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How long after being in Greece will it take to learn Greek?

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blopez34

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I would love to learn Greek in an immersive way. Im thinking of trying to get a summer job there or spending some time staying with friends. How long do you think it will take to learn a basic understanding of Greek. Has anyone else tried to do this?
 
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That is a great question!

I think it really depends on many factors...how long you will be in Greece, have you had any exposure to the Greek lanuage in the past, etc. And of course, it depends on the person,
 
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What is a basic understanding of Greek to you?

To become fluent, it's going depend on how much Greek you know now and how many non-english speaking people you're going to be around. If you're forced to speak Greek and listen to it then it'll be about a year if your Greek is terrible. If your Greek is advanced then 3-6 months, and intermediate will be 6 months - 1 year. I know this from personal experience from when I moved to Greece to go to high school (from the USA). My Greek was advanced, but I was nowhere near fluent. It took me about 6 months to become fluent because I was shy and didn't want to make mistakes speaking Greek, which is another factor.

As it was already mentioned, there will be a number of factors that determine how fast you learn Greek - it's going to depend on how long you will be there, how much you know now, how often you will actually be speaking Greek, how shy you are (people are very insecure when it comes to speaking another language, so it can take a long time to learn), and some other factors I'm probably not thinking of at the moment.
 
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It depends on lots of things. How well do you want to speak, your age, the languages you currently speak and how much time you want to spend studying, if any. Another problem, you will find most Greeks speak some English, especially if you are going to work in the hospitality industry.
If you want to put a lot of effort and only speak Greek when you are there you can learn to communicate, basic stuff with lots of mistakes, in a few months.
Good luck.
 
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blopez34 said:
I would love to learn Greek in an immersive way. Im thinking of trying to get a summer job there or spending some time staying with friends. How long do you think it will take to learn a basic understanding of Greek. Has anyone else tried to do this?
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For me I had no choice but to learn,by looking at TV,old movies, laughing at some of the hilarious ones, talking basic every day words,then slowly more and more words,I had the Greek / English Oxford Dictionary....so as to learn the correct meaning and pronunciation...It came by itself as having all Greek speaking people me I had no choice and that was the best way,some times I did my Excursion programs in Greek language.....so they used to joke with me...."Palikari ..Milaaz Ellinika pyo polleeee Kalla apo tou Ellinez!"...??????. Don't struggle or try too hard!!!...
 
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Hash said:
For me I had no choice but to learn,by looking at TV,old movies, laughing at some of the hilarious ones, talking basic every day words,then slowly more and more words,I had the Greek / English Oxford Dictionary....so as to learn the correct meaning and pronunciation...It came by itself as having all Greek speaking people me I had no choice and that was the best way,some times I did my Excursion programs in Greek language.....so they used to joke with me...."Palikari ..Milaaz Ellinika pyo polleeee Kalla apo tou Ellinez!"...??????. Don't struggle or try too hard!!!...
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Any tv shows or moviees that you recommend?
 
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nm1999 said:
Any tv shows or moviees that you recommend?
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Not really, these days it is so accessible in many different ways! Are you in Greece right now?....Or living abroad ?
 
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Hash said:
Not really, these days it is so accessible in many different ways! Are you in Greece right now?....Or living abroad ?
Click to expand...
I watch mine on YouTube Lol :)
 
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