Hi everyone! Welcome to our language basics series -
I am Elena and I am the Athens expert. Elena of JayWay, not the Helen of Troy :).
So, welcome as today we will introduce you to some basic key phrases so you can be an expert
in the Greek language when you visit Greece! Let's brush up your Greek language skills
so you'll be ready for your trip to Greece. Did you know that Greek is one of
the richest languages in the world? Actually, it's one of the most ancient languages
in the world and we have over 5 million words! 5 million - can you imagine?
Well, of course we don't have time to teach you everything today and I don't even know the 5
million words...but let's start with the basics. How we're going to say hello and
greet someone when you just come... Hello is actually used also to
say goodbye which is "geiá". So when you say "geiá" to
someone you mean "hello", "geiá" or when you're leaving you also say "geiá".
The second way to approach and to greet someone...again it's a little bit less formal
and kind and sweet and you say: "geiá sou". Or when you leave again you say "geiá sou".
The third way, if you want to approach someone in a more professional manner
and more formal you will say: "geiá sas". So again, as we said you can use the same word
to greet someone when you leave "geiý sas". Let's look at where the words come from:
so the word "geiá", which is "ygeiá" and it means "health" - so you kind of
wishing to someone health. "Geiá sas" - it's a nice way to approach someone. So now that we've learned how to wish
good health upon a person by greeting them with "geiá sas", "geiá sou" and "geiá"
we're ready to move on to the next famous greek word and that is: "kaliméra".
"Kaliméra" is a very important word. It's a way to wish someone a very good
morning - this is actually what the word itself - "kali méra" implies.
"Kali" means good, "méra" day. "Kaliméra!" You hear it a lot when you're
traveling around Greece so it's one of the words you definitely want to
use, "kaliméra" and of course you know you can pronounce it differently you can say
"kaliméra", "kaliMÉRA", "kaliMÉ-RA"... ...and when you're telling someone, when
you're leaving, as we saw in "geiá" we can say we can wish someone a great day
so again we can say "kaliméra". So now that you've mastered to say good morning
"Kaliméra", and good day - "Kaliméra", now let's move on to how to say good evening: "kalispéra".
"Kalispéra" - as you'll see the word "kali" used again: "kalispéra" and then when you
want to wish someone a good night, again, you use the word "kali" but instead of "spéra"
we use "nýchta" - "kalinychta", good night. "Kaliméra" - "kalispéra" - "kalinychta". So how are you feeling?
Confident with your Greek skills? Okay, now we have to learn how to say "yes" and "no" in Greek.
Let's start with a "yes". "Ne". Definitely, I think, you're going
to be saying a lot of "yes". A lot of yes to food, to the sun, to the sea, I
think it's a wonderful experience to visit Greece and i can't wait to see you here!
So you want to come to Greece ? "Ne!" Right? "Ne!"
Come on, let me hear you saying it! "Ne." Okay, so now that we learned how to
say "ne" - "yes", we have to say "no". "Ohi" As you'll come to see traveling around
Greece, you will realize that the Greeks are very expressive people and they use
their hands a lot when making gestures. So when you say "ohi" or
"ohi" that means "no" - "ohi" So now that we've learned how to say our yes and no - ne, ohi - let's move to the next
phrase and that is how we say "thank you". "Efcharistó". Easy, right? Efcharistó - thank you. If you want to say the word "please" in greek it is "Parakalo".
"Parakalo". Please - "parakalo".
If you want to say "excuse me", so if you want to pass,
you have to say "Me si-horite". "Me si-horite" which means basically "excuse me". "Me" - me, "si-horite". "Me sihorite". So we greeks are very much into wishing
good health upon people - as we saw with our "geiá", "geiá sou" and "geiá sas".
So, let's learn the word - a very popular word, that you're going to tend to say a lot, you're
going to be forced to say a lot of - "cheers ". And especially if you're traveling through
Crete you'll have to say "cheers": "Yia mas!" Okay so "yia mas".
Okay now, if you've been paying attention you'll know that the word "yia" ("ygeía") has
a special meaning and that means "health". "Yia mas".
So again health to us - "yia mas ", cheers - "yia mas".
So since you've been such wonderful students and we've seen that the Greek language is very
rich it has five million words, I'm going to teach you one word which a lot of people don't
actually - there's no actual translation to it. And it's the word "me-raki".
"Me-raki" is a beautiful genuine word that means "doing something with passion", doing something
that you love and you'll see a lot of that. A lot of dedication, traveling through the Greek
islands you'll see the beautiful hospitality, the warmth of the Greek people.
I can definitely say that here at JayWay our people have "me-raki".
We're very passionate about what we do, we love designing our custom itineraries for our guests
and we can't wait to see you traveling again. In the meantime I hope you enjoyed learning
some basic Greek - brush up your Greek skills and I can't wait to see you in Greece!
Thank you for watching - efcharistó polý. Geiá!
