Dear friends, let me introduce you two Italian words: “dialogo” and “monologo”.

The former word is usually translated with “dialogue” and the latter with “monologue”. Let me write you a couple of examples on the daily usage of these two words in spoken and written Italian.

If you go and have your hair cut from an Italian barber he will most likely start to speak with you; once the conversation starts he will surely start asking you many questions about you and your wife and he’ll tell you about himself and his wife; that is what people call a dialogue, “un dialogo”.

Here is another example: let’s imagine the Pope is invited to speak at Italy’s biggest public university “La Sapienza”, in Rome, to give a formal speech at the end of the opening ceremony of the Academic Year, in front of many people. The speech is followed by a Mass in the University chapel. This is what politicians and the Catholic church call a dialogue, “un dialogo”.

Let me now carry on with the former example: it necessarily comes a time when your Italian barber starts to speak about his neighbours; he will most probably tell you that they are way too much noisy and at the same time they do not tolerate his baby who screams and jumps in the house the whole day long; or he might tell you how nice was his last summer with their friends, when he went fishing with Lucia’s husband (definitively a wonderful woman) and they catched the biggest fish he’d ever seen in his life. Well, this is the risk that Italian people take when they go to their favourite barber: they are concerned that the dialogue would soon become a monologue, “un monologo”.

What about the other example, then? Let’s imagine that a number of well-known professors write a letter to the rector of the university pointing out their disappointment for the decision of inviting a single dogmatic religious authority in a public and laic institution. An authority who, several times, in the recent past, deeply criticised the role of science in our society. This letter is what the politicians and the Catholic church call an (intolerant) monologue, un “monologo (intollerante)”.

Dialogo e monologo. Dialogue and monologue. Two clear different meanings. As simple as that!

Thanks for reading and good luck with your learning!

BTW: I love Italian barbers!