On the Importance of Speaking Greek in Greece

Knowing the native language in the country you’re visiting goes a long way.

I usually try to learn the basics: “please,” “thank you,” “hello,” “excuse me,” and “bathroom.” Really, just “Hello” and “thank you” will get you a long way. When I greeted the man selling tickets to Phaistos in Greek, he smiled and gave me an orange. When I talked to the lady minding the door, she let me take my sandwich into the ruins—even though it was officially not allowed. Knowing a tiny amount of Greek words got me free raki shots in restaurants as well as curious questions about where I was from. It made the locals much friendlier—and made me think about how annoying it must be to have people continually walking up to you and nattering on in a language that isn’t yours, blithely assuming that you’ll understand.

I don’t know much Dutch other than the basics. There are reasons for this. One is that I’ve been really focused on learning French. Another is that each time I visited, I assumed I wouldn’t be there long. Everyone in the Hague speaks great English. But now that it’s my third lengthy visit, I look back on my time here and think about how proficient I’d be now if I’d made the effort from the first. It’s a bit embarrassing to have to ask the instructors at my Dutch gym to switch to English just for me, and having to start each conversation with a Dutch person by apologizing for only speaking English. If I just knew the language, I’d know the Netherlands better—and may have gotten more out of my visits. Now I know that even if I’ll be in a country for a short time, learning the language is always worth it—even if I never get to fluency.