![]() Ta matia sou dekatessera (Your eyes fourteen):Ī Greek phrase that instructs you to have your eyes fourteen. Most of them are hilarious, but simultaneously too filthy to be printable, so I give you a family-friendly selection below lest you feel like trying out the language on your visit. Some of them make no sense when translated, some are impossible to explain even by the Greeks. The true variety and creativity of Greek phrases becomes apparent once you learn enough of the language to start speaking it with any level of competence and start throwing colloquial phrases around. ![]() Which in Greece, where there is a bakery on nearly every street corner, might elicit the response “Are you blind or something?” Incidentally, the one and only time I did need to use that phrase, the guy didn’t know if there was a bakery nearby. ![]() For example, in every Greek class I have ever taken, one phrase repeatedly drummed into our heads was “Excuse me, do you know if there is a bakery nearby?” They don’t really teach you what you need for street survival, the way that people really speak a language. Language classes, by and large, teach you the nuts and bolts version of speaking a language. This is what they don’t teach you in language class. I’ve never sat crying over verb conjugations for any other language, so I’m here today to save you that trouble. Many is the time now when I reach for an expression in conversation with non-Greek speakers only to realise that it doesn’t exist in English.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |