Learn Greek for the Streets

Welcome to our very first knowledge module I'm assuming if you're here that you already know how to read Greek if not you can just check out our reading Greek course it's housed under the same tab as our knowledge modules it'll probably take a day or two to work through and then you can come back and start with us what we're going to do today is focus on vocabulary we're going to learn 26 of the most basic words and phrases that you will want when you're speaking Greek you can imagine that you're walking down the street in Greece and you're not going to have any extended conversations but you might bump into a few people these words these phrases that we're going to learn today are exactly what you're going to want to know vocabulary is the building block of a language without any words we can't make any sentences we can't express anything so we're focused on learning about 30 words per week together you'll see that quickly our vocabulary will grow and we'll be speaking before we know it let's go now imagine that you're walking down the street in Greece you're walking down the street and someone for some reason catches your eye maybe they think your their friend they lift up their hand they wave and they say yasu yasu you don't know what to say back so what do you do you say the same thing yasu yasu means what yasu means hello Yasuo now imagine that you're walking with a friend same street same person sees you and they lift up their hand and this time they say yeah SAS yeah SAS yasu is how you say hello to one person is how you say hello to two people or three people or four people now there's one more thing about yasas let's say another day you're walking down the street except this time you're feeling like you need to be fancy you need to be formal so you've dressed nicely you put you put on a suit you put on a dress whatever it is you're walking down the street maybe you're carrying something that makes you look official someone stops you and they say doesn't just go with groups it also is the formal way even of addressing one person so if you're in a context where you're meeting someone for the first time maybe they're older than you maybe simply their position or you're trying to be polite instead of saying yasu even though it's one person you may say yasas so we've learned so far how to say hello yasu yasas here I want to make a point we are learning through video unfortunately we're not in the same room together but you're going to have to practice speaking if you work through all these courses and don't actually use start using the words you're never really gonna you're never going to get to the point you want you have to actually be able to make conversation so I'm asking you something I'm a bit crazy right now I'm talking to the camera I want you to be a bit crazy when you're following these lessons and talk to the computer screen or the phone screen I want you to actually repeat what I'm saying throughout these lessons so I will ask you questions directly and I will ask you to repeat things as we learn new words we're always going to repeat them together a number of times because it's important to get the pronunciation down so let's repeat the word for hello for one person in a non-formal way that word is yasu yeah so yeah so yasu yasu and the formal or the plural way of hello is as yasas hello now let's imagine that someone else stops us on the street by the way it's morning we just got a coffee and we're walking down the street someone else catches our eye they don't say yasu instead they say foreign [Applause] era kalimera you don't know what to say and so you say what kalimera kalimera means good what time of the day is it good morning kalimera good morning kalimera let's say it together kalimera kalimera kalimera kalimera good morning now you're out and about but it's a bit later it's maybe the late afternoon maybe the early evening and someone catches your eye again on the street and says good evening though depending on where you are in Greece you might hear kalispera anytime after noon afternoon afternoon for the most part though it's used in the late afternoon and in the evening in the morning in the evening finally you're walking home it's been a long day and you're with a friend and you're saying goodbye and they want to say to you have a good night they are going to say let's say it together good night now someone stops you on the street and for this dialogue we're going to use a bit of English in the beginning phases of learning a language we are going to mix Greek with English that will go away but this mixing of Greek with English is totally fine and even proven effective in the beginning stages of learning a language so imagine that a Greek person stops you on the street they say Yasuo it's morning kalimera and then they want to ask you their name so they say what's your name to say my name is you say me lene so I would say Michael let's just use my English version Michael how would you say it May Lane and your name what's your name asks this Greek person you say meh Lenny and your name that phrase melene means literally they call me they call me that's how Greeks say my name is if you wanted to say they call us say you're with your friend and you both for some reason have the same name instead of saying my name is or they call me you would say they call us so my name is or they call me melene our name is or they call us us now let's say you are talking to your friend in your friend for some reason they got a dizzy by all the beautiful sights and sounds of Greece they forgot their name you have to tell them their name instead of saying you're going to say SE they call you or your name is let's say your friend's name is Thomas now let's imagine that Thomas is not your friend but rather some famous person maybe a politician and you want to show respect you won't say to Thomas you're going to say SAS means they call you in the plural or in the formal so if there is a group it would be saslene they call All of You Thomas there's a group of Thomases or SAS lene if Thomas is for some reason someone you're trying to show special respect to okay they call me maslene they call us they call you and they call all of you or you formal you continue walking down the street and you see a store that you want to go into someone's in front of you and they hold the door open they hold the door open for you and so you say well I'll hold the door open for the next person you do you hold the door open for the next person and that person looks at you and says so what does that mean you open the door for them what are they going to say means thank you thank you so let's say it together this is a bit tricky f re store f re stop if now they just thank you for holding open the door you want to practice your Greek you want to say you're welcome your welcome is another meaning please so let's say again you're at the door and you want someone you're holding it let's say there's an older lady she's got a bunch of bags and you want to hold the door and you're asking her please pass please go ahead you would say go ahead or you might order a hamburger can I have a hamburger para Kalo please and you're welcome is thank you now you've gotten into the store and you're trying to squeeze past people it's a packed store and you want to squeeze past you want to say me means excuse me let's say it together me maybe you're in class actually in Greece they don't raise a hand they raise they Point their finger so imagine in our class you would say to the teacher to get their attention excuse me and then let's move on now say that you're in the store you paid and you want to just say goodbye to the cashier you would say to them adio is a nice easy way to say goodbye you could also say yasu or yasas is hello we said it's also goodbye adio is just goodbye if you know Spanish adios goodbye now imagine that someone walks up to you and says means how are you we're actually not learning that here you want to say I'm good I'm well you will say Kala kala means well how are you well thank you if you wanted to say not just well thank you but rather I am well thank you you would say email Kala efaristo means I am you can also use it if you forget how to say Melanie they call me Michael they call me Michael I could even just say ime Michael I am Michael and what if I wanted to say you are Thomas I wouldn't say ime Thomas that's I am Thomas I would say e SE you are Thomas ISE means you are let's say I am and you are ime is Isa ime Michael Isa your name what do you say email your name you are what if we wanted to say he or she or it is it's all the same word you would say INE now I'm saying this is Thomas he is Thomas I would say INE Thomas yes Thomas I could grab my phone and say INE we'll learn the word later I could grab some scissors and say INE scissors in it is now if we say we are asking where something is if I say I'm asking where is the bathroom so the word poo means what it means where what if I wanted to say where are you I wouldn't say puine where is it where am I I would say poor Isa pu is a where are you imagine that you're in Greece we have a map you're in Greece you would say elada elada means Greece you'll notice as we learn words that some words specifically nouns have a little thing in front of them either it will be an e or an o or a tall that little word is called a definite article we're going to learn about it later but when you learn your vocab word you want to you want to learn that little definite article along with the word you want to know that the word is that's kind of a side point Greece is e elarda elava but say that together it's a good word for people who are learning Greek Lara elarda Greece now let's imagine we're back in that store you held the door you said goodbye to the cashier they're very impressed by you and they want to ask where did you learn Greek Greek the language is ta El linica ta El line they speak what they speak Greek in England or in America or in Canada or in many places they speak English English is we have Greek and we have English ta Anglican we have elada where they speak and we have other countries English-speaking countries where they speak Angelica anglica if you want to say the full sentence I speak Greek you will say milao El linica milao means what I speak Lao I speak Greek I speak Greek now let's say I speak Greek I say but I want to say to Thomas that he speaks English turn to him and I'll say you speak instead of me Lao I'm going to say Milas you speak not elenica but English Milas Anglican I speak Greek Thomas you speak English Thomas Milas Anglican now let's imagine you're back on the street someone heard you say me Lao elenica and so they came up to you and they said did you understand if you did go to the next lesson if you didn't you're gonna say then catalaveno then no then catalaveno means I don't understand then what if I wanted to say I understand English I could say cata laveno Anglican I understand English what if I wanted to say I don't understand Greek I would say what's the not part of understanding then that means not I don't then cata laveno Greek ta elinica then catalaveno I don't understand Greek next you and Thomas decided to go home and on the way you meet someone else they introduce themselves they say hi my name is Eleni and you want to say it's nice to meet you you will say to Eleni Poli hero Poli means it's nice to meet you let's say it together Poli Michael Poli I'm Michael it's nice to meet you Poli Poli Poli Poli gero Poli it's nice to meet you let's say now that we talked for a while with Eleni we told heropoli it's nice to meet you we had a small conversation and now we want to leave uh we can say adio goodbye but we might also want to say again it was nice to have met you say that instead of gero Poli we say Poli harika police it was nice to have met you this is what you say at the end of the conversation it was nice to have met you yasu Eleni finally one more word you're going back down into the Metro you're in Athens and they're going to go home and again on the way in someone holds the door for you you remember how to say thank you so you say thank you and you're expecting them to say you're welcome but they don't instead they say tipota means literally it means nothing it it means if someone says what did you do today and you said you said I didn't do anything I did nothing but it is also used to mean you're welcome almost like in English we say don't mention it it's not a big deal that I held the door for you let's turn now to our words and just do a quick review going from Greek into English here we have yasu or yasas what does that mean it means hello then we have means good morning kalimera kalimera good morning then we have kalispera kalispera means good evening and finally we have Kalin foreign means good night then we have me lene melene means they call me Mas Lena means they call us we are called our name is we have Selena they call you or your name is and then they call you or your name is for the plural or formal then we have f jaristo means thank you and we have para Kalo para Carlo means you're welcome we have the word that you might say if you bump into something or someone probably not something sir no me you will say excuse me means excuse me goodbye means well I'm doing well I am well means I am he say you are INE he she or it is a blank where is blank where is the Acropolis Acropolis where is Greece it's on a map here Greek foreign English milao El linica I speak Greek Milas Anglican you speak English I don't understand hero Poli when we met her we said it's nice to meet you and then when we left after our conversation with the Lenny we said harika it's nice to have met you and finally the word tipota which means nothing or don't mention it you're welcome no big deal I hope that was no big deal that was the end of our lesson those are our first words in Greek that we're going to learn and we're going to make our own right now I just want to talk about the rest of the lesson this lesson aside from the video that you can watch as many times as you'd like also has a handout that you can find in the lesson below that will have basically this vocab list it has a quiz that you can take at any point I take it fairly soon after the video it's designed as a sort of immediate refresher to reinforce what we just learned and then this lesson also has a Quizlet set what's Quizlet Quizlet is a flash card software and app that we're going to use in our course for Voca I think the flashcards are very good and they don't just use traditional flashcards they have other games and kind of learning modes so in in a link below you'll be able to click flash cards you'll go to Quizlet you make a new account and when you have a an account it's free they want an email when you have that account you're able to then enter our class it'll be right there and then you're going to have access to not only the cards for this class but as you unlock other lessons you'll see more and more sets of flashcards up there so what do you need to do at this point at this point I want you to learn the vocab as active vocab this is very important flash cards things like watching this video for the most part teach us passive vocab it teaches us to recognize a word and know what it means just like we just did at the end you saw the word in Greek and then you were trying to remember what it means in English that's somewhat passive all of the vocab that we're going to learn especially in the early stages we want it to be active we want these words to be words that we can pull out of our brain when we want to say something when we want to say thank you we don't want to just recognize the word thank you and assign we want to remember how it looks how it sounds and be able to actually say it so how do you do this you take the flash cards and you learn a word just well enough that you can start to use it and then you start to use it you wake up when you see the mirror you say kalimera good morning before you go to bed you're gonna say you're going to be somewhat crazy you're going to talk to yourself walking around the house maybe you're gonna write down words where they're appropriate you can write a little uh sticky note that says nothing on it and then you have to wander the world to find where you can stick the word nothing this is the way to learn vocab I want you from the very beginning this is important that you learn vocab and you make a habit of it we're not overwhelming ourselves with hundreds of words a week we're working with usually under 30 words a week but if you learn those words and especially if you make them active you're going to be speaking Greek much more quickly much more quickly than you are probably expecting I'm gonna end this lesson with a refrain that I want us to keep in mind good job you did the lesson and now for a vocabulary you are going to practice it with the flash cards and then step two the most important step and the one people usually Miss you're going to possess it through use you're going to make these words your own just like English words are your own thank you for listening please complete the rest of the lesson and then hop into the next one whenever you're ready

Channel: The Greek Academy

Views: 8,811

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Id: COgMR1Zs3Gc

Length: 33min 29sec (2009 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023