Chronic Monolingualism

This animated wonder being called "The Fall of Troy and The Adventures of Odysseus"

forgive me the movie being published is in Greek but it was originally a Lithuanian production which was released as a four part mini-series but then re-arranged to a full on one and a half hour movie.

It is extremely compound and no it doesn't follow the Odyssey order but rather goes in chronological order. But still it managed to give us almost everything the Odyssey stood for! For example it starts with the amazing shot of the text of Homer and also Homer himself appears to tell the story!

And colors! Man I love these colors! You have amazing depictions of Ithaca

and Troy

The Ithaca family!

Menelaus and Helen!!!!!!

Vailed women!!!!

And the ships man!!!!!!

And yes it took many liberties in some parts for instance he made Athena always present at the trip of Odysseus which is of course inaccurate and for instance kept the bed recognition scene after the recognition with Laertes and the riots at Ithaca but man did it include almost everything minus the Telemacheia!

Ismarus

Lotus Eaters

Polyphemus

Aeolus Isle

Laestrygonians

Circe

Nekya

Sirens

Scylla and Charybdis

Cattle of Helios Hyperion

Calypso (and her nymphs!)

No I seriously love how they made Calypso's cave to be honest!

Leucothea

And finally the Phaeakes

So yeah obviously it was kept generally kid friendly so we do not have the bedding or rape implications and all and the cattle scene could be done better and all but it actually shows how some liberties or changes can pass without making something atrocious! No seriously I love this movie and it is one of my favorite adaptations ever!

Of course I miss the mycenaean aesthetic and all but still it was done so well! Also the idea of making Odysseus change his appearance to beggar with a dionysian mask was such a great detail!

I got some of them already using my Hiragana & Katakana syllabary charts and messing around with the Japanese keyboard on my phone. But the more complex characters I have no idea how to find.

It's been a fun project but I've probably done all I do 😔

In order from left to right top down:

ごはん rice (for the white and black stickers in the first row)

ランチ lunch

飲み会　の・かい　Nomikai, a tradition of going out to drink with coworkers after work, or to celebrate with friends

家飲み　いえの drinking at home 

こどくビール, I think that second kana is ど, if so this is a sort of pun on a single glass of beer but it literally translates as "Loneliness Beer," so drinking alone

買い物　か・もの shopping

デート date

カフェ Cafe

美容院　ひよういん　Beauty Parlor

祝　シュク kanji meaning celebration

誕生日　たんじょうび birthday 

おでかけ outing, trip

カラオケ Karaoke

映画　えいが movie 

歯医者　はいしゃ dentist

旅行　りょこう trip

温泉　おんせん hot springs, the kana ああ being the sound of relaxation

観戦　かんせん watching a sports event

ヨガ Yoga

習い事　なら・ごと lesson, practice 

体調不良　たいちょうふりょう poor physical health, bad shape

病院　びょういん hospital

運動　うんどう　exercise 

キャンプ Camp

出社日　しゅっしゃび work day

リモート remote (work)

給料日　きゅうりょうび payday

宅配　たくはい home delivery 

出前　でまえ home delivery (of food specifically)

お届け物　とど・もの delivery (item)

動画　どうが video, movie (older word which nowadays I see more ビデオ used for)

ゴロゴロ onomatopoeia for lazing around the house, doing nothing 

読書　どくしょ reading

お掃除　そうじ cleaning

今日は暇　きょう・ひま I'm free today

how is everyone doing in langblr?

who is still active? I'd like to try and get involved a bit more again now that my time studying in taiwan is coming to an end and I need motivation and community outside the classroom once more!!

sound off, who is still here?

also especially if you post content about indonesian and celtic languages, particularly scottish gaelic, as these are what I am interested in right now!!

please reblog for reach :D

I hid the "this" version of the word. But I think I'm actually just going to skip the "Useful Words" lesson because they aren't useful without context. Whereas learning apartment words from Drops was useful. I think I'll switch over to food or kitchen words.

