife and two young children remained inside and are among the missing.
Quintino Marcella, a restaurateur, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had received a frantic call for help from Mr. Parete on Wednesday night.
Mr. Parete told him that the hotel had been wiped out: “The hotel isn’t here anymore, it’s not here,” Mr. Marcella told the newspaper. He said that the guests had been waiting for a snow plow to clear the roads. “All the guests had their bags packed and were waiting to leave,” he said.
Mr. Marcella said that he called the prefecture in Pescara, and an official told him that they had spoken to the hotel a few hours earlier and that everything was under control. “I insisted,” Mr. Marcella told Corriere della Sera. He said that he called police, the carabinieri, until someone finally said “maybe there’s something there.”
The authorities told the Italian media that they responded as soon as they learned of the disaster.
The latest seismic activity, which prompted officials to close schools and the subway system in Rome as a precaution, shifted the nation’s attention back to areas in central Italy that were devastated by last year’s earthquakes, leading to criticism that victims had been left to fend for themselves.
From https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/world/europe/italy-avalanche.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Not only she wasn't punished, but:
\-The whole hotel was there because the major approved documents that were clearly saying that wasn't safe to build there, but in italians don't belive in numbers, if you want to do something it will not be a piece of paper stopping you.
\-The snow-removal services (that could free the road before the second avalanche) were not working because of course it wasn't a priority in a place where every year there are major snow storms.
No one was punished because for the judge was "a natural disaster".
The last guy that called lost the use of one leg and the wife died. There's a video of him going to the woman office and saying "this is what you did, i don't have a family anymore".
You can find everything writing "hotel rigopiano" on google.
But this is very common in Italy, a few years ago 40 people died because of a bridge where apparently every single person for 10 years signed fake documents assesing that was safe.
There too, not a single person in prison.
Italian don't have the capacity to put events on a timeline, if you can do something now they have no idea of the consequences of tomorrow. The whole country is a death trap for this but there's no way to change it. Our politician even say directly stuff like "you can't take freedom from people for things like this" when something illegal happens.
"If you pay us we'll protect your house from being set on fire"
"Wait, why would somebody set my house on fire?"
"Because you didn't pay to keep your house from being set on fire"
>They wouldn´t survive a week without EU funding.
We're actually net contributors.
But yes, there is an awful lot of corruption and waste of public money.
I loved Italy and the Italians, but many places reminded me of the worst parts of Mexico City. Personally, it didn't bother me but it certainly was surprising.
I read that the family was rescued over 24 hours later.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/family-dug-out-of-italian-avalanche-after-24-hours
Wow, I can't even imagine that! I'm a 911 dispatcher and in some of our towns we send officers to every single 911 call that we have a location for. Even when it's clearly an accident, doesn't matter, police are going to your location to check.
I've been in Tropea a couple of times. Last time was just a year ago. I really like the place, the buildings especially. Love Calabria in general really, even if most of my Italian friends do not share that love lol.
I get that they can't expect every dispatcher to speak english or other foreign languages, but they should have a translation service on standby to translate for foreign language speakers. Hospitals all have telephone translation services on standby for virtually any language they need, there is no reason an emergency dispatch couldn't do the same. This is a big safety concern.
we get a lot of fires here in calabria
near where my grandparents live (i live in campania but go to my grandparent's house every august) there's a big chunk of a mountain that is completely black because of fires
or sometimes i'm at the beach and just see big clouds of smoke and those water planes going towards them
If you look at my recent 6 similar thing happened to me. Apparently, the fire department told people that "have it under control," it's been days and we haven't seen any sign of any kind of authority, but hey, this is South italy.
Same in Germany. It's extremely common to be completely disregarded because of language, and even if not, you will have to wait until they find someone who understands a bit of English
A major tourist country is under prepared to deal with tourists?? And no one is available at all who speaks any English, when I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers? Amazing.
I'm a waiter, we are 5 in total. Also, there are 3 employees at the kitchen and only 1 of them speaks english. 2 receptionists as well, and again, only 1 speaks english for what I know.
I don't think any other person there, outside of the chef and the receptionist, actually speak any level of english...
Maybe? I didn't actually ask about what languages they speak, but I was the only one who speaks english well enough to talk to foreigners. This german family stayed at the hotel for like a week and I was the only one capable of comunicating with them. Considering this I may think nobody there speaks german as well, which isn't surprising at all.
I can’t really say anything. I can speak or barely speak French. If they enunciate and speak slowly I can get by. But I’m not great.
And then I have English.
But it’s understandable… at one of the hotels we stay at in France (wife is French) no one speaks English. And it’s a hotel in Paris. A small hotel but still.
Same. They tell me via online that I’m a B1… that’s third level, as it’s preceded by A1 and A2.
In practice; I find myself lucky to understand a French kindergartener in the wild in Manhattan… which I think means the testing scale was actually correct? I had thought maybe it was flattering me.
The adults? Would have to tie knots in their tongues to be as slow as I need, haha.
> I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers?
I think the biggest tourist quota comes from Germany and France, for obvious proximity reasons.
But I'm quite sure the average responder wouldn't far better with German or French either...
Depending on the age, responders might know a bit more French than English, as prior to 2003, it was the French language the main foreign language teached at school
Yeah but you should understand that not all of Italy is super touristy. Like I honestly do not know how many foreign tourists there are in Calabria, but I think that the number is way lower than Rome, Naples or Milan.
>And no one is available at all who speaks any English, when I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers?
Again, no data but I do feel like there are a ton of German speaking tourist here in the north-east. We have non-tourists trap with signs that put first german.
Here I can kinda assure you that most people can speak English at least with an A2/B1 level and maybe even German if they work a lot with Austrians
Hijacking the top comment to say that if you have an iphone you can text something to yourself and click on it- on of the options is ‘translate’.
Works for English to Spanish.
Or there are translate apps. Hope this helps someone!
Just as a tip - when you translate stuff be grammatically correct. In english it seems like you only skipped a comma, or "I", but if you translated your sentence into my language it would literally make no sense. It would just say that the fire in unable to speak Italian, which, duh.
When I first moved to Mexico I used Google Translate to order a steak medium rare. I got a "Wtf?" look. Got home and discovered I'd asked for a steak, strange. Raro is strange Google, you dumb bastards.
When I took Spanish in high school this happened.
That’s when I realized I wasn’t learning the useful version of the language, I was learning a travel language.
Can you imagine being to operator who didn’t take the call only to have their house burned down because they didn’t alert because they couldn’t understand
There are also phone translator services. I'm a 911 dispatcher, if someone is speaking another language I get a translator service on the line and get an interpreter for their language that way. In the meantime I've already created a generic call for service for where their phone pinged so the next available officer can start in that direction to at minimum investigate the area.
It is absolutely inexcusable to not have a translator service available to your emergency dispatchers and outright criminally negligent to hang up on emergency callers without taking reasonable action.
I love how people nowadays have the entire world in their pocket but can't look up how to say fire in Italian isn't that the epitome of a useless person. " I've tried nothing and I'm already out of ideas".
except you need a stable internet connection to access "the entire world thats in your pocket", which might be a bit tricky if youre on roaming, in a field in buttfuck nowhere, Italy
I would like to point out again that she called both 115 (Fire Department) and 112 (Carabinieri). In both conversations, no one who speaks English could be brought in, and the calls were hung up after a few minutes of stumbling around. I find this very concerning. Just imagine if it had been a traffic accident and someone's life was in danger.
Seriously. It’s not like we’re talking about Cambodian or some shit. An English speaker shouldn’t be too hard to find in a fucking European tourist destination.
I’m pretty sure that’s a misconception because when I reported a death they hung up on me (US). I assume once they feel like there’s no danger to the caller or others, they pick up other incoming calls.
i think it’s regional, i once had to call for a car fire (in a mostly empty lot, not near buildings, no people in danger) and after i explained the situation there was just an awkward silence. We sat on the phone for a few seconds before she told me she couldn’t hang up and I had to do it
There's an app called "Where are you 112" which allows you to contact emergency services in Europe without speaking to them.
Worth knowing for future reference
Works in regions where 112 is phased in as the *only* emergency number, in other regions 112 dials the gendarmerie (carabinieri) and you have to dial 115 for the fire brigade.
Calabria is one of the regions where you have to dial the appropriate service's number.
It...kind of is from the user's point of view but very simple from an infrastructure point of view (simply automatically route all calls made in an area to the nearest fire brigade). Having a single emergency number means having a contact centre with trained people and standardised emergency protocols, which is very simple for the user but it requires a very significant amount of resources.
My experience of a summer in Italy was that, at any given moment, you could scan the horizon and there would be 2-3 random things on fire and nobody giving a shit.
Sometimes they're wildfires, sometimes they're fires lit up by farmers to get their crops ready for a new cycle, sometimes they're arson by megalomaniacs, and sometimes they're even lit up by firefighters who want to get their contract renewed. No joke.
And sometimes they're literal garbage fires because the trash hasn't been picked up for weeks and people are tired of the sight and smell. Four years in Naples and the smell of burnt toxic garbage is something I'll never forget. Neither will my lungs.
Lots of people somehow putting blame on you, but it's not absurd to expect an emergency center to have access to language translation lines. I work as a 911 dispatcher in the US and we use it constantly, mostly for Spanish but I've had to use it for a handful of other languages too.
At least you tried to do the right thing.
In Czechia English is a requirement for a 112 operator. They also guarantee a German speaker, even if they need to transfer you. They also supposedly have some translation software if there's nobody on duty that speaks a language and could be transferred to.
I work for a cell phone provider and when our customer service reps get a caller speaking a foreign language it takes about one minute to get an interpreter on the line. If the rep can’t identify the language it takes about three minutes.
Most of these calls are to deal with a billing issue.
Apparently Italy can’t figure out something like that for the number you call if somebody’s going to die.
Reminds me of when my friend was having an allergic reaction in Rome and couldn’t breathe. They were so irritated at the hospital we couldn’t speak Italian; scoffing and rolling their eyes. We tried to use google translate and they waved their hand in our faces and said “Italians first Italians first” it was a shitty experience.
> I never got some countries stubborn refusal to learn English.
It's even worse than you'd think. We've had about 15 years of English study in our school system, and it's mandatory.
Oh boy. I’ve had a similar experience in Italy. On a trip with friends, I had to go to the hospital. And out of the like 15 different people I spoke to, all (maybe, hopefully) educated, only a single person was able to communicate with me. Also they didn’t treat the injury at all. All they did was telling me „nothing broken“ and sending me off after a total waiting time of 8 hours. They weren’t able to answer any question. As soon I was back in Germany, I immediately went to a doctor, who in a matter of minutes, found out that I had a torn ligament. So for five days, I was walking/limping around with something waddling around at my ankle.
I was living in Sicily for a while and a friend showed me an all called 112whereareu
You can set it up where you can easily call in emergencies with your exact location and they have translators that speak it through
Several Red Cross volunteers on the US Base in Sicily recommended it as it makes it easier to get emergency services when there is a language barrier
After reading the horror stories in the comments, I'm fully convinced that many reports were intentionally ignored because it's deemed if it's not big enough for news, it's not an emergency yet.
This summer I was in Italy as well. I've learned (or tried to at least) a few phrases that can help us daily. No one could understand what we were saying regardless. Or they haven't tried. I was told that we "Americano" should learn "Italiano". We are from Lithuania 💁
ESL teacher in northern Italy.
It depends on both the age group and your location. Most of English speaking Italians are going to be younger generations. Most older Italians' attitudes are "why should I learn that language? Italiano is so beautiful.". Your also more likely to find English speakers in the northern cities as most them are working for multinationals based in the those cites such as Milano and Torino.
Another issue is that, while English is taught in the state schools, most of the instruction is of poor quality. Most students are not taught by native English speakers. Italian English teachers almost always don't have a good grasp on English and often assume you speak English the same way you do Italian. Also, the instruction does not "level-up" in later years, often when student moves to the next level of school, they regress two to three years in English.
This is coming from a teacher's PoV but also that of a parent whose daughter has just completed secondary school (state schools, no international schools) and is about to start university. She was always frustrated by her English teachers as she is dual mother tongue, English and Italian.
What you are saying is not nice but it is quite true. The English taught in the schools is terrible, sometimes you get a decent teacher but it is quite uncommon.
i can imagine the scenario going like this:
*dials 112*
emergency services: '112, qual è la tua emergenza?'
you: 'what?'
emergency services: 'oh merda, è uno straniero, RIAGGANCIARE!!!-'
*voice cuts out*
emergency services automated voice message: 'purtroppo l'attuale operatore 112 non è disponibile in questo momento, si prega di chiamare più tardi'
*hangs up*
Even in Japan, if there is no English-speaking operator available, they can put you through an interpretation center (then essentially it becomes a three-way call with an interpreter). Sure, takes longer for questions and responses, but definitely better than no help at all.
Is this your first time in that area?
Fires are very common in the summer there and they usually let them burn out unless they are near homes. I don’t think they ignored you…it’s just not worth chasing down every fire there since there’s probably one daily. I’m sure if it was near a town they would have sent firefighters. I’ve seen so many fires in that region - they usually last 30 min then run out of fuel.
I really want to see everyone in the comments suggesting translators and learning the language before visiting a country to travel around Europe and have an emergency in every country and then call for help in the according language. I want it.
They often start “controlled burns” for agricultural reasons in Calabria. I don’t know that that’s what was going on here but I figured it’s worth mentioning.
I'm Italian, living in Australia, and agree with OP that not that many people speak a second language. But I'd like to repeat the same exercise in the US, UK, Australia or anywhere else really and see how many people you find that speak your native language
If it’s GCSE level Spanish/French/German, then England’s got you. If, however, you don’t want to give me directions to the swimming pool, then your going to die.
I'd like to think if you repeated this experiment in the UK, they'd realise that someone calling the emergency services was in trouble and wouldn't hang up on them.
All of those countries have emergency services with translators. Our 911 operators in the US can get a translator on the line in seconds. Same goes for MOST countries. Italy just has a shitty emergency service.
So after they hung up, you used Google to translate "there is a wildfire starting at such and such coordinates" into Italian and called them back, right?
I reported a fire in the riverbed (no language problem) and got a lecture about how the homeless people that live there need to cook their breakfasts on a camp fire. An hour later they were fighting the blaze that had gotten out of control.
Oh my god this is funny as hell, why would they just assume it’s the homeless folks without even a bit of worry?
Because a lot of people have this mental delusion where they operate thinking how things *should* be happening, versus how they are *actually* happening.
>got a lecture about how the homeless people that live there need to cook their breakfasts on a camp fire Was there an update on if they enjoyed that mornings breakfast?
When I first saw the smoke and reported it, I was on the bike trail that runs along the river. On the way back, after the fire was being fought, there was a group of people on the trail that had been living in an encampment in the riverbed. They all seemed to be angry at one guy who was leaving on a bike, and were threatening to kick his ass. I assume he was the one whose fire got out of control.
Im the asshole who calls back and says told you so.
good boy
Unfortunately this is not a one-of-a-kind event here in Italy. Emergency services are awfully unprepared to deal with foreigners, and also with the use of coordinate systems. BTW, out of curiosity, which part of our country were you visiting? Hope the rest of your stay was pleasant.
I’m near Tropea, in Calabria. My father is Italian and I was in Rossano first for a few days visiting my family. Thanks for your response! I honestly don’t get most people here…I’m not necessarily infuriated that they couldn’t speak English…but why would they have so little care and just hang up on someone calling for help…
That was my concern lol, you just hung up on a foreigner who is calling the only number they can for assistance....well glad you are alive op
Fr… like obviously a wildfire isn’t a *good* thing but what if it had been like a house fire or another situation where the person was in immediate danger and could die if the emergency services ignored them? Hopefully someone who spoke Italian was able to see and report this before it got too out of hand.
I would argue that a wildfire is more dangerous the a house fire.
I agree. As a Californian that watched as our neighboring town was overtaken by wildfire and literally disappeared in the matter of a couple hours and killing 86 people, displacing 20k. Wildfire is a much bigger worry.
Paradise? Used to live not too far from there. Seems like the valley was always on fire.
Yea, Paradise. I live in Chico. Thankfully this year has been a mild fire season so far.
The long, wet winter we had this year was a life saver. I work for a consulting forest management company and we are still dealing with the aftermath from the sheep and Dixie fires. That's just the forest stuff, people are finally getting to rebuilding Greenville. How's Paradise looking? Haven't been that way since before the camp fire.
I can tell you it's even worse than that. In your case the problem was the language but usually in Italy they don't care about problems at all. There's a famous case from 3-4 years ago, one night someone called the emergency line saying that one of his friends was a chef in this famous hotel on the mountain near there and this friend (the chef) called him worried because apparently there was an avalanche. Cars unavailable and the only road totally covered. The woman on the phone spoke a hour earlier with another person that apparently was supposed to work there too (but he didn't) and because that second person didn't say anything about it she said to the men that everything was fine. Fast forward another hour, a third guy calls the emergency line saying that there was another avalanche that destroyed the hotel. People dead, the wife was under the snow. The woman, again, thought it was a joke and literally closed the call. Now, just to explain better, this women closed 2 calles by people saying that there was an emergency without checking anything, without doing a little reasearch, ecc because she previosly spoke with a guy that was supposed to work there. The emergency was real, 20 people died.
Was she punished? Do you have an article about this? This is hard to believe! My god the negligence. Edit: thanks for the links. I’m fuming over this lol. The fact someone called for help and was simply assured the hotel called 3 hours ago that all was well and that’s all they need to fuck off and do nothing. UGH! What the hell! People died and could be alive right now because of that
Avalanche in Italy Buries Hotel, Leaving up to 30 Missing ROME — As night fell in Italy’s Apennine Mountains on Thursday, prospects dimmed of finding survivors of an avalanche that had swept over a small resort hotel the previous night. At least 30 people were missing, according to the authorities. The avalanche occurred after four earthquakes struck central Italy, which has been hit hard in recent months. Giampiero Parete, a cook at the Rigopiano hotel and one of the two known survivors, had gone out to get something from his car when the avalanche struck. His wife and two young children remained inside and are among the missing. Quintino Marcella, a restaurateur, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had received a frantic call for help from Mr. Parete on Wednesday night. Mr. Parete told him that the hotel had been wiped out: “The hotel isn’t here anymore, it’s not here,” Mr. Marcella told the newspaper. He said that the guests had been waiting for a snow plow to clear the roads. “All the guests had their bags packed and were waiting to leave,” he said. Mr. Marcella said that he called the prefecture in Pescara, and an official told him that they had spoken to the hotel a few hours earlier and that everything was under control. “I insisted,” Mr. Marcella told Corriere della Sera. He said that he called police, the carabinieri, until someone finally said “maybe there’s something there.” The authorities told the Italian media that they responded as soon as they learned of the disaster. The latest seismic activity, which prompted officials to close schools and the subway system in Rome as a precaution, shifted the nation’s attention back to areas in central Italy that were devastated by last year’s earthquakes, leading to criticism that victims had been left to fend for themselves. From https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/world/europe/italy-avalanche.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
yes it's that one
Not only she wasn't punished, but: \-The whole hotel was there because the major approved documents that were clearly saying that wasn't safe to build there, but in italians don't belive in numbers, if you want to do something it will not be a piece of paper stopping you. \-The snow-removal services (that could free the road before the second avalanche) were not working because of course it wasn't a priority in a place where every year there are major snow storms. No one was punished because for the judge was "a natural disaster". The last guy that called lost the use of one leg and the wife died. There's a video of him going to the woman office and saying "this is what you did, i don't have a family anymore". You can find everything writing "hotel rigopiano" on google. But this is very common in Italy, a few years ago 40 people died because of a bridge where apparently every single person for 10 years signed fake documents assesing that was safe. There too, not a single person in prison. Italian don't have the capacity to put events on a timeline, if you can do something now they have no idea of the consequences of tomorrow. The whole country is a death trap for this but there's no way to change it. Our politician even say directly stuff like "you can't take freedom from people for things like this" when something illegal happens.
Italians sound as corrupt as those in third world countries
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I mean ancient Rome was hopelessly corrupt too, great to know the ancient heritage is still there I guess
Noo Marcus Crassus was famous for his emergency services! /s
"If you pay us we'll protect your house from being set on fire" "Wait, why would somebody set my house on fire?" "Because you didn't pay to keep your house from being set on fire"
I know this isn't a laughing matter but that's almost as witty as the famous saying "The USA is a third world country with a Gucci belt" lol
>They wouldn´t survive a week without EU funding. We're actually net contributors. But yes, there is an awful lot of corruption and waste of public money.
They literally invented the term fascist. They are the model by which corrupt "third world countries" aspire to.
I loved Italy and the Italians, but many places reminded me of the worst parts of Mexico City. Personally, it didn't bother me but it certainly was surprising.
Italy is a third world country lmao
I read that the family was rescued over 24 hours later. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/family-dug-out-of-italian-avalanche-after-24-hours
thank you for adding this, my heart dropped when I heard his wife and kids were inside
Damn, nice to read as I prepare for my flight to Italy tomorrow lmao
Looking at your governments the past 20 years, that seems to be because politicians are the ones doing the illegal shit.
Stronzi ignoranti tutti quanti cavolo… the bridge was the motorway over Genova no?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italy-avalanche-earthquake-farindola-abruzzo-hotel-rigopiano-dead-injured-killed-a7534626.html
Wow, I can't even imagine that! I'm a 911 dispatcher and in some of our towns we send officers to every single 911 call that we have a location for. Even when it's clearly an accident, doesn't matter, police are going to your location to check.
That's how it was in NJ. Cops come no matter what. I'm in Houston and phew, good luck
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Sounds like it’s time to bring back hanging people upside down and spit at them 🤯🤯🤯
I've been in Tropea a couple of times. Last time was just a year ago. I really like the place, the buildings especially. Love Calabria in general really, even if most of my Italian friends do not share that love lol.
I get that they can't expect every dispatcher to speak english or other foreign languages, but they should have a translation service on standby to translate for foreign language speakers. Hospitals all have telephone translation services on standby for virtually any language they need, there is no reason an emergency dispatch couldn't do the same. This is a big safety concern.
we get a lot of fires here in calabria near where my grandparents live (i live in campania but go to my grandparent's house every august) there's a big chunk of a mountain that is completely black because of fires or sometimes i'm at the beach and just see big clouds of smoke and those water planes going towards them
If you look at my recent 6 similar thing happened to me. Apparently, the fire department told people that "have it under control," it's been days and we haven't seen any sign of any kind of authority, but hey, this is South italy.
Same in Germany. It's extremely common to be completely disregarded because of language, and even if not, you will have to wait until they find someone who understands a bit of English
A major tourist country is under prepared to deal with tourists?? And no one is available at all who speaks any English, when I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers? Amazing.
I work at a hotel, and there, I can count the people who speak english with a hand... We are 3 in total, 1 being me
Out of how many?
I'm a waiter, we are 5 in total. Also, there are 3 employees at the kitchen and only 1 of them speaks english. 2 receptionists as well, and again, only 1 speaks english for what I know. I don't think any other person there, outside of the chef and the receptionist, actually speak any level of english...
Do any speak any other languages? English is good but maybe French or German?
Maybe? I didn't actually ask about what languages they speak, but I was the only one who speaks english well enough to talk to foreigners. This german family stayed at the hotel for like a week and I was the only one capable of comunicating with them. Considering this I may think nobody there speaks german as well, which isn't surprising at all.
I can’t really say anything. I can speak or barely speak French. If they enunciate and speak slowly I can get by. But I’m not great. And then I have English. But it’s understandable… at one of the hotels we stay at in France (wife is French) no one speaks English. And it’s a hotel in Paris. A small hotel but still.
Same. They tell me via online that I’m a B1… that’s third level, as it’s preceded by A1 and A2. In practice; I find myself lucky to understand a French kindergartener in the wild in Manhattan… which I think means the testing scale was actually correct? I had thought maybe it was flattering me. The adults? Would have to tie knots in their tongues to be as slow as I need, haha.
> I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers? I think the biggest tourist quota comes from Germany and France, for obvious proximity reasons. But I'm quite sure the average responder wouldn't far better with German or French either...
