oh god my mom just told me we're going to athens after my birthday and I don't speak any greek but she says that between italian and greek we can kinda understand each other, is that true??? i'm pretty fluent in english but if it's like italy i don't know how useful that is going to be and i don't want to be that tourist that goes to a different country without learning anything! do you have any tips and phrases that i should know?? i have two months oh god my anxiety is gonna desrtoy me
Heya anon! Ahh travelling on your bday is the best, I’m so happy for you! ^ ^
It’s true that Greeks might be able to understand some Italian occasionally, but I’d recommend you stick to English! We do have a lot of words that sound similar in both languages/share similar roots, and we even use certain Italian phrases in our everyday lives! But it’s still a foreign language so to avoid any misunderstandings and/or to make it easier for you to communicate with others, I’d say it’d be best if you used English when speaking to Greeks. Unless you’re certain that an Italian word is used/sounds similar in Greek as well, then yeaaa you should probably opt for English!
Most Greeks you’ll meet will probably be able to understand you and help you if you speak to them in English, but if you happen upon one who doesn’t, don’t despair! Ask someone else! Not everyone’s fluent but most people will be kind enough to help you as much as they can!
As for useful phrases and words, here are some links for ya! They’re mostly standard phrases for tourists and stuff, but I think they’ll be good enough!
Hope that helps! Let me know if you need anything else