Married to Greek: Susan’s story

Resources & InspirationGreek Learning Stories

18 Jan

The second story in the series "Greek Learning Stories” comes from Susan.

When I met Susan in Toronto a few years ago, I thought she was born Greek.

I'm so happy she agreed to share her story with you on the blog. After all, Susan holds 50 years of language learning wisdom, plus some excellent tips about being part of a Greek family.

Γεια σας - hello, I’m Susan!

50 years ago I was living in Toronto and studying Languages and Linguistics at the University of Toronto. During my university years I spent my spare time with French, German and Spanish-speaking friends and spoke very little English.

One day, while listening to the radio, I heard a language that sounded quite different from the Romance languages and German that I knew.

It turned out to be Greek and I was immediately interested.

I signed up for a course in conversational Greek at the YMCA, but didn't learn much. The teacher was delightful and glowed when he spoke of his beloved Greece, but he spoke mainly English.

I had grown up in an all-English speaking environment, but I was in love with languages. For me, total immersion in the language and culture was much more exciting and a faster way to learn.

I was determined I would learn Greek one day. It turned out to be sooner than I thought!

Married to a Greek

In the summer of 1970 I met my future husband, a Greek who had come to Canada to study Chemistry.

I started speaking Greek with him, but was learning solely by ear, so it was slow going. Gradually I learned the alphabet and basic grammar from a rudimentary book.

But, I was 100 percent self taught, and wasn't concentrating much on reading or writing.

When I first went to Greece after we were married, I was still learning mainly aurally. I listened very intently and repeated phrases over and over in my head to imprint them in my memory.

I managed to get along in simple family conversations, though I had a hard time understanding my in-laws when they spoke together, as they spoke fast and used colloquialisms.

It was a wonderful experience, though!

Greek grammar challenges

The most difficult thing for me at first, both in comprehending and speaking, was the shift in the accent onto the following syllable for the plural of certain nouns (κατάστημα, καταστήματα), or onto the preceding syllable for verbs in the past tense (τραγουδώ- τραγούδαγα), οr onto an added prefix (γράφω- έγραψα, έγραφα).

It took a lot of repetition in my head!!

It wasn't until I retired and started reading and writing systematically, almost 30 years later, that my vocabulary really started to grow.

I had never had time while I was raising our children because I was also teaching full time.

Through the years I had been able to write letters to my parents-in-law in very rudimentary Greek, but my spelling was far from perfect!

Living in Greece

Ironically, years later when I started reading extensively, it came quickly, because I had already built up a good vocabulary by then.

We were living in Greece at that time, and I was hearing Greek all day and watching Greek TV with a dictionary on my lap! I was usually too interested in the programs to stop and look up words, however.

So I would scribble words and phrases down in a mix of Greek and English phonetics and look them up later. It was tiring but I was motivated. My spelling was still guess work.

The most difficult thing for me in writing Greek was all the different ways to transcribe the sound "ee" in Greek, as there are 6 different letters or combinations of letters that render that sound.

But reading really helped me with writing and spelling. And now the computer's spell check corrects my spelling for me.

Some of the happiest and proudest moments I experienced were participating in a Greek Book Club, being able to understand programs on TV and to watch old Greek movies and understand the jokes!

My Greek side

Now, when I go to Greece and sit with the neighbors in my husband's village, I don't feel like an outsider anymore.

Best of all, it's wonderful being able to speak Greek to my grandchildren and sing Greek songs with them.

My experience learning Greek has been a long slow process, but well worth the effort.

It opened the door to total immersion in the rich Greek culture. And it certainly is a very enjoyable way to keep the mind active!

Καλή τύχη, Σουzana

About Susan:

Susan comes from Unionville, Canada. After living in Greece and other countries for years, she now lives in Toronto with her Greek husband, where she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren.