8. Greek

Mr. Day was a teacher at a school in a big city in the north of England. He usually went to France or Germany for a few weeks during his summer holidays, and he spoke French and German quite well.

But one year Mr. Day said to one of his colleagues, "I'm going to have a holiday in Athens1. But I don't speak Greek, so I'll go to evening classes and have Greek lessons for a month before I go." He studied very hard for a month, and then his holidays began and he went to Greece.

When he came back a few weeks later, his colleague said to him, "Did you have any trouble with your Greek when you were in Athens, Dick?"

No, I didn't have any trouble with it. answered Mr. Day. "But the Greeks did!"

Notes:

1. Greek 希腊人，希腊语

2. Athens 雅典

希腊语

戴先生是英格兰北部一个大城市里的中学教师。暑假期间他通常到法国或德国去度几周的假，他的法语和德语都讲得相当好。

然而有一年，戴先生对他的一位同事说：“我准备上雅典去度假。可是我不会讲希腊语，所以去雅典前我将先去夜校进修一个月的希腊语课程。”他很用功地学了一个月后，他的假期也接着开始了，于是他就去了希腊。

几周后，他回来了。他的同事问他说：“迪克，你在雅典时，使用希腊语有没有遇到困难？”

戴先生回答说：“没有，我的希腊语用来得心应手，倒是那些希腊人遇到了麻烦。”

Useful link:

希腊语，广泛用于希腊、阿尔巴尼亚、塞浦路斯等国以及土耳其包括小亚细亚一带的某些地区。它是西方文明第一种伟大的语言，被许多人视为所有语言中最有效、最值得敬佩的交际工具。由于结构清楚、概念透彻清晰，加上有多种表达方式，它既适合严谨的思想家的需要，又满足有才华的诗人的要求。