Greek Family Vocabulary [Effortless English DVD1 > LV2 > 03]

Hello. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for Greek Family. Let's get started.

Headline says: Woman will never be Greek enough for husband’s family.

“Greek”, of course (ahh..) describe someone from Greece. The country of Greece. Ahh.. and then she starts the letter:  “dear abby,  I married a Greek man who's… (ahh..) family never accepted me. She said she was young and naive.

“Naive”  means (ahh..) innocent. It means (ab..). but not like guilty and innocent. It means you don't have much experience in the world. You don't know much about the world. And it also has the idea that you trust people too much. Alright, you..you just.. you’re.. you’re… maybe too friendly, too open, too much trust. You're not careful enough with people. That's “naive”, “naive”. So you\N don't have much experience in the world. Ahh.. you don't know much about the world and life. “Naive”, “naive”.

So she said she was naive when she got married. Ah.. and she said she tried to fit in with their husband’s family. And she converted from Catholicism to Greek, to the Greek Orthodox faith.

To convert means to change. And it can have a religious meaning in this case. Of course, it does. Have early age religious meaning. To “convert” in this case means to change religions. Change religions. And we can say, convert to a new religion. So, you convert to Christianity it means you used to be another religion , now you're a Christian. If you convert to Buddhism you used to be something else. Now you are a Buddhist. So that's “to convert”. To convert: to change from one religion do another.

Alright. And (ahh..) she uses the word “faith” here. She converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. Greek Orthodox is a kind of Christianity. But different then the Catholic Church. And in this case “faith” means religion. The faith can mean like “belief”. It can mean “belief”. In something you have a deep belief. Even know you're not sure. But, this case “faith” means religion, a religion. We sometimes use though... You have to use it with the name of the religion. So I might say: the Hindu faith, the Christian faith, the Muslim faith. So that just means “the Muslim religion”,  “the Christian religion”, “the Buddhist religion”, “the Hindu religion”.

“Faith”. A little bit different meaning for “faith” than we normally.. ahh.. And how we normally use it.

In same paragraph we see the word “relative”. She said, “my husband and I traveled to Crete.. (at an island in Greece) with his family to visit his relatives there.”

“Relatives” means family members, Family members. But it usually means more distant family members.  So your husband, your wife, your children, they are not relatives. We don't use the word relatives to describe your close… close family. (Like your husband or your children.) “Relative” usually means grandparents, cousins, uncles, ants, nieces, nephews.  All of these people we describe this relatives. So, they’re in your family, but they’re.. they’re not in… living in your house. , they might be living in a house, a grandmother could live in your house, but it's..  it's..  they're not so close, not your immediate family. (Relatives are little far away. Grandparents, cousins, etc..)

Alright. And she said some extended family members refuse to share the dinner table with her.

Extended family has the same idea as relatives. “Extended family” means grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. we usually say “immediate family” or “nuclear family”, that's you’re has been a wife and your children, or.. or if you're young, it can.. it means your father and your mother, your brothers and sisters,  that's your immediate family. But then we have the extended family and those are the relatives, those are the people.. (ahh..) like who are a little farther like grandparents, cousins, etc..  “Extended family”.  

And a… these family members refuse to share the dinner table with her.

To refuse means to say “no”.  Means you say you will not do something. And “refuse” normally goes with an action, right? Somebody wants you to do something and you refuse. So refuse… you  refuse to do something. You refuse to do an action, usually. So, in this case they refused to share the dinner table means they refused to eat with her. So you refuse in action, you say no to an action.

Alright, and then (ahh)… We go down to the next… paragraph. And she says “our daughter, "Athena," was born four years later”. She says, “What broke the camel's back for me…”

“To break the camel's back”, this is a common phrase in English. It has a short version and a long version. This is the short version. You say, “what broke the camel's back”,  but we also sometimes say, “the straw that broke the camel's back”, “the straw that broke the camel's back”. Or just “broke the camel's back”. Either one it means it's the last thing. Its the action or the situation that finally makes you do something. That finally changes your mind.

So *** imagine (ahh).. that you have a camel. Alright? It’s an animal, and you're putting stuff

on top of the camel, so you put (ahh)… you may be (uhh..). maybe straw, straws like grass. But you're putting some on the camel, and the camel is okay. You put more, you put more, gets heavier and heavier, and heavier. You put more, you put more, you put more… Oh now the camel’s… “Ohh!!” His back is hurting! You.. more.. more..  more.. And finally you put one more , and the camel’s brack back break (Brockk)!! Alright? So says.. it's the final thing. It's the final bad experience. That causes the camel to… to break or to die. The… That is where it comes from. And also it means like that you have some kinda bad , and it's been happening a long time. So, let's say in this case.. (the… you know)…  the family, they do something bad to her.

Then they do something, another thing is bad, then they do another bad thing, then another… Each time she's a little more upset, a little more angry... But more… more… more bad things… more bad things…. more bad things… Finally, they did something to her daughter, they were rude to her daughter, that was the last straw. Alright?  That's what broke the camel's back. It was the last event. After this she so angry. She will not be nice to them anymore. It's the final action. And now she can't.. she can't handle it anymore.

Alright. And, so, what happened is that the father… the…(ahmm)… Father-in-law was giving money to all the grandchildren who had Greek heritage. But didn't give one to their daughter.

“Heritage” means.. (ahh)… When we talk about Greek heritage or German heritage, or Japanese heritage, “heritage” means… (ahh).. where your family comes from. Where your family comes from.

Ahm... And *** talking about your family in the past. So, that just mean right now, so we can have someone.. (ahh).. a child…  This child was born in America. So the child, the girl is an American. But she's a Greek heritage, because her father's Greek. The grandparents are Greek. Alright, have her family is Greek. So, she's not Greek. The girl is not Greek, because she's American. Born in America, lives in America. But she is of Greek heritage. Alright? Her family is Greek.

So, someone, an immigrant comes here, say from Mexico. Ah.. Their Mexican. But their children… That say their children are born in America. They grow up in America. They always live in America, they're americans. But they're of Mexican heritage. Their family going back in history was Mexican.

Alright. And we keep going and (ah..). She says that.. her little daughter was really upset when she didn't get money from her father-in-law like everybody else.

And then she said, her husband has truck just tried to stay neutral.

“Neutral” means… Ah… In this case, “neutral” means you don't pick a side. Some*** we have one side against another side, and you say “oh, I'm not fighting on either side. I'm in the middle, I will not support either side. I am neutral”.

So the husband won't support his wife and daughter, and the husband also won't support his Greek family.  Ah… He just says, “I'm neutral!” He won't help either one. He won't use either side.

And finally, the last sentence she says, “Abby, how far should someone have to go…” or “how far should I have to go to fit in with my husband's family?”

Remember “to fit in” means to.. to have a good relationship with. “To fit in with the family” means have a good relationship with the family, to be long to the family, to be part of the family. That's “to fit in”.

So, she’s saying, “how far should I have to go to do this..”, that means “how far do I need to go”, “how far should I have to go”. That just means “how much do I need to do”, “how much do I need to do” or “how much should I try?” That's the meaning of that phrase.

“How far should I have to go to learn English?” It means “what must I do?”  “How much do I need to do to learn english?” Or “how much do I need to try to learn English?” “How far do I need to go…?”

Alright. So that’s All. That’s all of the vocabulary in this little thing.

Ahmm.. Listen to this a few times. Make sure you know the vocabulary. This once not too difficult. I hope! And then we'll move on to the mini-story.

See you next time. Bye!

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