Listening to a Grandmother's Directions
A listening passage (played twice) contains a phone message from a grandmother to her grandson Nico. She speaks quickly and mixes Greek with English words such as 'bus' and 'supermarket.' She says: she is at the supermarket near the church; Nico should take the 410 bus, get off at the third stop after the pharmacy, walk past the bakery, and turn left at the corner where the kiosk (περίπτερο) is; she will wait outside the fish shop, not the church, because the church steps are crowded; and she will be there until 5 pm, but if he is late he should call her neighbour, Mrs Katerina. Students must answer questions about the route and the meeting point.
1. A student writes: 'Nico should get off at the pharmacy and meet Yiayia at the church.' Identify the listening errors and explain what the passage actually says.
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Both details are wrong.
First, the pharmacy is a landmark, not the stop. Yiayia says to get off at the third stop after the pharmacy, so the pharmacy comes before the correct stop. A student who hears a familiar word and stops listening misses the instruction attached to it.
Second, the meeting point is outside the fish shop, not the church. Yiayia explicitly rules out the church steps because they are crowded. The church is mentioned only as a nearby landmark for the supermarket.
These are classic listening traps: a known word is heard, but the relationship between words (after, third, not) carries the meaning. The student should note the sequence of landmarks - pharmacy, then three stops, then bakery, then kiosk corner, then left turn - and record the negative statement ('not the church') as a correction.
2. Explain how the mix of Greek and English words in the passage affects comprehension, and give one strategy for handling it in the exam.
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Code-mixing reflects real Greek-Australian speech: loanwords like 'bus' and 'supermarket' are inserted into Greek sentences because they are everyday items named in English. For a listener, this can help, because the English word is instantly recognisable and signals the topic. It can also mislead, because the surrounding Greek grammar carries the instruction - for example, which bus, which stop, and what to do next.
Strategy: do not translate the English word and relax; instead, use it as an anchor and listen to the Greek words immediately before and after it. Words such as 'στάση' (stop), 'μετά' (after), and 'όχι' (not) determine the answer. On the second playing, focus only on the parts of the message connected to the questions, rather than trying to catch every word.