Milate Ellinika?

First, a confession. I've been here in Greece for almost 3 years. I still can't speak Greek. I can translate some Greek (ie. I can watch a movie or TV show and only read Greek subtitles and get a lot of it) but when it comes to understanding what people say in Greek, well, I really, REALLY suck at it (although admittedly there are some Americans I can't understand as well). Part of the problem comes from the fact that I have lived in three different "regions" in Greece since I moved here. People in Kos didn't speak quite the same dialect as people did in Athens and people here in the northern region speak a slightly different dialect than the others. Plus, Greeks speak fast. Now they will say that English speakers speak fast, and we do, to some extent, but when I try to listen to Greeks, I can tell how fast they are speaking from some of the words I can make out, and they speak really fucking fast.

In reverse, my grammar in Greek is terrible, so even if I try to speak myself, I get the gender, number, tense all screwed up. Hell, I can't even pronounce my husband's name correctly! Not to mention the fact that I am pretty shy to start with (even when it comes to speaking English), so it has been harder for me to learn to communicate properly in Greek.

Anyway, one of the guys that owns the supermarket across the street from us lived in America for awhile and speaks quite fluent English. So he always speaks to me in English. Today, when I finished my shopping, he blindsided me with a question in Greek. I didn't expect it, so he had to repeat it. I knew what he said, or the gist of it, but the fucker was testing me! This is something my mother-in-law does all the time, but I expect her to test me. Still, I think he was surprised I understood him, and even answered correctly in Greek (well, it WAS a yes or no question). Still, are Greeks trying to thwart my plan, of learning perfect Greek and pretending not to understand, just so I can spy on them and they think I don't know what they are saying? Sheesh!