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Drops sometimes does only teach one translation of a word when it could be more than one like Συγγνώμη I initially learned as "excuse me" but Drops is teaching it as "sorry." Another example is γεια σαδ I always learned it as a slightly more formal version of γεια σαυ but Drops teaches it as "Cheers!" with 🥂 emoji. I asked my mom and she said that she did technically hear it as cheers at events as a child, but "Όπα!" was more common.

💯

There's this woman who sometimes pops up on my TikTok FYP who recently (in 2020) discovered that her birth parents are Greek. She was raised by Americans, always lived in America, and doesn't speak a lick of Greek nor has any concrete connection to the culture.

She was able to contact her birth family and met with one of her aunts twice, but is now saying that she doesn't like them anymore, that they will never accept her as being as Greek as them, and that one of the main reasons why is because she was born out of wedlock. She has now made multiple tiktoks denouncing how overtly-religious all Greeks are and how being born a bastard means no one in your family will ever accept you. The comments were all, "Yes, I'm Greek-American and they don't like me either."

I'm not Greek but I'm one of your "cousins," and that sounds... suspicious, to me? Yes, there are pockets of people who are very religious and would not like to know that one of theirs had a kid out of marriage, but all? ALL?? An entire country?? That just sounds crazy.

I just think they didn't accept her because she's very American and also because she's been airing private business online, but I'm asking you too because I'm kinda interested in know how the whole "children born out of wedlock" thing is treated.

Over here, it's not an issue anymore. Plenty of people first have kids and then get married, or maybe they don't get married at all, or maybe they get married years down the line. I can't really imagine it being particularly different over there, but idk, maybe I'm wrong.

ΓΕΙΑ ΣΟΥ ΞΑ / ΗELLO CUZ'

It feels sus to me too, tbh. My thought process is: She's a US-American (many US-Americans tend to be very isolated from the rest of the world) who airs private business online and speaks about Greece as if we are a religious hellhole. That tells me she's a person seeing the extreme, and not bothering to understand the difference between cultures.

It's very likely she came off "too strong" to her bio-family, and when they didn't give the same energy back due to cultural behavior differences, she interpreted this as hostility. Look, you and I know very well that the Balkans are an emotionally explosive place and that we are no angels. Sure, there is the possibility that the family was indeed hostile. Maybe there are inheritance issues they are worried about - maybe they are worried that she would take part of their house and land after their passing, and that a whole bureaucratic nightmare would ensue.

At the same time, same as in your country, children out of wedlock are not a huge issue here. If anything, children are not seen as responsible for what their parents did. They are not "sinful" or something, even in the traditional sense. The religious people are something like 30% now. The other 50% worships casually or are generically spiritual, and the rest 20% are atheists. (The way I see society around me) If the child approaches the family with respect, I don't see a reason why an ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN family would shut them off. The only reason I can think of is the inheritance issues, or some interpreted hostility from either side.

Everything else aside, a new family member is an entirely new thing, so the family has every reason to be skeptical, and approach her slowly and with caution. That's not the same as rejection! They may need time!

"they will never accept her as being as Greek as them" -> Well, yes, but the issue here is purely cultural, and not blood-related. If she appeared at their doorstep all of a sudden and demanded they accept her as part of the culture just because of her blood, that's not exactly how this works in Greece. The reason anyone, from any country, can enter the Greek culture, means that our barriers are not DNA or blood related. If she knows 0% of Greek culture, she is as culturally removed as a WASP American who has just set foot in Greece. But "never accept her as being as Greek" is a loong stretch. Greeks are (socially) ready to hand out citizenship papers to any non-Greek who pronounces "tzatziki" correctly. I'm not sure this is the same people she's describing.

Same thing, if I had a Serbian grandpa but knew literally nothing of the culture, nor spoke the language, I wouldn't consider myself Serbian in culture. One can always reconnect with their family's culture, but yes, there is a huge difference there. It doesn't make her existence invalid, but it will need effort on her part because she has to cover cultural distance to understand her Greek family.

