American Habits Die Hard!


Advertisement
Greece's flag
Europe » Greece » Attica » Athens » Glyfa
September 21st 2011
Published: September 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post

Herete! (Hello)

Today I had my first Greek lesson! I'm glad I finally learned some manners because I felt very ignorant walking around speaking in English and asking for things...the Greeks are much more helpful when one at least tries to use their language. Here is a short list of manners/phrases which are necessary:

KalimEra: good day
KalispAra: good afternoon
KalinIKHta: good night (sounds kind of German...)
HeREte: hi, hello, good bye
Yia sou: hello (familiar)
Yia sas: hello (formal)
AdiO sas: good bye
Ti kanEte: How are you? (formal)
POli kAla: very well
Eucaristw (ef-kal-ri-STOL) thank you
Ke sas: And you?
Pos sas lanEy: What's your name?
Me lanEy: My name is...
Para kalO: please/you're welcome
Oxi: no
nE :yes

* Don't quote my spelling...most of it is phonetic, with the capital letter being the part of the word with emphasis.

On another note, American habits have me programmed to assume certain things...everyone knows what assumptions lead to!

First off, the green guy in the walking traffic sign does not guarantee pedestrian safety. I've had some close calls...there is no such thing as a pedestrian "right-of-way" in Greece. Secondly, the plumbing system in Athens is not large enough to handle toilet paper, so paper waste is to go into the garbage can. I'm pretty sure I'm going to flood the apartment soon, because if I'm not directly thinking about the trashcan, it gets flushed...

The grocery store was also interesting, considering everything is in Greek there, too... Luckily a nice Greek lady who studied in the US was able to navigate us through the dairy section (who knew there could be so many types of yogurt, cheese, and milk...)

I never realized how much I read in one day! It's really noticeable when you lose that ability...I'm working on the communication thing though! Wish me luck!

Adio sas!


Advertisement



Tot: 0.155s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.1263s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb