Also, people do a weird head nod when they are saying no here, which always looks to me like it means yes. It isn’t as emphatic as a normal yes nod would be, but it still means yes to me!

For weddings, the bride comes to the church to meet the groom, not the other way around.

Of course, I’ve lived here five years and lord knows I still cross some lines!

Thanks so much for your comments! How interesting! I had heard about the head nod thing and how people mistake it for “yes” a lot! That could be a problem! How cool! Anything else you can think of, please come over and post!

Thanks!

I’m sure there are tons, but I’ve been here 10 years and can’t recall that many without really brain draining myself.

The first thing a lot of people can’t get used to is “nai” means “yes” and “oxi” means no.

There’s a hand gesture Greeks do that looks like they’re waving goodbye (like patting a dog), but with quicker movements. To most that means “stay there,” but it really means “come here.”

Another thing I didn’t like was people making comments about something personal, such as “oh, you’ve gained a few kilos.” To an American, this is rude, especially when said to a woman. But to a Greek, this means “oh, I’ve noticed you and cared enough to pay attention since we last saw each other.”

Greeks have a habit of being late, so this puts me behind schedule for work a lot. But for some reason it’s rude for me to say that we need to speed it along, and yet perfectly ok for them to not apologize to me for being a half hour late to begin with.