One important example: The US culture is a low-context culture (they express their feelings with words) and the Greek culture is high-context, meaning there are social "rituals" or gestures that show emotions and kindness, and those things are not outright spoken. It's highly likely she either missed some kind gestures of theirs or they interpreted her forthcoming manners as rudeness or entitlement.

I don't know why the rest of Greek-Americans in the comments had similar experiences. It could be that the only Greek-Americans who commented where those with similar experiences. I'm genuinely sorry if their families were hostile. Such people exist eveywhere, I'm afraid.

Another thing is that Greek-Americans may not meet their Greek families "in the middle". I'm not talking about denying yourself or your tastes in fashion or music. I'm saying that sometimes when they approach their Greek family they have no idea of the local situational context or how to show respect, and that leads them to look like the "strange" person in the situation. This may make them "the black sheep" of the family, as they will be perceived as someone who doesn't care about the well-being of the community. Those Greek-Americans may see their own culture as the default, seeing no need to conform to what is "appropriate" in other countries. I am talking about appropriate dress or manner of conduct. And always about reasonable adjustments.

In high-context cultures, good manners and respect toward the elderly matter a lot. In just two visits, I turned my "do lesbians exist??" 85 year old religious aunt into "well… those are humans too, may they be well." All because I heard her, and countered her homophobic arguments in a respectful, soft manner that respected her intelligence and experience. Those "backward religious folk" are actually full beings with their own experiences, and once you level with them, you may be able to explain your side fairly well.

This is utterly bizarre to me because I'm the literal opposite: I have 0% Greek Genetics but plenty of Greek US Diaspora (Omogenia) culture because I was adopted and raised by a Greek mother since birth. I consider my adopted ancestors mine, I know the villages they come from (well on my papous side, my Yaiyai side is proving more difficult because of my lack of access to archive records atm). I've also been collecting photos and building the family tree, which a few people have thanked me for. I know Greek food—even if it often gets translated at Greek restaurants so the non-Greeks can pick their food (example Pastitsio is often labled "Greek Lasagna" and Spanakopita "Greek Spinach Pie"). I've been to Greek Festivals most of my childhood. I mean..... my family is celebrating Greek Easter this year because its a cultural holiday for us not because we are Orthodox (though my Mom and eldest brother were baptized Orthodox before mom switched churches for second marriage). Like my mom and her husband went to Western Easter on Sunday (April 5) because thats their religion but the family (10 people) are celebrating Greek Easter with Greek food and pastries and tsougrisma (which I will inevitably lose), because we are Greek. There is also a sense of humor in the diaspora: the Greek waiter at a restaurant was jokingly horrified that I didn't like feta cheese and my (Greek by blood) sisters joined in teasing me about how can I possibly be really Greek if I don't like feta cheese.

I made an entire post about how Philoxenia is a living Greek tradition that I just.... absorbed by growing up with Greeks even when I didn't have the word; so "xenia" in Hellenic Polytheism doesn't need to be interpreted by US Americans. And honestly I think my mom also taught us Philitimo too, again without the word. Yaiyai was very focused on speaking English because she was the WW2 generation and wanted to be properly "American."

I was talking about my Greek language learning with my mom and uncle, they joked about how I was better at being Greek and they only remember the swears/insults.

Our family has always joked that my dad (French) was the most Greek in the family— the one who brought us to Greek festivals, learned a lot of Greek but also a lot of Koine Greek because he's very Christian and wanted to read new testament in its original form (or something like that), and he loved to discuss everything and anything Greek with my papous after he moved close to him.

I can't think of many Greeks who would look at this & me and say "No you're not Greek American because DNA" .... that seems antithetical to what being Greek is.

