Two Greek verbs that many Beginners and even Intermediate students find quite confusing are ‘παίρνω’ and ‘περνάω or περνώ’. Apart from the slightly different spelling, the main obvious cause of this confusion is the accentuation; it’s just a twist of the accent that makes these two words sound differently.
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Do you also like Greek music?  Who is your favorite singer?
We here present you… Eleftheria Arvanitaki! A renowned Greek singer with a career that spans four decades and is a strong favorite among Omilo students. Let’s learn more about her life and work!

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What a period it was! Here can read some of our Corona Updates from Greece, written between 202o and 2022 and listen to a Greek Song About… Staying At Home!

In the meantime, 2022 started with some sunny days here in Greece, as well as some snow as well…
Our daily walks in the Athens streets and parks continued, just like in 2020 and 2021. However, since now there is no corona curfew anymore and we are allowed to go further than our municipality, we can also go for daily trips towards the snowy mountains again…something which was not possible last winter.

In the meantime, the world news seems once again taken over by ‚corona‘,  or „omikron“. The positive news; we are honored Greek letters are used for a pandemic :-), and the entire world gets the chance to learn the Greek alphabet. We realized many non-Greeks have no clue that the viruses are named after letters of the Greek alphabet, but fortunately, our dear students are very well aware 🙂 .
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Proverbs are popular sayings that provide nuggets of wisdom. Every culture and language has a collection of those. They illustrate how people within this culture think and are often influenced by its history.

The Greek word for ‚proverbs‘ is ‚οι παροιμίες‘.

Οι παροιμίες είναι σύντομες εκφράσεις που περιέχουν συμπυκνωμένη τη λαϊκή σοφία ενός λαού. Κάθε κουλτούρα και γλώσσα έχει μερικές. Οι παροιμίες μας δείχνουν πώς σκέφτεται ένας λαός, ενώ συχνά σχετίζονται και με την ιστορία του.

 

Proverbs are short, commonly used expressions that convey truths about life.  With a few words, they can teach, advise, guide us and make us think. Proverbs carry vivid images and great imagination. They are passed verbally from one generation to another. There are proverbs that have similar meanings across different languages but are expressed using different words. 

Οι παροιμίες είναι σύντομες στερεοτυπικές φράσεις που εκφράζουν μια αλήθεια για τη ζωή. Με λίγες λέξεις μπορούν να μας διδάξουν, να μας συμβουλεύσουν, να μας καθοδηγήσουν, να μας κάνουν να σκεφτούμε. Στις παροιμίες μπορούμε να βρούμε ζωηρές εικόνες και μεγάλη φαντασία. Περνούν προφορικά από γενιά σε γενιά,  αλλά υπάρχουν παροιμίες με παρόμοια σημασία σε πολλές γλώσσες με διαφορετικά λόγια.

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Greek Rembetika music is closely connected to the name of Markos Vamvakaris, whose great significance for this genre is also reflected in his nickname: “the patriarch of the rebetiko.”

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Learn how to say “See you” and “We will see” in Greek, and you can say it several times per day, when visiting Greece. When you visit Greece or you are spending time with Greeks, there are some daily expressions you hear all the time. It is useful to learn them by heart.

Since the expressions sound a bit similar, foreigners many times get confused and end up saying those expressions at the wrong time.

So, imagine you meet up with your lovely Greek friend(s), you all have a great time, you kiss them goodbye and you are about to say ‘See you in Greek. So by trying to translate “See you”, many non-Greeks say ‘Θα δούμε!’ … and you instantly ruin the image of the excellent Greek language learner! Do not worry; most Greeks will understand what you actually wanted to say!

However, it is also really easy to learn to say the expressions correctly.
More inf below – Enjoy your lesson! Καλό μάθημα!
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Greek Singer Yannis Charoulis is a known Greek singer, songwriter, and musician whose music brings together elements from entekhno (orchestral music with elements from folk songs and lyrics often based on the work of famous Greek poets), rock, and traditional Cretan music.
Continue reading to learn more about his career and Greek music, and listen to one of his songs. It is accompanied by a transcript of the lyrics as well the English translation for easier comprehension.

His story 

Yannis Charoulis was born and raised in Crete. His first encounter with music was at the tender age of 6, when his father taught him to play the mandolin. A bit later he got his first laouto (gr. λαούτο), which is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family, most commonly encountered in Greece and Cyprus and bearing similarities to the oud. Starting at 15, he was playing professionally at local fests and celebrations and studying traditional Cretan music more closely.

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If you are not able to travel to Greece at the moment but would like to get that feeling again, then why not reading some travel diaries?
And even better…If you are at the advanced level in Greek, then you can also improve your Greek reading and listening skills at the same time.

Below more information about the eBook,
Travel Diaries About Greece, by 19th-century British Writers – Athens, Sparta & Mani.

Adapted and translated by Eleni Maria Georgiou.
Accompanied by the Greek Audio-Book, narrated by Eva Christodoulou (omilo teacher)

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It is never cold in Greece!
Is it a myth or the truth? What do you believe?
Μύθος ή όχι; Κάνει κρύο στην Ελλάδα ή όχι;

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The „Easy Greek Stories“ podcast – Episode 1

If you are at an intermediate level in Greek, then boost your Greek listening skills with the Omilo Podcast.  It also helps you learn common everyday Greek vocabulary and life situations in Greece. In this podcast you can listen to every story first at a slow reading pace, followed by the same story read at a normal Greek native speaking pace, as well as an extra vocabulary list at the end.
If you are already at a more advanced level, then also take a look at the Ultimate Greek Listening eBook

(Note: this podcast is not a Greek course and the episodes don’t follow a step-by-step grammar or difficulty sequence.)

Listen to story #1, on various Podcast channels listed below.
Το σπίτι στην παραλία

In this episode, Eva reads a story about Eleni and her summer house on the island of Naxos.

story script +  Notebook content & design ; Maya Andreadi
Podcast and Video montage + Notebook proofreading and grammar; Myrto Yfanti
narrators; Eva Christodoulou Weiterlesen