The best compliment you can get, as a Greek-American, is when a local yiayia asks you which island or village you are from. It’s only happened to me a few times, but I burned with pride (forgive me) each time I was asked.
Greeks are very perceptive people, so when they default to assuming you are “one of them,” either by your ability to speak the language convincingly or based on your mannerisms/Greek appearance, you can be sure it’s a solid indicator you’re on the right track if your goal is to blend into the nation of your ancestors.
Although I’m a long way from passing for a local Greek the majority of the time, I’m a lot closer to the finish line than I was just a few years ago. I attribute this to a myriad of intricate and effort-based measures I took with the express purpose of shedding my overtly American appearance for my generational Hellenic roots.
For most, the conversation begins and ends with knowing enough of the language to get by and building on your progress whenever possible. Greek is the oldest living Indo-European language, and it’s in the top 10 most difficult to learn when using English as your basis, but once you drill the phonetics and grammar rules for several months (or better yet, immerse yourself in it by working seasonally in Greece while you’re still in high school or college) it gets easier and easier with time.
What you wear also matters a lot. If you just cleaned out the summer collection at Zara before heading to Greece, let me be the first to tell you that while you may look extremely fashionable, you might as well be wearing a light-up billboard with a massive hamburger and french fries on it. True Greeks wear basketball jerseys, faded jeans, and everything in their closet has likely been there for 10 years or more. The older generations wear worn khakis, button-up shirts and conservative dresses.
Let me emphasize the fact that I’m not advocating for well-off Americans to wear Greek tendencies like a cheap costume; rather, I aim to provide a guide for Hellenes who are further away from their roots than they’d like to be to reintegrate themselves with modern Greek customs. I also aim to bring a few of our over-confident members of the Diaspora down to earth.
While we’re at it, let’s talk about Greek mannerisms. If I were to list all of the slang terms and hand gestures I’ve picked up, this article would overstay its welcome by about 3,000 words. But to give you a quick idea of what I’ve learned by spending months on end here, let me say that “Μαλάκες” is an extremely common term, the people here are very blunt and nothing can (or should) change that, and you shouldn’t take resting Greek face personally. It’s just the way we were made.
Regarding cherished customs, it certainly helps if you know a few Greek dances for those village festivals that are held every week during panagiri season, but don’t stress about mastering them or anything. I was pretty surprised last year when I went to a panagiri and all of the local Greeks knew the steps much less well than my Greek-American parea. It makes sense, though; in America, we drill each dance for cultural preservation and FDF competitions. In Greece, panagiris are actually where all the locals learn each dance.
Ultimately, my biggest piece of advice has always been to take a leap of faith while you are young (around college age, let’s say) and spend the entire summer working in Greece. So many service industry businesses relish the opportunity to employ Greek-Americans thanks to our ease with speaking to tourists, and there’s no experience like lived experience.
If you’d like to explore the opportunity to work in Greece for a summer, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via any of our social media platforms. We have plenty of business connections in Milos — surely one of Greece’s most beautiful islands — and having experienced two summers working and living there myself, I wouldn’t be half the Greek I am today without those precious months spent, at long last, in our ancestral home.