Cyprus-Forum.com

[Murtaza]

the superior bit is a matter of opinion but Cyprus is a greek island so naturally the main language should be greek

Ah education, so you tell me greek education has no problem main.

how can you explain your adults super ideas?

[Viewpoint]

demetriou_74

wake up

Cyprus is not a Greek Island

[detailer]

the superior bit is a matter of opinion but Cyprus is a greek island so naturally the main language should be greek

Kifeas, what do you think about this comment?

[demetriou_74]

demetriou_74

wake up

Cyprus is not a Greek Island

well lets work this out from the beggining.

is its main culture GREEK
is the main language GREEK
it may not be officialy greek but it is more greek than any other nationality/culture

[metecyp]

the reason turks spoke greek was becasue they were living in a greek country. just like when people move to another country they learn the language of the country. they dont expect the entire nation to speak their language. however i am sure some greeks picked up turkish along the way.

So you consider TCs immigrants!?! How ignorant can you get?? And we're asked to call ourselves Cypriots when many GCs don't even consider us Cypriots and Cyprus is called a Greek country...

As for the language issue, I have some stories to tell which I think prove the point that GCs do not really care about learning Turkish and furthermore they expect TCs to know Greek just because the majority of Cypriots speak Greek.

When the borders first opened, I crossed to the Greek side and I was chatting with my buddy in Turkish at Ledra Street. An older GC guy approached to us and asked if we were TCs. We said yes and after some chat, he said "You guys should learn Greek". I told him that I wanted to learn Greek at some point since it is one of the languages of Cyprus and I told him that he should also consider learning Turkish so we could communicate better. You should have seen his face. He refused it instantly, as if I was asking him to commit a crime and he left soon after.

Another story is from my dad's shop. My dad owns a shop in Nicosia and he has GC shoppers nowadays which he is happy about. I visited his shop many times and observed the GC customers. I probably observed more than 50 GC customers and noone of them made a slight attempt to speak in Turkish. On the contrary, most of them expected my dad to speak in Greek without even asking him if he spoke Greek.

[Murtaza]

Someone realy should change what they teach to their adults.
And this someone is not Turks.

[garbitsch]

demetriou_74

wake up

Cyprus is not a Greek Island

CYPRUS IS NOT A GREEK ISLAND

[demetriou_74]

they are not imigrants so to speak. however they are the minority and should make an effort to communicate with the majority. however turkish must be learnt for life to function

[detailer]

well lets work this out from the beggining.

is its main culture GREEK
is the main language GREEK
it may not be officialy greek but it is more greek than any other nationality/culture

and

So you consider TCs immigrants!?! How ignorant can you get?? And we're asked to call ourselves Cypriots when many GCs don't even consider us Cypriots and Cyprus is called a Greek country...

As for the language issue, I have some stories to tell which I think prove the point that GCs do not really care about learning Turkish and furthermore they expect TCs to know Greek just because the majority of Cypriots speak Greek.


When the borders first opened, I crossed to the Greek side and I was chatting with my buddy in Turkish at Ledra Street. An older GC guy approached to us and asked if we were TCs. We said yes and after some chat, he said "You guys should learn Greek". I told him that I wanted to learn Greek at some point since it is one of the languages of Cyprus and I told him that he should also consider learning Turkish so we could communicate better. You should have seen his face. He refused it instantly, as if I was asking him to commit a crime and he left soon after.

Another story is from my dad's shop. My dad owns a shop in Nicosia and he has GC shoppers nowadays which he is happy about. I visited his shop many times and observed the GC customers. I probably observed more than 50 GC customers and noone of them made a slight attempt to speak in Turkish. On the contrary, most of them expected my dad to speak in Greek without even asking him if he spoke Greek.

Because of these reasons, we need some serious bi-zonality (not partition) in Cyprus.

[MicAtCyp]

I beleive in any kind of solution the teaching of the Greek and Turkish languages in TC and GC schools is an absolute must. In fact this was also agreed in the Anan Plan. Once you get the foundations from school it is then very easy to speak fluently if you encounter with people who have it as their mother tonque. There is no better tool for breaking the ice, bring people together, help understanding and cooperation than knowing the mother language of each other.
I beleive in case of reunification both languages will live for ever, because the education system upto the 18th year of age will be either Greek or Turkish

Before 1974 the majority of TCs could speak Greek. Many GCs also knew Turkish percentagewise however less GCs knew Turkish than vice versa.