Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bill]

On a personal level I was 'forced' to learn Greek back in the 70s by living in Limassol amongst an entirely Greek speaking nieghbourhood and not having any English speaking persons around me. Believe me you soon learn when put in that situation (Sink or Swim)

I was put in the same situation when I arrived in the UK Richard.

Arrived on a Wednesday ~ in school the following Monday ~ beaten up by the Tuesday for being a foreigner who couldn't speak English ~~

Mind you I could swear at them in Greek and Arabic with no problem ~ it's just a good job they couldn't understand me

Oh weren't those blissful childhood days wonderful .

Bill

[Freytor]

There are many factors which contributes to how easily you learn a language. The younger you are the easier it is to learn a language - my kids are bilingual (English and Norwegian) and do not think twice about speaking either. I went to live in Central America when I was 19 and knew no Spanish. Within three months I could converse easily, within a year my Spanish was good enough for me to be offered a post as a translator for Social Services in Norway. I learnt quickly because I had to and wanted to. Even though quite a few people spoke English and I worked with North Americans, I always insisted that we speak Spanish.

Now I am going to Greek classes and am finding it really hard! Greek is more difficult than some other languages, not only do you need to learn a different alphabet, you also have to remember to conjugate verbs, use feminine, masculine and neutral, etc. Spanish is the same, though, so I know how it works but it is still very hard! I have set myself a task of learning one new word a day, which is proving hard... I suppose it doesn't help that I am still in the UK and not surrounded by Greek all the time. Also, I am 20 years older than when I learnt Spanish and my brain works a lot slower!!!

Having just returned from Cyprus I know I can get by in English but for me it will be very important to learn Greek and I hope I will succeed, even if it will take me a couple of years!

[devil]

French is easier a) because there are only two genders (no neutral) and b) the common noun endings often give the gender away (e.g., -ment is always masculine except la jument - the mare - and -tion is always feminine except le cation - the cation) c) noun plurals are usually adding s to the singulars or x if the singular ending is -au, -al or -ail d) adverbs are most often formed by adding -ment onto the feminine adjective e) although there are many irregular verbs, most of them, except être (to be), avoir (to have), pouvoir (to be able) and aller (to go) have almost predictable conjugations (e.g., peindre is conjugated the same as feindre, atteindre etc.) f) word order is similar to English except that most adjectives go after the noun and adverbs after the verb, e.g., the black dog quickly chased the cat becomes le chien noir chassa rapidement le chat.

Of course, French has its difficulties, too, such as knowing which verbs conjugate with être and which with avoir and when to accord the past participle to the subject and when not to.

[webbo]

I disagree that Greek is as easy as any other language. I am bilingual French/English and have varying degrees of knowledge of several other languages. I found Greek and Russian to be the most difficult ones. Some of my difficulties:
nouns ending in -os can be masculine, feminine or neuter, making it very difficult to know from the form whether they are o, i or to (transliterated)
verb conjugations, especially irregular ones. Adding double prefixes, e.g. thelo, tha ithela

What I like about Greek: if you can read it, you can pronounce it!

Thanks for the reminder!! I have my Greek lesson tonight and I have struggled with my homework this week. The more I learn, the more confused I am, and as for the verbs, well.............

Bubbles x

[Filitsa]

Reason I ask this question is the local kiosk that I go to have 2 young Polish ladies working there. One of them has been living in Cyprus for around 18 months, the other for 7 months. Both arrived here not knowing a single word of Greek and very very limited English.

They both speak fluent Greek now and a little bit of English.

A Serbian customer I had yesterday, she has been living in Cyprus for a year now. She didn't speak a work of English or Greek, she spoke quite good English and she told me she speaks Greek better.

What is the secret here? Is it dedication from these 3 ladies? Do Eastern European find language learning easier than somebody from the UK? Does Cyprus have very very good language tutors?

I'm a little interested as to how somebody who couldn't speak anything apart from their own language learns so much in so little time.

Hi Hazza,

"Necessity is the mother of invention" (Plato).

F~