Hearing that I was headed to Greece, one my longtime colleagues at the standards meeting gave me the advice to try and learn the Greek alphabet so I could read signs, because a lot of words would be familiar enough to make sense of. I grew up shopping at Alpha Beta, and I know some of the Greek letters from math class, and seeing them on fraternity and sorority houses. Still, I can’t say I’m comfortable just reading a whole bunch of them in a row.

It turned out to be really good advice! The exit sign up there sounds out as something like EXODOS, and I can get to exit from exodus without much trouble at all. There were lots of similar examples throughout the trip. Of course, even the Greek people we encountered who “didn’t speak English” actually spoke enough for us to communicate.

I kept a picture of the Greek letters on my phone and it was both helpful and fun to try reading Greek signs, menus, etc.