Have you ever wanted to learn Greek? Today, Danae Florou from AlphaBeta Greek is here on the blog sharing her story and some resources to get you started. Danae, over to you…

I’m sitting at a cafe on the beautiful Greek island of Crete, ready to write about my native language; nothing seems more fitting – when I’m starting to feel more and more overwhelmed by the quantity of information I want to share with you without sounding like your 54 tome Encyclopedia (who has a 54 tome Encyclopedia anymore?). By the way, both words “tome” and “Encyclopedia” are Greek. This whole paragraph is karmic.

Forget about me being on a beautiful beach. Here’s a quiz for you. What does a young English architect, who happens to be a polyglot, have to do with a 3400 years old language mystery?

If your name is Michael Ventris and we’re around the 1950’s, you’re about to make one of the greatest discoveries in the world – especially in the language world. And it’s related to Greek.

Ventris found out that Linear B, the syllabic script that no one before could decipher, was in fact the first written form of Greek; discovered after being lost for thousands of years.

If you’re a language nerd like me – and even more so like Ventris! – , you understand how it feels like when you realize that words in Linear B are still used today in Modern Greek, such as αγρός [agros] (field) or κρασί [krasi] (wine). This means they date back to at least 1450 BC!

How about your language? For example, words such as school, theme, gym, physics, kilogram, they all originate from Greek and are used in everyday English. Which Greek words are found in your language?

A confession here. The most embarrassing and somehow fun moment is when I find myself speaking English but pronouncing utterly wrong a Greek word I perfectly understand and have used a million times; still, I need to learn its pronunciation all over again.

Ah, the wonders of languages!

Let’s go back to my happy place on the beach, shall we?

As I’m looking at the sun hiding behind the Aegean sea, I’m thinking that, if I could describe Greek in just a few sentences that would be: Greek is a beautiful, melodic, fascinating language, that lives for thousands of years where the land meets the sea, where the light is bright and clear and people love to celebrate by eating, laughing and dancing lots – till morning.

I leave the rest to you to discover!

Resources to learn Greek

If you’re now more curious than ever to learn some Greek, here are some options:

Mylanguages.org
This is a free webpage where you can find all the basics you need: the alphabet, the numbers, basic vocabulary and grammar.

Memrise
Of course Memrise makes the list. Not just Beginners, there are also Advanced courses and even a Greek cognates course!

GreekPod101
This excellent resource has a paid and a free option. It’s great for practicing listening and pronunciation!

Alpha Beta Greek
Hey, this is the blog where I write about the Greek language and share some awesome free resources with you. Come and say hi or γεια σου [yia su]!

And don’t forget to tell me, which Greek words do you use in your language? I’m more than excited to read about them.

9 Reasons to Learn Greek