Last week was one of those weeks when life became too busy for normal language study. There was very little time for Bible reading, sessions with my AI chatbot, Duolingo, or any other kind of study.

So I took the opportunity to turn the errands of everyday life into language practice by reading signs.

A Busy Week

We had just found a place to rent and discovered we had less than a week to set it up before our first guests arrived — our three grandkids with their parents.

That meant a whirlwind of buying furniture, an oven, sheets, towels, and all the essentials that turn an empty space into a home.

During those busy days we were constantly running around town comparing prices and hunting for practical things.

Turning Errands into Language Practice

With language learning you learn to make the situation work for you, so I used those busy days to read signs.

As we moved around town I started paying attention to the Greek signs around me — shop signs, street names, and labels.

I’m still working on becoming more fluent with the Greek alphabet, so this turned out to be excellent practice.

Some words were easy to recognize because they are very close to English:

  • pharmacy
  • coffee
  • center

Other words I learned simply because I saw them again and again:

  • street
  • entrance
  • exit
  • cashier

A Simple Learning Activity

Reading signs can be a great activity at any stage of language learning.

Street signs, shop windows, billboards, and building plaques are everywhere. They offer words and phrases that people in the community already know and use.

And those are exactly the words we need.

Even during a busy week I was still able to keep learning a little.

If you want to know more about how to use sign reading as a language learning activity, see this article:
Reading Signs: A Simple Way to Build Vocabulary.