By Eleni Elefterias
Where can Greek lead you? If you are expecting me to list a number of occupations or business opportunities that is not what I want to do.
I have no interest in business, making money and leaving a fortune behind after having slaved all my life like many Greek people have done.
Good on them, great to see their children and grandchildren enjoying all the benefits of their labours and all the great research books written about them.
However, I am more interested in the lay person who took the time to teach their children the language. Whether they made money or not or succeeded in business or not I do not particularly care. Making money should not be the be all of our existence. In a way it has replaced our religion for many people.
Apologies, but I find the whole “migrants making it big in Australia” a bit boring. What excites me is seeing children of mixed marriages learning the language and getting involved in the Greek cultural experience. It is fascinating why some families continue this experience for their children and others not.
At the moment, I am teaching a number of non-Greek adults Greek. Some of them have partners of Greek background. That these non-Greeks become phil-hellenes and want to learn this language and even teach their children Greek, a language that they did not grow up with and have no ties to is fascinating.
I know it happens with other languages as well. All language learning is fascinating.
Our problem, as ethnic Greeks is we do not love our own language enough.
So I leave you with some words to ponder by a phil-hellene:
“If the violin is the most perfect musical instrument, the Greek language is the violin of the human thought.” Helen Keller, author, political activist, and lecturer.
This is where Greek can lead. It can lead you to find your soul.