I think, especially based on the TikTok, there was a major culture clash, instead of learning from the culture clash she took it very personally. Possibly because her hurt with her bio-dad.... and also some Americans really can't handle culture clashes. Which was highlighted in her TikTok when she said "In the US thats rude," hun you aren't in the US.

I'm the anon who brought in the "hot" goss about that American woman adopted out of a Greek family. That woman's tik tok username is karpoozy. She uploads and deletes videos constantly, so it's a bit hard to keep track (the other day she posted a video of herself reading out loud a private message her Greek aunt had sent her to discuss private family matters, confirming what we were saying too, that's now gone. She also nuked the video in which she took down the huge Greek flag she had hanging in her house).

I don't want to put links in here because sometimes Tumblr doesn't send anon asks with links, but if you scroll a bit you'll find that she posted about this on March 21st and 22nd. In the March 22nd video she specifically talks about how her Greek family is trying to hide her to "save face" and prohibits her from posting pictures of her grandparents on Facebook.

I do feel bad for her, she seems to have had a really tough life, but she's just... sooo American. From the "In America we consider this rude"* to her sharing every single text to believing she's being censored because someone told her "please don't post pictures of people you don't know for your massive following."

Even the fact that she started being resentful of the aunt because they weren't texting one another as often... idk, but I have some cousins I only see every other year and it's fine. I feel like the "oh god, if I don't hear from them every other day, then they must hate and reject me and are trying to hide me out of shame!" is distinctively American.

And the funny thing is that my parents divorced and my mother went on to have another child out of wedlock with her boyfriend. According to the USians over there, we'd have to keep my sibling chained in a dark basement lol.

*Yeah, it's rude to speak in a language that your guest doesn't speak but like... how well did the other people invited speak English? She was in their home. Last summer I brought my girlfriend home, and even if she only speaks English and the rest of us spent most of the meal screaming at each other in our language, she wasn't upset nor felt excluded because she realized that she was a guest in their country and their home.

I found two videos about it on her TikTok and I will post them here so anyone can judge for themselves.

Only one video is allowed per post, so I'll post the next one on a reblog.

I saw her videos and I'm still not on her side. I'm sorry but how she speaks of her family is not the way of someone humble and honestly thinking about what went wrong. I see someone who - of course - has been hurt, but at the same time conveniently hides information except when it is to put her aunt and the Greek people in the spotlight.

To her credit, apparently she attempted to learn some Greek, and she - at least - open to some degree. She is also doing other good things, like being an advocate for the rights of adoptees. I don't know her as a person, so I don't want to judge her character, only her specific actions.

Because you know what?? Her family was actually welcoming!! Her bio-father was, sadly, the exception, but the rest of her family in the village (aunt, her husband, her children) wanted to meet her year after year! Her aunt, not even by blood, was the biggest supporter and, as the aunt herself said, "brought her into the family". And then the tiktoker says "by the last day that me and my husband were there [in the aunt's house] the second time I think we really overstayed our welcome, I felt like my aunt was just... sick of us." And notice that she never says WHY this might be!!

Like, maybe she and her husband acted super entitled at some point and the aunt - who called them there for a second time, and let them stay for days! - got "sick of them". And then, the aunt went to ignore them for YEARS! Obviously something happened, maybe a great disrespect from the tiktoker's side. And you can't convince me 100% that was something the rest of the Greeks did, because if it was about the "scandal" it would have erupted already from the first year! What happened in the second? Funny that we only mention the aunt's reaction....

Oh, and also the reaction of her cousin, not wanting to go anywhere with her, I am also not sure she is giving us the full picture here. "Hey, do you want to do this with us [her and her husband]" she asked her cousin many times, and she refused. Okay, sure, maybe the cousin was an asshole. However, there's a reason I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the cousin as well. Because I had foreigners come to Greece and meet me, and asked me to go to the beach or party till late and I had to refuse all their requests. For them it was a vacation and they wanted to live it to the max. For me it was workdays, and a week with a heavy workload. And those spots were empty anyway that time of the year and nobody goes there. Maybe, if the tiktoker asked her cousin what SHE wanted to do that day, maybe they would have found a middle solution.

