Khaby Lame – l’italiano più seguito sui social

Khaby Lame - the most followed Italian on social media

Khaby Lame è l’italiano che ha più follower su un social network: ben 53 milioni di follower su TikTok, il social network di brevi video molto popolare soprattutto tra i giovanissimi. 

Un numero pazzesco, che lo rende uno dei dieci utenti più popolari al mondo su TikTok. Giusto per fare un esempio: i suoi follower su TikTok e Instragram sono più di quelli di Chiara Ferragni e Fedez insieme. 

ma chi è davvero, Khaby Lame? nome d’arte di Khabane Lame, ha 21 anni e vive a Chivasso (in Piemonte) da 20 anni. Lame è nato in Senegal il 9 marzo 2000 ed è arrivato in Italia a un anno, insieme ai genitori. 

ha iniziato a fare video su TikTok durante il primo lockdown, Poiché aveva perso il lavoro: “Ho iniziato a fare video comici”, ha dichiarato, “ho visto che alla gente piaceva e ho continuato“. 

Il segreto del suo successo sono i suoi reaction videos, brevi video in cui prende in giro altri video virali senza mai parlare, grazie alle sue espressioni facciali molto particolari. 

Riguardo a Questi video, Kabhy ha spiegato: “A me non sono mai piaciuti i trend… Volevo essere unico e portare il mio tipo di comicità”. 

Lame è su TikTok da più di un anno e ha già pubblicato più di 800 video, ma il suo successo è esploso in pochissime settimane, proprio Grazie ai suoi reaction videos virali: poiché sono senza parole, possono essere visti anche da un pubblico estero. 

“Sinceramente, non mi aspettavo assolutamente questo successo” – ha confessato Lame, sorpreso dal suo incredibile successo – “La classifica per me comunque è solo un numero: certo, sono contento di essere il primo in Italia, ma il mio scopo rimane semplicemente quello di far divertire la gente”. 

E voi lo conoscete? Che ne pensate dei suoi video? Fatecelo sapere nei commenti!

Keywords

l’ utente: user – 用户

il nome d’arte: stage name – 笔名

prendere in giro: to make fun, to tease – 取笑, 戏弄

virale: viral – 流行, 疯传

l’ espressione facciale: facial expression – 面部表情

esplodere: to explode – 爆炸

aspettarsi: to expect – 期待, 指望

Grammar

Passato Prossimo o Imperfetto?
Present Perfect or Imperfect?

“ho visto che alla gente piaceva e ho continuato”
(I saw that people liked them and I kept going)

In Italian, one of the most difficult topics is understanding the difference between imperfetto and passato prossimo. Let’s see their basic distinction:

1. PERFECT TENSE is used for what actually happened on one or more occasions. It has a start and an end point:

– “Ieri HO MANGIATO la pasta”
= Yesterday I ATE pasta

2. IMPERFECT TENSE is named after its main characteristic: it’s “imperfect”, and doesn’t tell the full story. Hence, it’s used for repeated actions, for a continuing state of affairs, or for intentions in the past.

– “In Italia MANGIAVO spesso la pasta”
= In Italy I USED TO EAT pasta often

3. When a sentence refers to 2 or more events happened in the past, it is helpful to think in terms of FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND.

In Italian, in cases like these, the imperfect expresses the continuous background:

– “Mia papà HA CONOSCIUTO mia mamma quando ABITAVA a Roma”
= My dad MET (foreground) my mum when she WAS LIVING (continuous background) in Rome

4. In some cases, both tenses are possible. The choice between them depends on the story you mean to tell:

– “Da giovane AVEVO i capelli corti”
= When I was young I HAD short hair
(→ the whole time I was young I had short hair. I used to have short hair)

– “Da giovane HO AVUTO i capelli corti”
= When I was young I HAD short hair
(→ when I was young, I cut my hair short for a while. It’s an event, something that happened)

Translation

Khaby Lame is the Italian with the most followers on a social network: a whopping 53 million followers on TikTok, the popular short-video social network especially among young people.

An incredible number that makes him one of the top ten most popular users in the world on TikTok. Just to give an example: his followers on TikTok and Instagram are more than those of Chiara Ferragni and Fedez combined.

But who is Khaby Lame really? Stage name of Khabane Lame, he is 21 years old and has been living in Chivasso (Piedmont) for 20 years. Lame was born in Senegal on March 9, 2000, and arrived in Italy at the age of one, with his parents.

He started making videos on TikTok during the first lockdown, as he had lost his job: “I started making comedy videos,” he said, “I saw that people liked them and I kept going.”

The secret to his success are his reaction videos, short videos in which he makes fun of other viral videos without ever speaking, using his very unique facial expressions.

Regarding these videos, Khaby explained: “I never liked trends… I wanted to be unique and bring my type of humor.”

Lame has been on TikTok for over a year and has already published more than 800 videos, but his success exploded in just a few weeks, thanks to his viral reaction videos: since they are wordless, they can also be viewed by a foreign audience.

“To be honest, I never expected this success at all,” Lame confessed, surprised by his incredible success – “The ranking for me, however, is just a number: of course, I’m happy to be the first in Italy, but my goal remains simply to make people laugh.”

Do you know him? What do you think of his videos? Let us know in the comments!