Learning the Lingo (Ed.1): I am a Pancake!

This is the first of what will hopefully become a series of posts. My goal is to record my progress learning the local languages and the inevitable linguistic mistakes that occur. Clearly my mother decided to withhold the part of the genetic code that gives us an “innate” ability to speak languages, and as far as languages other than Canadian- English (Oot and aboot, then eh?) American-English (Fuhgeddaboudit / Dude / Wicked / etc.), Pittsburgh-English (Wat abouwt dem stillerz!)  and English-English (I say, what jolly fine weather…would you be so kind as to paahhss the scones?) and Franglais (J’aime le chicken) I am borderline language impaired. In fact, I am probably downright language deficient.

As I mentioned, I bought a conversational Greek book about ten days ago. It was supposed to teach me the nuts and bolts of the greek language in only seven days. It is now over a week later, and I am still on page 3 of the “Introduction” section learning about the alphabet. I’ve got it mostly down, although it still throws me off every time when I see “P” that it actually makes a ”r as in red” sound and I can never remember how many loopy squiggles ksi (ξ) has. As mum decided not to share her language abilities, I’ve resorted to employing my dad’s humor to memorize the alphabet letter names with a series of rude pneumonics, which will not be repeated here.

I might not have learned anything, but its keeping me entertained.

Having become increasingly bored and frustrated with alpha-vita-gamma-ing, I have skimmed Chapter One. So far I have learned useful phrases and words such as Καλημέρα (Kalimera!) which means Hello, Παρακαλώ (parakalo) which means Please, and Δωμάτια (Thomatia) which means Rooms.

Mum the language whizz did try to help me (maybe if I see AND hear some words they will stick better?). A few nights ago she picked up my greek book and within 10 minutes was semi-fluent. As such, she taught me how to tell people how I am employed (which will likely come in useful on the island as the locals apparently enjoy watching us work.) Be warned: herein lies an important lesson on pronunciation:

Είμαι φoιτήτρια: Ime fititria = I am a student SHOULD NOT BE CONFUSED WITH: Ime frittata = I am an egg pancake.

Then we decided that maybe I would learn better if she said a phrase and I tried to guess what it meant. It turns out that που ειυαι η Ακρόπολι? (Poo ine I Acropoli?) does NOT mean “Can I poop in the Acropolis.”

I still don’t remember what my book says this means, and as a result I still do not know how to ask for directions to the nearest bathroom, which, as any traveler knows, is the only real phrase you need when travelling abroad. Fortunately, I still have 14 days until the plane leaves. Back to alpha-vita-gamma-thelta-ing for now, I think, and we will leave such advanced phrases for next week.

Mileage Remaining: 10,799
Days Remaining in Trip: 50