"Stupido" verses "Stupito"

Look similar, sound similar (at least to us), but mean two completely different things: stupid vs. astonished

The directors of Maddy's asilo love to hold meetings, both group meetings and indivdual conferences. Lots and lots of meetings. Meetings at school and meetings off site. Meetings at 13:00 and meetings at 21:00. We have 5 individual conferences scheduled before the end of the year; we've already missed (opps!) the meeting with the English teacher. As educators, we should value these, but truthfully, they are a bit of a pain at times. We are to meet with her regular teacher, her English teacher, her literacy teacher, her swim coach (group, phew!), her masseuse, her yoga instructor -- I am not making this up! I don't know if this is Italian per se, or unique to her super-duper, private asilo.

We recently met with one director who also leads up the "L'intelligenza Emotiva" (emotional intelligence) lesson that takes place every Thursday afternoon. She presented us, in her normal ninty-miles-an-hour pace, with a portfolio of Maddy's work, and then proceded to explain exactly what they have been doing.
There is a focus on feelings and appropriate ways to acknowledge and express those feelings through the use of fables and drawing.

She flipped the page, which had faces labeled with the words "felice," (happy), "arrabbiato," (angry), and "stupito." There is where I pause. We know the word "stupido," and we know that it has a "d" at the end of it. Mr. Duncan most likely even knew "stupito," though I did not. But in that moment, in the discussion with the super-fast talking director of the asilo we love so much, Mr. Duncan stopped her, pointed out the word, and in his perfect Italian said:

"That word is banned in our house. We do not allow Maddy to use that word: stupito."



Clearly puzzled, she smiled uncomfortably and continued. While those two words seem similar to us, she failed to make the connection immediately. I can only guess that she attributed it to some other weird thing about the Americani, like our failure to dress our child warmly. Apparently, she could see the confused look on our face, so she stopped to tell us a story about an exprerience with Maddy and the word "stupito" which led us to the understanding that "stupito" means something like "surprised." She then realized our mistake. (Of course, the picture helped. We later discovered that it more accurately means "astonished.") Mr. Duncan, now understanding completely, started to quote a Laurel and Hardy routine -- yeah, it got strange.

We all understood, laughed (sort of), and moved on. This, my friends, is how we get through most of our days and dealings here. Mr. Duncan is generally okay, this was not a common occurence for him; I, on the other hand, well, I have my issues.

And, yes, Maddy could attend the American school thus allowing us to avoid all of these awkward moments. How fun would that be? And the massage. . . how would she get her weekly massage? We have priorities here.