Do You Really Want To Learn To Speak Greek?

April 7, 2009 by Dave
Filed under: Speak Greek 

Do you really want to ’speak Greek’? No, I mean DO YOU REALLY WANT TO LEARN TO SPEAK GREEK? I will say that again very slowly in case you have a problem understanding the question, Do… you… really… want… to learn… to speak… Greek?

If the answer is ‘No,’ then ‘Goodbye’, this information is not for you.

If the answer is ‘YES’, then read on my friend because I know that you are serious about being able to speak Greek.

So, now that both you and I know exactly what you really want to do, and that is, be able to understand what is being said to you in the Greek language, and be able to answer, with, if not perfect, but perfectly understandable Greek words, then there are three simple rules.

RULE NUMBER 1 – WANT TO LEARN

Now, wanting to learn something is not the same as actually learning something. It isn’t enough if you see what I mean. It’s like wanting to eat pasta, well, unless you go and buy some pasta and get cooking or unless you order pasta in a restaurant, or unless someone puts it in front of you, then you will never eat pasta. AND… unless you transfer the pasta to you mouth then you will sure as hell, never understand what pasta really tastes like.

And being able to speak Greek is very similar. First of all, all those Greek words have got to be in front of you before you can put them into your mouth and digest them. You have got to risk being so full of Greek words that you end up dreaming about them, because unless you feed in the sounds then you won’t know the sounds and you won’t be able to put out the sounds. Am I making sense? This ‘wanting’ to learn to speak Greek has to become a passion. Try learning to play the piano. You will find that it is not so difficult at first but then those tricky little passages come along and the only way to make your fingers do what the notes say is to go over that little two bar fiddly bit maybe 100 times before you can crack it, at the right speed, and in the right tempo, it is the same with language. The only way to make your tongue do what you want it to is to say words over and over and over again. So, rule number two coming up.

RULE NUMBER TWO – SPEAK OUT LOUD AND SHOUT OUT LOUD.

Teach yourself Greek. Now, in this day and age with modern technology, this is entirely possible. If you never ever met a fluent speaking Greek person, with the aid of books and audio sessions it is a most achievable thing and this is where rule number three comes in.

RULE NUMBER THREE – LEARN SOMETHING EVERY DAY.

Remember that no child speaks perfect English, and neither do most adults. An infant imitates sounds but it isn’t until writing comes into the equation that children understand the word exactly. And look how long it takes after that, and how many essays, before University standard is achieved. Hundreds of people never make that standard, but that does not mean to say that they cannot speak a language and be understood. So a sentence like: “Them there words don’t mean nothing to me” is understood even though the correct way to say it would be: “Those words don’t mean anything to me”. Don’t be afraid of getting things wrong. Say what you know and follow Rule number four.

RULE NUMBER FOUR – NEVER GIVE UP.

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