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0:00 - How to Say, “It’s all Greek to me.” 0:23 - Examples of “It’s all Greek to me.” 0:59 - Meaning of “It’s all Greek to me.” 1:21 - Origin of “It’s all Greek to me.” 3:40 - More Examples of “It’s all Greek to me.” 4:31 - Conclusion “It’s all Greek to me.” You may have heard someone say, “It’s all Greek to me,” when they heard or read something they didn’t understand, whether it was a foreign language or technical jargon. “What did she say? It’s all Greek to me,” your friend might say during a vacation in Peru. Maybe your roommate needs help with a recipe, “Can you explain the steps to me? It’s all Greek to me!” “How do you put this thing together, the instructions are all Greek to me!” one of your grandparents might say. It’s plain to see that the idiom, “It’s all Greek to me,” means that you don’t understand something; whether it’s a language, technical jargon, vocabulary, written instructions or anything else. “It’s all Greek to me,” probably comes from monk scribes in the European Middle Ages who would write, “It is Greek; it cannot be read,” beside Greek phrases they would encounter during copying of manuscripts in Latin. The idiom has become popular in the English language in the hundreds of years following, even though Greek is now a language easily learned by non-native speakers. You may have guessed that not understanding a foreign language or anything else is a common human experience, thus giving rise to similar idioms in other cultures. In Czech, they say, “Am I speaking with a Chinese person?” Meanwhile in Chinese, they say, “It’s like heavenly script.” In Finnish, they say, “Complete Hebrew.” While in Hebrew, they say, “It’s Chinese to me.” And in the Chinese dialect of Cantonese, they say, “It’s like ghost script.” In Croatian, they like to say, “It’s a Spanish village to me.” Meanwhile in Spanish, they would say, “Speak to me in Christian.” The most interesting, however, has to be the Japanese, “Chinpunkanpun da,” which is supposed to be how Chinese sounds. After starting a foreign movie, but forgetting to turn on the subtitles, your partner might say, “It’s all Greek to me! We need to turn on the subtitles.” Perhaps you’re trying to figure out how to change the oil in your car, “I am having a hard time with this, it’s all Greek to me!” “That was all Greek to me. Just tell me, will I be able to take 4K video with this?” you might say to an electronics salesperson after she explained a few technical details. So, if there is something you don’t understand - whether it’s something technical, written or verbal, or if it’s a foreign language, Greek included - don’t forget to emphatically say, “It’s all Greek to me!” #superduperenglishidioms #englishidioms #idioms #proverbs
