Coming into this experience I knew that learning Greek would always be a struggle. I also had heard that most people spoke English so it wouldn’t be a huge deal. While that is true for the most part, I would highly recommend a basic knowledge of the language before visiting. I have only picked up a few words like ‘good day’, ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ but even these have been hard to commit to memory. Greek is one of those languages where it is impossible to distinguish where words start and end when locals are talking. The other problem is that the words are quite long with complicated pronunciation. I would really like to be able to hold a conversation by the end of this semester but in order to do so I need to make local friends.
In class, when we do group activities, my professors always put the foreigners in one group and the locals in another. This really frustrates me because it is an easy way to make connections especially considering most of the locals I’m around speak Greek to each other so it’s a bit hard to join in.
One exciting part of learning the basics of the language is that the ladies at my supermarket now speak to me in Greek because I have some understanding of what they’re saying. Usually they say hello and then ask if I need a bag and then tell me my total. I’ve just memorised the order so in the off chance they say something else I might be in trouble, but it’s cool to feel a little less foreign sometimes!
