Speak Greek

What I find interesting is people’s attachment to language. I like languages; I speak as many as I can to whomever I can. However, in Cyprus this is frowned upon! Speaking in a language other than Greek could have you deported to a Siberia, or another Russian region, like… Limassol.

Recently, I asked a friend (in Greek) if he could do me a favour. His response was a gleeful ‘of course I’ll do it! But only because you asked me in Greek’.

‘So if I asked you in English you wouldn’t do it?’ He smiled. Imagine what he would have done to me if I asked him in… Swahili? Or more shocking… in Turkish! Yikes!

I think Cypriots have a strange relationship with their language. They insist oversees-Cypriots speak Greek yet at the same time do not realize that they themselves pepper their Greek-conversations with words like ‘thank you, bye, okay’ or my favourite ‘sorrrry’ followed by a loud ‘ah’ and phrased as a question. They are constantly placing English words in between Greek words.

The problem is not that oversees-Cypriots do not speak Greek. All do (albeit at varying degrees of fluency) and all try! And when oversees-Cypriots do try and speak Greek to a fellow Cypriot, we are answered in… English. This not only embarrasses us, but it also implies that we are illiterate buffoons who can’t even properly speak Greek. Eventually the whole conversation becomes so uncomfortable that we give up and end up speaking in Pidgin English so the other guy whose English is so-so can understand. The issue for Cypriots is that oversees-Cypriots do not speak, perfectly fluent, accent-less Greek. The funny thing is, neither do most Cypriots. If you want to speak perfect, accent-less Greek you need to go to Greece. Sorrrrrry aah?