An Athenian Diary

10

A" mavqoume pio pollav ellhnikav!

Let's Learn More Greek

I've been promoted. When my Level III Greek class ended, I signed up dutifully for Level IV. But there were no other takers for Level IV, and so I was put into a class with the only other person who'd signed up for Level V, a Swedish woman working for the EU in Athens. Our teacher resolutely declared that we were Level V, and assured me the other day that my diploma (yes, they give you little certificates of completion!) would say "Level V." No reason, she assured me, for me to do Level IV at all. Hmm. I feel rather like I've cheated.

So obedient to my teachers as always, I headed down to the Athens Centre every day through the end of October. My new teacher, Eleni, was a sophisticated middle-aged woman, raised in a liberal and well-educated household. She read Cavafy as a child (when the Greek school system refused even to admit his central importance to Greek literature because he was homosexual and wrote openly about same-sex love), and one of her childhood memories was of a friend of the family who knew Cavafy -- he had him over for dinner every month in Alexandria, and noted that he was an exceptionally ugly person. (They also had a homosexual friend who was welcome in the house, though of course his orientation was never discussed.) Her father had helped the Greek resistance against the Germans. All this and more we learned about her; she put us on to reading I Probi tou nifikou, my first read in Greek, which is set in the pre-war and war years -- a book which I think recalled for her her youth, and her parents. That is to say (now on reflection), during this course I moved from learning grammar and vocabulary to being able to conduct conversations about people and things -- in other words, without quite realizing what happened, I made a big advance in my Greek.

I realize this only now, writing up this essay six weeks after the end of the class. There really isn't much to say about the days -- the same rhythm of reading, exercises in grammar, conversation. Sometimes we were frustrated that the conversation about the book ran along the lines of plot summary, rather than free conversation; but on reflection now I think this did me good, because it forced me to be able to restate details and use new vocabulary (whereas a more "literary" discussion might have allowed me to rely chiefly on words and expressions I already knew).

So where am I now? Well, I can carry on conversations in Greek with people pretty well. I understand a lot of what is said directly to me, but still there are embarrassing voids in my comprehension, due mainly I think to missing vocabulary or to an inability to follow normal speed talk (this will I hope improve with time). Television news and shows are still largely inaccessible to me, though sometimes I catch a string of words, or can follow generally the thrust of what is going on. I read the paper every couple of days. My chief problem is that I don't have anyone now to have regular conversation with -- I have one partner, but we don't meet regularly enough; I need to find someone else who'd be willing to surrender three hours a week to me (I may, in the end, have to pay someone). In January I will start one more course at the Athens Centre, less intense (twice a week) but, I hope, enough to move me along better. I try to listen to tapes and music and to do exercises out of my books; and I keep a vocabulary list (which, I confess, I don't have as much time as I would like to work with). But I will continue to work at my Greek, and I'll report back again.

December 15, 2003

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