Full episode
288: Not What I Meant
Act Three

Romance Languages

Ben Karlin talks about how a foreign language can come in handy when it comes to smoothing over potentially ugly misunderstandings. When he was a student in Italy, he signed up to coach basketball in hopes of making friends with some Italians. But when he gets to practice, he discovers the team wants something very different from him. And then there was the time he accidentally insulted his Italian girlfriend in a Christmas card. Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show and a co-author of the book America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. (11 minutes)