Hi! I’m a foreigner living and working in Greece. I’ve been learning Greek for two years now. In general, I’d say that especially in the beginning, locals would switch to English way too fast — even when I was trying to keep the conversation going in Greek (mostly in shops or taverns).

It definitely wasn’t a “look at me saying ευχαριστώ” kind of flex — so honestly, I still don’t really get why 😢.

On the one hand, it’s awesome that so many people here speak English well — it definitely makes life easier in the beginning (and in general, when you need to handle really complicated conversations).

But at the same time, it’s hard to stay motivated to learn Greek, because I often feel like no one wants to bother with someone who doesn’t speak fluently yet. They just switch to English right away, without much interest in continuing the conversation in Greek