Lovely Cheddar

My husband is Italian. He immigrated a little over one year ago, so he still has a very thick accent and his English is not exactly fluent. Despite these "handicaps" he does amazingly well in communication and is virtually fearless to try new words and word construction.
The other night my father was showing us some pictures of our dog Lyla and their dog Duffy. They're in a relationship - and I think it's getting serious. Anyway, Benny saw a picture of the pair cuddled up together and said, "Lovely cheddar". Now, I knew exactly what he was trying to say, but I had to confirm precisely what words he had formulated, because I thought it was too good to be true. Indeed he had uttered the words "lovely cheddar" or "love each other". I love my husband and hope he never loses the accent. It will be very good for business one day.

He will kill me for telling this if he ever reads the blog, but he also threatened to "rape" my presents around  Christmas time. I quickly corrected that it was wrap, and that the other word should just be taken out of his American vocabulary.

That's okay, I had my blunders in the Italian language as well. I'm fairly certain I once told my host father that I was "turned on"(eccitata, although not completely incorrect, it definitely has some sexual connotations) at the idea of my family coming to visit instead of "excited" (emozionata, a word that at the time, I thought meant emotional). I also once told Benny about two people screwing (scopare, literally to sweep, but you use that word and you're only talking about one thing) instead of escaping (scapare).

The most important thing is to be able to laugh at yourself when venturing to speak a different language. You will say things that are wrong. You will say things that are humorous and you'll probably say things that are offensive (a classmate of mine once entered into a little shop in Italy and told the woman at the counter that he would like to steal something instead of throw something away (rubare vs. buttare). But don't we do that in our native languages too? I sure do. Anyone else? Anyone.....?