Schoolin' Life: Learning Greek Through TV

Sometime during week two I went to Sklavenidis, the local grocery store, for a few things. I’ve already been there more times than I can remember. The store is only one block around the corner from my place so I’ve adopted the European approach of buying for a few days versus the whole week. 

Sklavenidis. The local grocery store.

I’ve learned there’s no good lane at Skalvenidis. So on this day I went for familiarity. I’ve had this woman before and I appreciate that she takes her time and converses with her customers. One day I was there as shifts swapped and lines stretched into the aisles. She took her time putting her blue apron and wrist guard on. Like a bowler putting their glove on, she was serious about scanning. Respect. I have it for anyone who takes their job seriously. 

As I loaded the belt we talked more than the usual “Hi” or “Good Afternoon.” We had a proper chat. I started in Greek but eventually had to use “Signomi, den milao kala Ellinika,” or “I’m sorry I don’t speak Greek well.”  She told me I was doing good and that I speak very clearly. I told her I am learning. 

I introduced myself, “Me lene Efthemia” and she said you know what your name means right? I said yes, to be very happy, and then asked “Pos se lene?” (What's your name?) excited to put a name to her face. Her response went by me like a speeding car. I couldn’t catch a single syllable. Some Greek words are like that - so outside the known - that they fly by me with nothing recognizable to grasp. She could see it in my eyes and graciously informed me that her name means to be a great singer and that she sings. I told her how beautiful that is. Then I asked if I could practice my Greek with her and she said “veveos” (of course). 

I walked out of there on the same cloud from Alkmaar all those months ago - floating on the connection created from the little Greek I speak.  She was the first person to be kind and encouraging about my effort.

Buoyed by my experience with the songbird of Sklavenidis I decided to start my re-watch of Maestro that night. So much of learning a language is listening to others speak it and since my skills can only take me so far in conversation this felt like the next best thing. 

Maestro is the first Greek television series to be acquired and streamed globally by Netflix. It premiered in Greece on their Mega channel. When it was acquired by Netflix they changed the name to Maestro in Blue to avoid confusion with the Bradley Cooper movie of the moment, also called Maestro.  

Maestro tells the story of Orestis, a music teacher who comes to the island of Paxos to revive their music festival. He quickly becomes enmeshed with the local community and finds out there’s a lot more to this small island than a love of music. I was hooked from the first episode. It’s a masterclass in all the things: writing, cinematography, acting, name it. But what really got me was the care so evident in its creation. This was something constructed with love and it shows in every frame and every line of dialogue. 

When I watched it for the first time in 2023 I kept a notebook beside me. I took notes on the construction of each episode, like who voiced over the intro and outro of each episode, along with my thoughts about who killed Charalambos. I also tracked Greek words. Anytime I heard one familiar to my ear I wrote it down: words I knew (like yassou and efcharisto) and words I simply remember hearing often growing up (like oriste and alithea). Looking back I see now that this show stoked the fire of my desire to learn Greek long before that day in Alkmaar. And by keeping that list of worlds I guess I wanted to be reminded that I wasn’t starting from absolute scratch. 

I wanted to live in their world on Naxos alongside the Milonas family. I also wanted to pick the brain of writer/creator/director/star Christopher Papakaliatis. After finishing the first season I had the same feeling that an indelible book gives me (like Middlesex or The Island of Missing Trees) the sheer wonder that someone brought something from their mind into reality in such a vivid and compelling way. I was in awe. 

I hadn’t connected with a show this viscerally since The Bear. Both shows seamlessly use music as a main character, which as a big-time music fan only adds to my enjoyment. But what really gets me is that both are about family and the idea of home. One set in my hometown and the other in my homeland. There’s my staggering sentimentality yet again. 

My first watch of Maestro made me want to connect with my roots. Now it is a tool to do just that as I rewatch in Athens. I get a thrill every time I recognize a word before I read the subtitles. Like at the start of “A Rough Guy…is Sinking” (S1 E7) when I heard a recent vocab word, “varis” and knew it meant heavy before I saw the text. After that I removed the check mark next to it in my notebook because it had been committed to memory.

I’m a visual learner so the subtitles are a huge help when it comes to subtleties I might miss in actual conversation as a beginner. How words are used more casually, like “Ya” instead of “Yiasas” which I assume is the hi to hello. Or learning there’s more than one way to say “of course.” I am familiar with “veveos” but the show taught me “fysika.” I still prefer veveos because I find it so fun to say, but now I know an alt. These might sound like small or insignificant wins but when you’re learning something new I think everything is significant. Each piece of information is part of a larger puzzle coming together. I love to learn and I forgot how much fun it can be.

I treat my nightly episode of Maestro like a daily practicum from my college days. It’s been decades since I’ve been in a classroom or actively learned something new and it’s exciting! It’s a privilege to have this time to focus on learning instead of working. A privilege I am grateful for every day, particularly at my new favorite time of day, second coffee. I love to sit at a cafe in the early evening, when it’s cooler out, and review my notebook of words and phrases. 

I might get stuck on a word for a few days and then one morning I will wake up with it in my head as if it always lived there like recently with “aftokinito” (car).  It’s that moment when something sticks that I can’t get enough of because it reminds me that it’s working, to keep going! It’s awesome to see my brain in action reaping the rewards of repetition. 

I don’t take my brain power lightly. Cerebral palsy is a neuromuscular disorder which means it impacts your brain and your body. CP is brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain at birth. Not a day goes by that I don’t recognize how fortunate I am that my thinking mind, my speaking mind, wasn’t impacted by my early birth. My body needs accommodations but my mind is free to run. 

Each time I commit a word to memory or use a new phrase in conversation I do it with pride. My mind is an absolute gift. Getting to use it in this way is a present I get to unwrap daily. Memorization has always been my strong suit because it’s about repetition. Repetition is routine. I’ve been stretching every night since I was six, so creating and keeping routines is my thing. Now if I could just make up for my absolute lack of grammar knowledge I’d really be cooking with gas over here. 

I can’t make up for the grammatical failings of my public school system overnight, but I can step up my conversational game. Once I extended my stay I immediately joined a twice a week Greek speaking group. I want to maximize my speaking potential with more time ahead in Athens.

I noticed a difference immediately. One afternoon I had my manicurist tell me that I sounded Greek. That same evening my server told me that I fooled her. She thought I was Greek, not Greek American. I’ve come a long way from week one when I felt like an American with a Greek name (What’s My Name). Ethemia is on her way!

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