Something else that stuck with me was her saying: "I was too American for them" but she never says why! What made her think she was too American for her Greek family, and why was that an issue? I bet there are some situations that she didn't mention because she probably suspected would make her look bad. Otherwise, she would totally mention them and get the chance to shit on them.

Another negative thing she mentions is that people gossiped about her in Greek at a public event. She said "They were talking about me, in Greek, in front of my face" well YES, because their language is GREEK, and they are not OBLIGED to speak in English just because YOU are in front of them! Maybe they said a comment in Greek "oh, okay she came here this year too!" Like, nothing bad objectively, but she considered this rude just because they weren't speaking HER language?? Maybe they wanted to stop struggling and just discuss between them in their native language..? Or does she mean to tell me that if a Spanish-speaking person came to their table in the US, they would all suddenly switch to Spanish? Come ooon...

She doesn't even tell us what they said about her! It could be they said the most normal sentences ever! And maybe it was something they remembered because of the conversation and had nothing to do with her! I had foreigners talk in front of me in their native language many times, and they didn't translate everything for me, which is FINE. As long as they were polite to me in words and action, I knew their heart was in the right place.

And look, even if those Greeks were rude, that doesn't give her the right to be fucking xenophobic/racist. She treats Greeks as if they are aliens, as if people in the US would not comment about the child of someone in their close community who appeared out of nowhere after decades!!! Of course, people are going to comment, that's what people do around the globe! Is this the best tactic? No! Is it to be expected? Absolutely!! So I don't know why she thinks it wouldn't happen in that specific Greek village.

And then, a few years later, she posted her dead grandparents online, for a random person on the internet to see but also public enough that her aunt saw it. I understood that she posted the picture on the village's page, asking the other person if those were their grandparents too. I get the desperation to find your family and learn more about your past, however, this does not override your family's right to privacy. Is she completely deft or she just didn't care that she essentially said to a hundred people or so, "hey, one of your co-villagers has an illegitimate child from a foreign woman whom he kept a secret, and it's me!" Does she PURPOSELY ignore how any small community in the world may be intrigued by that news, and then gossip will spread like fire?? WHO will benefit from this gossip? Nobody! Does she ignore that the Greeks have... human communities too...? What on earth was she thinking?

I'm not saying that she should remain a secret, or that she should be ashamed of her existence, and I don't think that's why most of her Greek family was frustrated with her posting that picture. *She* presumed that they wanted to keep her a secret to save face. However, she was not told that by her Greek family. I don't know where she got that vibe, but for sure, she doesn't give us any explanation about it.

And it does feel rude to me that she posted her grandparents like that... She doesn't know the family well, and she doesn't know the wishes of her now dead grandparents. She doesn't know the people of the village well enough to know how they would react. There is a way to do these things. There is a certain pace in meeting people and becoming part of the community. It doesn't mean that she should be ashamed or that her father should get to keep her a secret. It means... just use fucking common sense?? Make a PLAN with your family about the best way to be introduced and win the locals' trust???

Other US-Americans in the comments told her "you are entitled to do this" and honestly, that's some BULL SHIT. You are not entitled to ANY other person, and you should ask their PERMISSION first, or the PERMISSION of the closest people who knew them, in order to post them online on a public platform! Especially if those people you're posting are grandparents from the Greek countryside who had a life with more privacy and calm.

And maybe none of the family, nor the dead grandparents, want HER to air the family business. For example, if I wanted to post my grandparents on a community online (even in our village page!! ESPECIALLY in our village page!!), I would ask their child (aka my parents) or their siblings (aka my aunts) if that would be okay with them. You know... the living relatives closest tot them??? Those people knew them and their wishes better than I ever will! My grandparents did not just sprout; they were active members of a community and it's proper to treat their memory delicately!