"Words, Words, Words!"

There are many things in this world that I have no natural aptitude for, and I have no problem admitting this. Calculus, skateboarding, and playing the guitar, for example. My brain, however, seems to be well tuned for learning languages.

But this shit is hard!

I'm learning a lot and practicing and trying new things, and I am definitely making some progress, but this is just a slower process than some other experiences I've had with language learning. One thing that is nice, though, is that there are many more similarities to Italian than I would have originally guessed, and this makes it a little easier to at least wrap my head around. Conversely, it can also get a little confusing. For example, the words "poso" and "cani" exist in both Italian and Greek. In Greek, "poso cani" means "How much does it cost?" (*Note: we're talking in phonetics and aural interpretation here), but in Italian you'd be saying, "I can dogs?" "Poso" meaing "I am able to" and "cani" being the plural of "dog." Perhaps if there were a Lolcats in Italian, the kitty would be saying, "Poso cani?" Needless to say, this has taken some adjustment time. Like I said earlier, though, it is also helpful. For example, the word for strawberry in Italian is "fragola." Now, pretend you are putting an actual strawberry in your mouth and say, "fragola." Now you're speaking Greek.

The other day, Whitney and I walked into a coffee shop for a quick caffeine boost, and I said, "Oh weird, things are in English." Whitney looked at me like I was a raving lunatic and said, "No, Mandee. Nothing here is in English." The menu was in Italian. The fact that I could look at it, read it, and instantly understand everything instead of meticulously sounding things out only to still be lost made me think I was reading English! That'll make your head spin.

I'm certainly not AMAZING at Greek yet by any stretch of the imagination, but some of the other teachers today were very encouraging as I was trying to read things and learn new words. I'm sure I'm being a little hard on myself and that my "language aptitude" is fine, all things considered, but I decided it was time for some big goals.

James, who took a semester of Greek in college, gave me a mini-lesson over coffee today where I got a run-down on a lot of the things I had been straining to know. Again, nowhere near mastery, but at least the information is rolling around in there somewhere. I guess this got me jazzed for these big goals I wanted to set, and I stopped by a book store on my way home and bought a children's book entitled Patates, Patates. Yup, you guessed it-- Potatoes, Potatoes. The cover shows a humble family of potato farmers happily harvesting their crop in front of their house. The goal: Be able to read Patates, Patates cover to cover. Ideally, I would love to be able to do this by Christmas, but let's be real... if I can read this by July, even I will be impressed with myself. So, my goal is to have enough command of the language to read a children's book in a practical amount of time. If I don't meet my goal? Oh, I'll meet it. Even if it's not even by my extended July deadline. Eventually, I am going to read Patates, Patates.

Considering the through-line of this adventure, it seems fitting that the first non-utility-based Greek sentence I learned is: "Life is wonderful." Isn't it, though?