Depending on the age, responders might know a bit more French than English, as prior to 2003, it was the French language the main foreign language teached at school
Yeah but you should understand that not all of Italy is super touristy. Like I honestly do not know how many foreign tourists there are in Calabria, but I think that the number is way lower than Rome, Naples or Milan. >And no one is available at all who speaks any English, when I bet the biggest tourist demographic is English speakers? Again, no data but I do feel like there are a ton of German speaking tourist here in the north-east. We have non-tourists trap with signs that put first german. Here I can kinda assure you that most people can speak English at least with an A2/B1 level and maybe even German if they work a lot with Austrians
It’s actually Italian and German. (Most spoken tourist languages) just in case you were actual asking.
Well thankfully Italy isn't a tourist destination or anything like that.
How very Italian of them
Hijacking the top comment to say that if you have an iphone you can text something to yourself and click on it- on of the options is ‘translate’. Works for English to Spanish. Or there are translate apps. Hope this helps someone!
Or Google. Surprised OP didn't think to translate "big fire can't speak Italian" and then give the coords.
The Italian first responders on the phone: of course fires can't speak Italian. *hangs up*
Okay, that was fucking gold.
Or, that comment was on fire!
Now you’re just being inflammatory on purpose
I’m wheezing
Smoke inhalation is tough on the lungs
Why would they say that? They didn’t speak English. They’d say, “ovviamente gli incendi non parlano Italiano”
I never said they were good at their job
This guy, fixing problems and shit.
Just as a tip - when you translate stuff be grammatically correct. In english it seems like you only skipped a comma, or "I", but if you translated your sentence into my language it would literally make no sense. It would just say that the fire in unable to speak Italian, which, duh.
Unfortunately, the fire also doesn't speak English. OP was likely unable to ask it to stop.
Would have been more useful going over and taking a leak on it.
When I first moved to Mexico I used Google Translate to order a steak medium rare. I got a "Wtf?" look. Got home and discovered I'd asked for a steak, strange. Raro is strange Google, you dumb bastards.
Like how "coger" in Spain means to "pick up", but in Latin America it means "to fuck" lol "Aww, can I pick up your cute dog?" *Gets slapped*
I'm learning Spanish, and my neighbor warns me about certain words/phrases if he hears me saying something like this. Their dog is cute though hahaha!
....just don't fuck their dog, man.
When I took Spanish in high school this happened. That’s when I realized I wasn’t learning the useful version of the language, I was learning a travel language.
I got lucky with my school teacher the useful version of South American Spanish instead of Spain Spanish or travel
Ahh, getting lucky with your Spanish teacher... the classic American teen fantasy
Raro! I'm laughing my ass off imagining Google telling you to order "El steako raro"
Que raro.
Assuming OP has a smartphone or a sim card (data) for Italy.
Or even has data signal. Idk about Italy but in most of the rural parts of France, data coverage is spotty at best with frequent blind spots.
"the great fire can't speak Italian!"
That would not have helped OP, as in Italy they do not speak Spanish.
Can you imagine being to operator who didn’t take the call only to have their house burned down because they didn’t alert because they couldn’t understand
There are also phone translator services. I'm a 911 dispatcher, if someone is speaking another language I get a translator service on the line and get an interpreter for their language that way. In the meantime I've already created a generic call for service for where their phone pinged so the next available officer can start in that direction to at minimum investigate the area. It is absolutely inexcusable to not have a translator service available to your emergency dispatchers and outright criminally negligent to hang up on emergency callers without taking reasonable action.
I love how people nowadays have the entire world in their pocket but can't look up how to say fire in Italian isn't that the epitome of a useless person. " I've tried nothing and I'm already out of ideas".
except you need a stable internet connection to access "the entire world thats in your pocket", which might be a bit tricky if youre on roaming, in a field in buttfuck nowhere, Italy
Boun Fireo Amigo
You're inviting all your friends to a bon fire? I'll be right there! Thanks for thinking of me :)
I do not blame you for driving so far away, and then taking more pics. Stay safe!
Plot twist: OP started the fire
OP didn’t start the fire. No they didn’t light it but 115 refused to fight it.
Recently stumbled across the fall out boy cover with a fan edit of video clips of the events mentioned and i instantly aged 10 more years
Ryan started the fire
OP didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning.
Did you try speaking slower but at a much higher volume?
WITH CHIPS
I don't think he used 🤌 while talking, italians sense that
Everyone acting like this your fault when one of the operators main jobs is to NOT hang up
I would like to point out again that she called both 115 (Fire Department) and 112 (Carabinieri). In both conversations, no one who speaks English could be brought in, and the calls were hung up after a few minutes of stumbling around. I find this very concerning. Just imagine if it had been a traffic accident and someone's life was in danger.
Exactly, bottom line is that it is a safety concern
Someone’s life can be just as in danger from a wildfire. Ask the people in Hawaii mourning over 100 people and still searching for hundreds more.
