As you know from my post “Greek Schooling for a Foreigner” I had the opportunity and the need to learn the Modern Greek
language (Ancient Greek was a little more troublesome). It would help me
communicate with fellow students, assist me in my life whilst living in Greece
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| My First Greek Books |
Let’s start from the beginning. My first words
were the very basic; hello, goodbye, thank you, please etc. all of which we all
learn initially when taking a language class at school, although it’s usually
accomplished at a young age when the mind is evolving. Taking into account that
this language was being learnt at the age of 13, you could say it was a late
start for me in the education curve of life. The first learning books I was
given were ones like nursery schools give children. Pretty pictures with words,
for example a dog, a cat, an apple, a book, and these were all written in
Greek so my first task was to write the “*Greeklish (see below)” so I could comprehend how
each word was said. The Greek language is a little complicated as it’s
different to how you read and write it, the lettering is different to the
Latin, so that was another obstacle to overcome. I enjoyed learning to write it
as to me it is very calligraphic and unique compared to Latin. This was what I
enjoyed the most and still today I prefer my Greek handwriting to my English.
The next step along the way was learning and
understanding the much harder elements of the language. The correct use of
grammar, the syntax of a sentence and the tenses of the verbs was challenging
to say the least as there aren't very many similarities between the Greek and English. Managing to grasp this was like
trying to wade through mud. It took a lot of effort to finally apprehend all of
it and after that I forcefully hit a brick wall. My problem was that I
understood what people were saying to me but not knowing how to answer
correctly without using the easiest possible answer; “ne” or “ohi” (yes or no
written in Greeklish!). It was difficult to pluck up the courage to say
anything as the fear of saying something wrong was stronger. Slowly but surely
and with the help of friends and a great teacher I eventually managed to climb
the tall brick wall. I think the main thing that helped was the fact that I was
around Greeks all the time, at school, after school and in the neighbourhood we
lived in, which in turn meant that I was getting a lot of practice. In truth it
was all just a hang up on my part not wanting to be wrong when saying something
and as it turned out, Greeks appreciated the effort of me speaking their
language, a trait they revel in even now with anybody not just myself.
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| The Greek Alphabet |
Within a few months after finding confidence I
was able to converse quite well with others and over time I advanced. I would
say it took me just over 6 months to learn the language well enough to be able
to have a proper conversation and understand most of what was going on around
me. School definitely helped me, I went through four and a half years of Greek
school and in the end it was unquestionably worth the effort and time. It
helped me obtain great grades, find a job, make friends and live my life as if
I was a Greek. Now and again I do find myself tripping over words, saying a
word wrong or even forgetting them (I forget my English too!!) but it’s not
something I worry over any more. I live my life now as a @HalfGreekGal!!
A Few Fun & Weird Facts about Being Bilingual
I dream and think to myself in both Greek and
English. This to me in the beginning was very, very, very weird. Without
understanding fully what was being said, my mind in my dreams was conjuring up
the image that I knew Greek and was speaking it fluently, despite the fact it
could have all been complete gibberish. As I slowly learned the language it
became clear in my mind what was being said.
Once I became fluent I discovered that I would find myself thinking in
Greek too. In the way of when you say to yourself something of the sort; I have
to do this today and I have to go there, well I would do this in Greek. Another
example of this is when I'm counting, quite frequently I do this but the
strange thing is it just comes naturally. You would think me being a Brit, my
mind would automatically turn itself to English but this isn't the case.
I often find myself pretending to be foreign
and not knowing Greek. I understand everything anyone in the street will say
about me without them realizing. This is because I don’t look Greek and I never
will. I mean blond hair and blue eyes; it isn't really what the Greek beauty models
or even anywhere close to the Mediterranean
look. Truthfully I enjoy this advantage although with some of the things I've heard from others I wish I didn't but these moments are absolutely out weighed
by the positive remarks of others.
It’s very rarely I will spell a Greek word wrong.
The way I mastered Greek was generally to learn each word exactly as it is.
Despite the Greek alphabet having lots of vowels which means there’s many e’s,
i’s, o’s etc., I found myself memorizing each word singularly. I often get asked
by many of my friends “Dionne, how do you spell this? Is it with this i or this
i?” I became the spell checker friend.
Another thing that strikes me as strange is
that every time I read a Greek book or article I don’t have the need to
translate it any more. It occurs spontaneously.
I basically read it like Greek is my mother tongue and I've known Greek
all my life. I do often wonder if this is normal, then I think what is normal?
*Greeklish: A term used to explain how Greek is
spoken for English speakers.
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