So I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the moment to arrive when I make a BIG mistake in Greek. THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME!
Last night after class I bumped into a friend who I’ve met at a youth group activity that I attend on Sunday evenings. He’s a nice guy but he speaks Greek VERY VERY quickly and it’s hard to keep up. Either way, I was trying the best that I could to adapt, so I was speeding my own Greek up a bit as well.
I noticed that he had cut his hair, so I decided to comment about this. I said the following: “Νομίζω ότι έκοψες τα μυαλά σου!” He looked at me with a curious stare and I suddenly realized what I said...
How would YOU like, in other words, if someone came up to you and pointed out that “I think you cut your brains!” hahahaha.
Yes.
τα μυαλά in Greek means brains.
τα μαλλιά means hair.
Anyway, there it is.
RANDOM SIDE NOTE: I’ve been thinking a bit about the place of language and such in our call to love one another. Anyone have any thoughts (maybe those of you who have studied abroad) about this endeavor and that of cross-cultural communication in the journey of learning how to love?
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2 comments:
It looks like you've escaped that seemingly inevitable situation relatively unscathed.
Congratulations! ;)
Speaking of τα μαλλιά...
As you know, during our stay in Thessaloniki I was helping Greek girls learn English...τα μαλλιά usually ended up as "Mrs Juliana, I am going to get my hairs cut today" or "Mrs Juliana, how nice that you got your hairs cut"...
They looked a bit puzzled that not only did I smile, but I'd kind of laugh too. Oops. :-)Then I'd try to explain...
***
Mother Gavrilia has some thoughts about loving that would seemingly be enhanced by a cross-cultural environment. (When we are with people of our own culture and language perhaps we hold back in loving, because we are "sizing them up" intellectually, "assessing" them, and thus reserving our love.) Mother Gavrilia says "This is why I believe that instead of speaking, you should start by loving that person...from the moment you start loving, the Will of God will guide you and show you how to speak." So, perhaps when we are in an environment where we are unable to be quick to speak nor quick to understand...we can learn better to be quick to love?
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