Organisers of the Speak Greek in March initiative met in Melbourne this week to thrash out the range of activities and interventions celebrating the Greek language that will roll out from March 1.
Embracing schools, colleges, community groups, – and family dinner tables across Victoria – the project aims not only to encourage Greek Australian parents and grandparents to take a greater role in the learning of the Greek language by their children and grandchildren, but to celebrate and support the learning of Greek across the state.
A lynchpin of the Speak Greek in March campaign is to encourage families and organisations to use Greek in their daily communications.
Organising committee member Cathy Alexopoulos, president of the Greek Australian Cultural League (GACL) told Neos Kosmos that she was backing the initiative as a way to “re-invigorate the language in its grassroots”.
“It’s an exceptionally important initiative – to rejuvenate the idea that speaking Greek is not only acceptable, but beneficial, and gives an opportunity for younger speakers to discover the relationship between English and Greek.”
GACL has committed to integrating its March book launches and other events into the program,
“We’re also hoping to develop the idea of reading of Greek bilingual stories to a younger audience at public libraries,” said Ms Alexopoulos.
“We’re very proud to be part of this pioneering project and will participate in every way possible.”
Nick Dallas, who oversees the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne’s advanced Greek campuses, and who is also on the project’s organising committee, said that speaking and studying Greek had hidden benefits.
“More than three thousand years of continuity ensures that Greek has a richness and depth that few languages can match, and knowing Greek – with its rich vocabulary and challenging grammar – makes learning other languages easier.
Nikos Piperis, speaking on behalf of the Hellenic Writers Association, said that the most compelling reason to support the project was that unused languages eventually become extinct.
“This gradual process begins with dilution of the language, then simplification and ultimately its total substitution with English by the younger generation. In the Hellenic Writers Association we think in Greek, we write Greek and we speak Greek,” said Mr Piperis.
“So let our slogan for March be ‘Think Greek, Write Greek, Speak Greek’.”
Meanwhile, Kyriakos Amantides – former chief examiner for Modern Greek in Victoria and editor of Greek literary journal Antipodes – said he applauded the idea of devoting a month to raise the profile of the language, and was keen to give it his support.
“We can motivate young people of Greek descent to learn Greek by demonstrating that learning Greek enhances their better understanding, and use, of English, as many [English] terms are direct loans from the Greek language.”
Conceived by former general manager of SBS, Mike Zafiropoulos AM, the Speak Greek in March initiative has already had global recognition, with the Greek Parliament website promoting the project in recent days.
“I’m very excited at the progress we’ve made, and all the support being shown in the Greek community here in Victoria, but also around the world, ” said Mr Zafiropoulos.
“I’m optimistic the idea will catch on, and I believe the Speak Greek month will not only have symbolic significance but will have some real outcomes in terms of promoting the language as the oldest and richest language in the world.”
Mr Zafiropoulos added that while the diaspora down under was committed to revitalising the use of Greek, he encouraged Greeks in Greece to also use March as a month to focus efforts to contest the growing anglicisation of the language in the Hellenic Republic.