Building your Greek vocabulary with a Greek song, while listening to Greek music, is fun.
Below you can read the lyrics and listen to a very nice and popular Greek song by Rena Morfi.
Posts
Manos Eleftheriou (1938-2018), is a famous Greek writer of poems, as well as short stories and songs. Since he was born and raised on the island of Syros, the Omilo students often hear his name while attending a course on the island. Manos Eleftheriou loved Syros and edited books about his island, specifically about Markos Vamvakaris and Syros society, about theater in Ermoupolis in the 20th century, and about Ermoupolis in Greek literature.
Some facts about his life:
Read more
Do you also love Greek music? Then let us introduce you to one more Greek singer, Kostis Maraveyas.
Maraveyas – also known by his stage name Maraveyas illegal – is a Greek singer-songwriter, composer, performer, director and writer.
A true one-man band, he plays the accordion, piano and guitar. His songs are written mainly in Greek with the occasional lyric in English, Spanish or Italian thrown in (as we will see below). Despite the upbeat melodies, his songs often hide dark humour and social critique or tell the story of a troubled relationship.
Yiannis Ritsos is one of the most famous and internationally acknowledged Greek poets, with many of his works having been translated and published in many languages.
He worked tirelessly and his output was enormous; he has published more than one hundred poems and poetry collections as well as some novels, plays, articles, and translations.
Today, Ritsos is considered one of the great Greek poets of the twentieth century, alongside Constantine P. Cavafy, Kostas Kariotakis, Angelos Sikelianos, Giorgos Seferis, and Odysseas Elytis. Let’s have a closer look into his life and work.
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!
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 🙂 .
Do you remember the days you were learning the Greek alphabet? Do you remember how many Greek letters come before the omikron, and what is the difference between omikron and omega?
In 2021 we already heard of the “alpha” (referring to the “British” variant), the “beta” ( “South African” variant), the “gamma”( the Brazilian variant), and the “delta” (the “Indian” variant).
But how did we get to “omikron”, and why 10 letters of the alphabet are left out?
Staying at home is still very important given the COVID-19 circumstances but it doesn’t have to feel dull. This is why we would like to introduce you to a funny and upbeat Greek song about – what else? – staying at home and relaxing!
#menoumespiti – #westayathome
Greeks, whenever they were facing difficulties, which is still something happening very often, have found a way to overcome and even to celebrate! The following Rebetiko song by known composer Tsitsanis is an example of how Greeks deal with difficulties! This philosophy is very helpful to face life difficulties, with more optimism!
Read more
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.”
A Greek Movie About Eftihia Papagianopoulou – The Greek Female Lyricist , was very welcome.
Eftihia Papagianopoulou was potentially the most important female lyricist of the Greek music scene. She penned countless “laika and rembetika”(*) songs, many of which became Greek song hits and are sung and danced to even nowadays.
Papagiannopoulou was born in Aydin near Smyrna (now Izmir) in Asia Minor in 1893, which she had to abandon due to the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22) and the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. She emigrated to Greece and arrived by boat to Athens with her two daughters.
Initially, she was married to Kostis Nikolaidis; it was an arranged marriage with a man 20 years her senior. Papagiannopoulou divorced him shortly after arriving in Greece. She got married again in 1932 to Yorgos Pappagiannopoulos, who was the only man she really loved in her life. Read more
Although keeping hands of non-family members is not that simple in corona-times, there are always ways to…..dance!
We are looking forward to welcoming our students soon in Greece again and teaching them some Greek traditional dance steps! It is one of those afternoon activities most students love; either to really dance and learn new steps, or to just watch fellow students while listening to the music, and enjoying a glass of wine!
Below you can learn more about a traditional dance from Thrace (north-eastern Greece), called “Zonaradikos”. Read more
Useful Links
About Omilo
Search
Latest Blog Entries
Experiencing Orthodox and Catholic Easter in the same year15/03/2023 - 11:34 am
Easy Greek Stories Podcast #21 – Intermediate Language Level12/03/2023 - 9:23 pm
Alkinoos Ioannidis: A Popular Greek Cypriot Composer and Singer02/03/2023 - 5:36 pm
Discover A Classic Greek Novel: The Great Chimera28/02/2023 - 11:25 am
Get in Touch
Contact
info@omilo.com
t: [+30] 210 61 22 896