19/06/2026
What happens when two linguists go to Greece?
Apparently, we spend dinner interrogating the waitress about vocabulary.
My friend and I met over 10 years ago as military linguists, so learning languages has become less of a skill and more of a habit. As we picked up a few Greek words, I noticed something interesting: Greek felt like a middle ground between Spanish and Hebrew, two languages I speak proficiently. Some words sounded familiar, and even some of the letters felt oddly recognizable, despite Hebrew being written right to left.
It reminded me that languages, like climates, don’t develop in isolation. Geography shapes culture, trade connects people, and over centuries those influences leave fingerprints on the language itself. Sometimes you can hear that history. Sometimes you can see it.
The people we’ve met in Greece have been incredibly welcoming, and every attempt at Greek has been met with encouragement, laughter, and another word to learn.
