Befriending the Locals

The Greeks are known for their close-knit friend groups, to them known as “παρέα” (pron: par-ay-a). Many adults have a rock-solid friend group that originated in high school, in addition to groups that come from universities and hobbies.

To be honest, this can be a very intimidating factor for many foreigners who want to make Greek friends. When I began my master’s program, I picked up on this factor quickly. As a result, I more easily befriended my classmates from other parts of the world: Italy, Norway, Nigeria, Canada, Morocco, and the Unites States.

Of course, one important barrier that we bonded over is our lack of Greek language skills. While I was in the process of learning Greek, I was still unable to understand full conversations between Greek native classmates.

Being an extremely extroverted person, I have never struggled to make friends. But without the proper Greek language, I was forced to be more creative in achieving friendships outside of the classroom. This was because unlike most of my international classmates, I wanted to stay in Greece after completing my master’s degree.

While I am an extrovert, there were many times where I felt very insecure when meeting groups of Greek people. In those moments, I had a tendency to become nervous, and it took a lot to push myself past this to be confident in making friends.

Now, the Greek friendships I have developed will last a lifetime. I thought my friends had no idea of the challenges I had early on, but we have since discussed their own stories about making friends abroad, and how similarly we felt. Thankfully, pushing past my insecurities led to expressing my personality that is present in all friendships; Greek or not.

Often I wish I had someone to guide me through those challenges—someone who I could tell my insecurities to and ask for advice along the way.

I hope to be that person for many people planning to move to Greece.