Tim Dowling: six years of Duolingo and I speak a little Italian, but understand nothing

Luckily, I have learned two phrases that express my helplessness very efficiently

T

he middle one, the youngest one and I are at a car hire desk in an Italian airport. It has taken us a while to get this far, because we had to take a bus to a different terminal. But we’re here now, some way into the process.

“You are not skiing?” asks the woman behind the desk.

“Um, yes,” I say. “Actually we are skiing.”