Where did you grow up? in Greek

How the whole thing sounds

The situation: a talk about childhood and native places. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.

• ▶
  Πού μεγάλωσες; Στην πόλη ή στο χωριό;

  pu megáloses? stin póli i sto khorió?

  Where did you grow up? In the city or in a village?
• ▶
  Σε ένα μικρό χωριό. Η γενέτειρά μου έχει τριακόσιους κατοίκους.

  se éna mikró khorió. i yenétirá mu ékhi triakósius katíkus

  In a small village. My home village has three hundred residents.
• ▶
  Και θυμάσαι εκείνη την εποχή;

  ke thimáse ekíni tin epokhí?

  And do you remember those times?
• ▶
  Πολύ καλά. Όταν ήμουν μικρός, παίζαμε στο μονοπάτι ως το σκοτάδι.

  polí kalá. ótan ímun mikrós, pézame sto monopáti os to skotádi

  Very well. As a child we played on the path until dark.
• ▶
  Πηγαίνεις ακόμα εκεί;

  piyénis akóma ekí?

  Do you still go there?
• ▶
  Μία φορά τον χρόνο. Όλα άλλαξαν, αλλά η θέα είναι η ίδια.

  mía forá ton khróno. óla álaksan, alá i théa íne i ídia

  Once a year. Everything has changed, but the view is the same.
• ▶
  Δείξε μου καμιά παλιά φωτογραφία κάποτε.

  díkse mu kamiá paliá fotografía kápote

  Show me an old photograph one of these days.

Lines one by one

How to prepare for a conversation like this

Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.

And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.

• Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many times
  Teimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
• That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many times
  Xiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.

Next

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