The new winter is underway here in Greece and that means it’s officially time to start production of the sequel film to Frozen Ambrosia ! I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot line for the movie because it’s “top” secret and classified at the highest level. All I will say is that the island of Crete will play a big part in the film.
To kick things off, I decided to pay a visit to KritiTV in Heraklion to talk a bit more about the project as a whole and how I’ve arrived at this point. This year for the holidays my father joined me in Greece, so I thought it would be fun to have him join me on the TV show. Initially, he resisted the idea, but eventually warmed up to it.
Remember, I’ve only been speaking Greek for a few years. Nevertheless, walking into the studio, my confidence was high. After all, the interview I did on the Greek national channel ERT last winter had gone great. As we sat down on the couch, I was thinking, “Piece of cake.” Then the show went live and the host started talking at what seemed like a million words per minute. I almost had a panic attack. Very little of what she said I could understand. Not even half. Fortunately, I remained calm, and relied on technique.
The key, at least for me, learning to speak a foreign language, is not to try to understand everything. It’s to listen for key words. If you can pick up one word per sentence, over a series of sentences, you can come up with a pretty accurate estimation of what someone is trying to communicate. You won’t get any of the texture or nuance in what they’re saying, and for sure you’ll miss stuff, but you’ll be able to carry on a conversation. Once you can start conversing with other people your skill level starts going up fast.
There is a caveat however. It’s extremely exhausting. Your CPU has to run at maximum power to pull it off, and if you go for too long, you overheat and melt down. Originally, I thought this was going to be a 4-5 minute discussion. But it kept going and going. I did good though, I got through all the questions. I got all the way to the end and was ready to claim victory. Then, I blew the head gasket. Thankfully my Dad was there to drag me across the finish line.
Next time will be better!
