Well according to a recent survey only just over a third of the population of Greece speak English. So forget all the excuses about Greek being a difficult language to learn, it's no more or less difficult than any other language.

Learning Greek can be very rewarding and even help you understand your own language as Greek is one of the Indo-European root languages. This simply means that the Greek language has influenced most European and many Middle Eastern languages.

As with any country you are traveling in, or settling in, if you at least make an attempt to speak the language then the local people will be most appreciative and welcome you with open arms. In my own case I could not imagine living in Greece without speaking Greek, it has opened up so much, both culturally and socially and generated myself and my wife many new Greek friends.

It has also been shown in recent studies that learning a new language keeps the brain agile in old age, that for me is a good a reason as any to keep learning.

Please don't think that Greek is a minority language. Obviously, it is the official language of Greece and is spoken by about 99.5% of the population. It is also one of the two official languages of Cyprus, the other one being Turkish. As well as being one of the 23 official languages of the European Union it is also recognized as a minority language in parts of Turkey, Italy and Albania.

There are also traditional Greek speaking communities in the neighboring countries of Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Other countries with sizable Greek speaking population are Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Whilst back to the Mediterranean the Greek language can also be heard in Israel and Egypt.

Because of the harsh economic climate in past years many emigrated from their Greek homeland all over the world to countries as diverse as Australia, South Africa, Argentina, North America and many others. Estimate vary as to how many people actually speak the Greek language and is anywhere from 15 to 21 million people. It is a well known fact that there are more Greek people speaking their native language living outside Greece than there are in the country itself. So you can go to just about any major city in the world and here Greek conversation.

So if you are at all interested in learning to speak Greek I strongly urge you to make a start now. You will find it fascinating and nowhere near as difficult as you thought it would be.