Thats just it Asteria...

There are too many back home!!

I guess it's always good to know people who have been/are going through the same transition as you when taking a big step such as moving to another country and through that you just become friends.

I have mainly Greek friends here and work with them all day but it's still strange how my ears perk up when I hear an English voice in the shop or we do some work at an English persons house/business.

This may change when my Greek becomes fluent.... one day 

David
... Dee's David!

he/she who doesnt speak Greek and is living in Greece will always be a xenos. i sound rasist etc but think it the brits way.
how many from india and pakistan have been in UK from decates and spoke no english?
same thing with brits in crete speaking no greek.

I have to say that pretty much all the ex-pats that I come across in the shop or out and about make a very good attempt at qt least trying to communicate in Greek. Then there are others who speak perfect Greek and leave me in envy!
I have not met any that are like your typical young 'brit tourist' where all you hear is "oi! give me a beer!"

I have every intention of learning Greek fluently as does Dee, my partner. This is my second 'stint' here in Crete. The first one being for almost 9 years yet... I can still only 'get by' in Greek!
I just seem to have a mental block when it comes to languages.

Saying that, I guess I actually know more Greek than I tend to admit, even to myself and it's just a case of being shy.

David

I agree, i have loads of greek friends in athens and on kefalonia and they always help me when i ....go that shy way because your not sure of the pronunciation and you sit in their company and play head tennis because you cant keep up, i am still at that stage wher its polite to try but i probably know more than i let on  , but im just a poor boy from govan. oh and i live in yarkshire(notice the correct spelling)but i even say some of their strange things...duz tha no!

On the subject of learning Greek, it presents a particular problem for many of the Brits here. The principle one is because meny of us are retired and into old age and we just cannot memorise new information like we could when we were much younger.

Additionally quite a few of the older residents, including myself, suffer from deafness - predominantly high frequency loss - so that we cannot differentiate between the various sibillants, particularly at the beginning of a word. For instance, we cannot tell whether the word begins with, say, an "s" or a "t" or an "f". For me, this is a huge problem in English (despite wearing two hi-tech hearing aids) and this is when trying to deal with words that are familiar to me. When it comes to Greek words which I may, or may not, know, the problem results in immense frustration. 

I've done the EU-funded Course 1 twice and have been having private Greek lessons once a week for the best part of two years and I'm still unable to enjoy conversational Greek and I am only too aware of my shortcomings in this respect.

From my experience I would say that most of the older foreign residents that are fluent have been over here for many years and are in many cases married to Greek nationals. Just ask yourself why pre-school children learn Greek very quickly. They are at an age when they are assimilating information as fast as it can be fed to them, their hearing is good and so is their short-term memory.

I'll keep plodding on, but I'm not too hopeful. Surrounded by friendly Greek neighbours, I'd be happy to learn (and be able for always recall - that's the important bit!) just one new word a day, but it's a struggle!  

Yeah, living abroad and trying to learn the language.  I'm 73, and my memory isn't what it was.

When I lived in Thailand, I learnt suficient Thai to teach in Thai at University level, and broadcast a weekly programme on the local radio in Thai.  I was also able to pick up Mandarin, Hakka and Taechiu sufficiently to get by in these Chinese languages. I could even read the Chinese newspapers to a limited extent, and the Thai newspapers fairly fluently.

I can't understand why it's taken me nine months to acquire such a minimal amount of Greek!  Anyway, I probably speak Greek as well as a nine-month old Greek!

Seventy-three isn't "old", Maurice, I started a new career at 68 - admittedly part-time.