IS THIS TALKING GREEK?!
Greek is a notoriously difficult language for us English expats, it dosn't help that the alphabet is not written in the same way as English is...
I have never attended formal Greek lessons to learn to speak Greek, I found the best way to learn is to dive in! I lived in a totally Greek village where the residents average age of 80 years old and none spoke on word of English!
Using a pointing finger and my best 'querying' look, it dosn't take long to pick up the odd word here or there!
But how on earth do we seem to hear a word over and over again and never understand or remember what the word means?
I have found that the words that stuck and the Greek words that stuck the quickest were words I really needed to use or understand again!
The same thing happened in Thailand when I was given the name in Thai for 'horse'. Horses are of immense interest to me and it only took one listen to the Thai name for a horse for me to remember it forever!
Greek seems back to front for us, and once you can get a grip with speaking some of the words, you may find yourself speaking English back to front!
I was never worried about how my Greek spewed out, and often said the equivalent of things such as ''yes, the big thing over there'' the black thing, the large thing... Thing is a very important word in my Greek vocalbulary!
Once Maria asked me ''Where did the *** go'' - i looked confused at her as it was a word I didn't understand. She repeated the word a couple of times, which didnt help my translation program at all... then she stood looking thoughtfully and asked me in Greek ''Where did the big white car from the hospital go'' - the Greeks are very understanding and really will help you learn the language quickly. I still to this date, do not know the Greek word for Ambulance! I will always refer to it as the big white car from the hospital!
The word itself is not quite so important as getting yourself understood, somehow!
I still cannot write the words although I do recognise the alphabet and the dipthongs used, I am not used to reading in Greek, only urm, speaking!
Also one problem i have found along the way, is that now i can say mostly what i wish to express in Greek, but actually understand very very little when its spoken back to me!
Once you are a bit more fluent, the Greeks talk in proper Greek to you and it gets a tad more difficult!
I am about to do a Bulgarian trip and don't speak a word of Bulgarian... I am excited and apprehensive at the thought of getting to grips with a totally new language where the letters are almost similar to Greek to confuse me even more!
When the Greek TV puts on English films, they put the Greek subtitles on, I also found that of great help to learn sentences, although it may be an idea to tape the film in case you can't keep up with the subtitles, I still can't!
I still do not understand a word of the news, they ramble on so quickly and again are speaking 'proper' Greek!
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