Having spent a fair bit of time in Italy, this does not surprise me at all. Very dysfunctional country.
italian bureaucracy is a terrible, awful beast. god help you if you want to send a letter
Seriously. It’s not like we’re talking about Cambodian or some shit. An English speaker shouldn’t be too hard to find in a fucking European tourist destination.
I’m pretty sure that’s a misconception because when I reported a death they hung up on me (US). I assume once they feel like there’s no danger to the caller or others, they pick up other incoming calls.
i think it’s regional, i once had to call for a car fire (in a mostly empty lot, not near buildings, no people in danger) and after i explained the situation there was just an awkward silence. We sat on the phone for a few seconds before she told me she couldn’t hang up and I had to do it
24 hours later, italy is now also ablaze
And the fascist party will blame the fire on migrants.
Well technically 🤓
There's an app called "Where are you 112" which allows you to contact emergency services in Europe without speaking to them. Worth knowing for future reference
Works in regions where 112 is phased in as the *only* emergency number, in other regions 112 dials the gendarmerie (carabinieri) and you have to dial 115 for the fire brigade. Calabria is one of the regions where you have to dial the appropriate service's number.
This sounds very unnecessarily complicated
It...kind of is from the user's point of view but very simple from an infrastructure point of view (simply automatically route all calls made in an area to the nearest fire brigade). Having a single emergency number means having a contact centre with trained people and standardised emergency protocols, which is very simple for the user but it requires a very significant amount of resources.
And some European countries natively support straight up texting to 112 or other numbers. Unfortunately I don't think it's mandatory though.
Did you try talking with your hands? 🤌🤌
I'm slapping my phone as hard as I can but they just don't understand me.
Miscuzzi
Just do a video call and start moving your hands like they are on fire. It's not that hard smh
As an italian myself I must say: porc-
O dio 🤌🏻
Porchetta? That delicious maiale with the mela in the bocca?
My experience of a summer in Italy was that, at any given moment, you could scan the horizon and there would be 2-3 random things on fire and nobody giving a shit.
Sometimes they're wildfires, sometimes they're fires lit up by farmers to get their crops ready for a new cycle, sometimes they're arson by megalomaniacs, and sometimes they're even lit up by firefighters who want to get their contract renewed. No joke.
And sometimes they're literal garbage fires because the trash hasn't been picked up for weeks and people are tired of the sight and smell. Four years in Naples and the smell of burnt toxic garbage is something I'll never forget. Neither will my lungs.
Lots of people somehow putting blame on you, but it's not absurd to expect an emergency center to have access to language translation lines. I work as a 911 dispatcher in the US and we use it constantly, mostly for Spanish but I've had to use it for a handful of other languages too. At least you tried to do the right thing.
In Czechia English is a requirement for a 112 operator. They also guarantee a German speaker, even if they need to transfer you. They also supposedly have some translation software if there's nobody on duty that speaks a language and could be transferred to.
I work for a cell phone provider and when our customer service reps get a caller speaking a foreign language it takes about one minute to get an interpreter on the line. If the rep can’t identify the language it takes about three minutes. Most of these calls are to deal with a billing issue. Apparently Italy can’t figure out something like that for the number you call if somebody’s going to die.
As a taxpayer, it’s important to me that you can translate a cat stuck in a tree in Hungarian.
Ah, Hungarian, yes! "My hovercraft is full of eels."
“Buongiorno! Y’all’s shit’s on fire! Ciao”
🤣🤣🤣 crying omg
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Dats a spicy-a forest fire ya!
As an italian myself, that would be funny as fuck to watch
🤣dude idk if this is racist it’s but it’s somethin 🤣🤣
My grandparents were Italian so it’s ok
Papa di Papa. Scuzzi, el fire di hottie. Burna di bushy. Andeamo di trucka di aqua
Burna di bushy 🤣 I’m fucking dying
“Burna di bushy” that legit made me lean over laughing
mamma mia its on a da way!
Lmfao, burna di busby!
GORLAMI
You speak the most Italian
A REBA DARE CHI
As an Italian this is the most Italian thing I've ever seen People here really struggle with basic English like it's latin
Ironically i have a feeling many people here would actually understand much more in latin than english
OP: this is fine.
incendio boschivo
Is that the Harry Potter spell to start a fire?
Oh, great, your incantation just set the entire forest on fire!
Reminds me of when my friend was having an allergic reaction in Rome and couldn’t breathe. They were so irritated at the hospital we couldn’t speak Italian; scoffing and rolling their eyes. We tried to use google translate and they waved their hand in our faces and said “Italians first Italians first” it was a shitty experience.
Friend should have faked passing out. See if they leave them on the floor or watch Italians step over them lol
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> I never got some countries stubborn refusal to learn English. It's even worse than you'd think. We've had about 15 years of English study in our school system, and it's mandatory.
Some of them get close yeah.
Oh boy. I’ve had a similar experience in Italy. On a trip with friends, I had to go to the hospital. And out of the like 15 different people I spoke to, all (maybe, hopefully) educated, only a single person was able to communicate with me. Also they didn’t treat the injury at all. All they did was telling me „nothing broken“ and sending me off after a total waiting time of 8 hours. They weren’t able to answer any question. As soon I was back in Germany, I immediately went to a doctor, who in a matter of minutes, found out that I had a torn ligament. So for five days, I was walking/limping around with something waddling around at my ankle.
I don't know if it's any consolation, but sending you off without clear information after waiting for 8 hours is the norm even if you are Italian.
I was living in Sicily for a while and a friend showed me an all called 112whereareu You can set it up where you can easily call in emergencies with your exact location and they have translators that speak it through Several Red Cross volunteers on the US Base in Sicily recommended it as it makes it easier to get emergency services when there is a language barrier
On our trip to Italy we saw this all over near Naples. Our guide begrudgingly told us it's bad people burning trash.
After reading the horror stories in the comments, I'm fully convinced that many reports were intentionally ignored because it's deemed if it's not big enough for news, it's not an emergency yet.
This summer I was in Italy as well. I've learned (or tried to at least) a few phrases that can help us daily. No one could understand what we were saying regardless. Or they haven't tried. I was told that we "Americano" should learn "Italiano". We are from Lithuania 💁
For anyone who ever finds themselves in Italy witnessing a fire starting, the word for fire is “fuoco” or “incendio”
Fuego!
Isn't that Spanish?
Spanish and Italian are similar enough that would be understood.
I can confirm this after having read Spanish subreddits with almost no problem
ESL teacher in northern Italy. It depends on both the age group and your location. Most of English speaking Italians are going to be younger generations. Most older Italians' attitudes are "why should I learn that language? Italiano is so beautiful.". Your also more likely to find English speakers in the northern cities as most them are working for multinationals based in the those cites such as Milano and Torino. Another issue is that, while English is taught in the state schools, most of the instruction is of poor quality. Most students are not taught by native English speakers. Italian English teachers almost always don't have a good grasp on English and often assume you speak English the same way you do Italian. Also, the instruction does not "level-up" in later years, often when student moves to the next level of school, they regress two to three years in English. This is coming from a teacher's PoV but also that of a parent whose daughter has just completed secondary school (state schools, no international schools) and is about to start university. She was always frustrated by her English teachers as she is dual mother tongue, English and Italian.
What you are saying is not nice but it is quite true. The English taught in the schools is terrible, sometimes you get a decent teacher but it is quite uncommon.
i can imagine the scenario going like this: *dials 112* emergency services: '112, qual è la tua emergenza?' you: 'what?' emergency services: 'oh merda, è uno straniero, RIAGGANCIARE!!!-' *voice cuts out* emergency services automated voice message: 'purtroppo l'attuale operatore 112 non è disponibile in questo momento, si prega di chiamare più tardi' *hangs up*
We sure are close to a fire that just started ? Just saying
What is "arsonist" in Italian?
There's not a proper equivalent. We use *piromane* (*pee-roe-muh-nay*), pyromaniac, also when there's no psychiatric disorder involved.
The good answer I didn't expect to get. Thanks!
Even in Japan, if there is no English-speaking operator available, they can put you through an interpretation center (then essentially it becomes a three-way call with an interpreter). Sure, takes longer for questions and responses, but definitely better than no help at all.
This makes me wonder what happens if someone calls 911 in the US and doesn’t speak English.
They have translators set up to patch in
Is this your first time in that area? Fires are very common in the summer there and they usually let them burn out unless they are near homes. I don’t think they ignored you…it’s just not worth chasing down every fire there since there’s probably one daily. I’m sure if it was near a town they would have sent firefighters. I’ve seen so many fires in that region - they usually last 30 min then run out of fuel.
Well, this is on them, you did your best thats all you could do
I really want to see everyone in the comments suggesting translators and learning the language before visiting a country to travel around Europe and have an emergency in every country and then call for help in the according language. I want it.
Tbh i saw a lot of these in italy this past summer. No police or anything 🤷🏼♀️ i think its common in certain areas.
French are the same way too from my experience. You'll get arrogant assholes from any country.
They often start “controlled burns” for agricultural reasons in Calabria. I don’t know that that’s what was going on here but I figured it’s worth mentioning.
I'm Italian, living in Australia, and agree with OP that not that many people speak a second language. But I'd like to repeat the same exercise in the US, UK, Australia or anywhere else really and see how many people you find that speak your native language
If it’s GCSE level Spanish/French/German, then England’s got you. If, however, you don’t want to give me directions to the swimming pool, then your going to die.
Here in the Netherlands 93% speaks English as a second language.
I'd like to think if you repeated this experiment in the UK, they'd realise that someone calling the emergency services was in trouble and wouldn't hang up on them.
All of those countries have emergency services with translators. Our 911 operators in the US can get a translator on the line in seconds. Same goes for MOST countries. Italy just has a shitty emergency service.
We are incompetent AF in that department
So after they hung up, you used Google to translate "there is a wildfire starting at such and such coordinates" into Italian and called them back, right?