A woman explains the reasons why she wanted her children to learn Greek.
Res.: You told me you sent your children to a Greek
school.
S.Ζ.: Yes.
Res.: Right? And did you send them to the Saturday one
as well?
S.Ζ.: No, I send them to… Socrates which is, which was a
private school. The Greek one.
Res.: And did they like the Greek school?
S.Ζ.: Ooh (no)!
Res.: Not at all?
S.Ζ.: They didn’t like it. Ah, my daughters. Now you’re
talking about my daughters.
Res.: Ah…
S.Ζ.: Yes, they liked it. They were going to school. I
thought you said my grandchildren didn’t like it. Because afterwards I sent
the grandchildren too. But my daughters alright, they went, they both learned
Greek and they speak very good Greek too, and they write and everything.
Res.: Yes?
S.Ζ.: They’ve learned three languages. Because then, we
had them in the English ones and they changed them, they put them into the
French ones, in order to learn French. But better for them, eh?
Res.: Yes.
S.Ζ.: Because they speak three languages.
Res.: And for what reason did you send them to
Socrates?
S.Ζ.: Because we wanted them to learn Greek.
Res.: I understand.
S.Ζ.: When you are Greek and… eeh… you want, for example,
to leave, to go to your homeland and your children stay behind, shouldn’t they
know how to write you a letter? Shouldn’t they… communicate with you? What
will you be saying to them since you don’t know English. And this was the
problem. My husband wanted them to learn Greek. And inside the house, he never
spoke English. When they spoke, “I don’t understand what you’re saying!”, he
would say to them if they were speaking English. Yes.
Res.: I understand.
S.Ζ.: And they know very well and they speak Greek.
Res.: So, it’s important for yourself to retain the
Greek language?
S.Ζ.: Absolutely. If we don’t… If we don’t retain our
Greek language, it’s lost… our homeland is lost. Everything is lost. The mores
and customs. Our ideals. We cannot neglect to speak Greek to our children.
