What Language do They Speak in Athens Greece

That’s a funny question that we get all the time: “What Language do They Speak in Athens Greece?“. Well, here is the answer:

Greece has 11 million people and 100% of them speak the Greek language. This language has many roots in the ancient Greek language but you should not expect to communicate easily with the ancient Greek you learned at your school or university. 

Greece has also around 1 million people from Albania and almost all of them speak both Greek and Albanian languages. These people have arrived in Greece after 1992 and they have learned the Greek language very well.

Most people in Greece who works with tourism or is under 45 years old speak the English language pretty well too. Unlike the people in Italy, Spain, Portugal or Turkey, the Greek families have invested a lot in training their children to learn the English language, so as to be able to communicate with the whole world. You can expect many (but not all) taxi drivers and all hotel staff to speak English, while most tavernas in the islands and in Athens have menus in both English and Greek and the waiters can communicate in the English language too.

A much smaller percentage of Greeks can also communicate in the Italian language, due to the many tourists from Italy that arrive in the country every year and in the German language for the same reason.