Modern Greek @ The Hellenic American Union

2006-08-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

Only a few days separate me from the long-awaited summer holidays of August, and it's time for some serious recollection on the activities of our Modern Greek Language Program, during the past academic year (2005-2006):

Approx. 800 students from almost 30 countries learned Greek through our Modern Greek courses.
About 75 classes were offered, with an average class size of 9 students per class.
Same number of educational activities (field trips, excursions, visits) was offered to each class.
25 "learn-Greek" podcasts have been offered for free to the public, via the website of the Hellenic American Union and other related sites. (A total of 80 lessons will be offered.)
80 "radio-Greek" lessons have been offered to the listeners of AIR 104.4 FM (a radio station that broadcasts programs for non-Greeks living in the Athens area).
Approx. 700 persons from all over the world have taken our online Modern Greek placement test to check their level of competency in Greek.
Work towards the launching of "Hellas Alive!", our online Greek-language-learning platform is almost over.
The first ever book on teaching Greek as a Second/Foreign Language has been published.
Around 600 non-Greek speakers took the state Exams for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Greek at the Hellenic American Union (accredited exam center).
81% of our students passed the Exams!

That's quite a lot of work for one year, and it does call for a vacation, doesn't it?

As we say in Greek, ΚΑΛΕΣ ΔΙΑΚΟΠΕΣ (/kal'esdhiakop'es/) or, simply, "have a great vacation"!

2006-08-01T01:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, I was in Sofia, Bulgaria, meeting with faculty and administrators of "St. Kliment Ohridski", University of Sofia, due to the cooperation the Hellenic American Union and the Hellenic American University are establishing with them. (I was there in order to discuss cooperation in the context of our Modern Greek Language Program.)

One day, I had arranged for a couple of meetings at the University. So, I went there and waited at the University entrance for my Bulgarian hosts to arrive. The day had started just fine, until dark clouds gathered really fast and it began to rain heavily. (In fact, "rain" is an understatement; it was actually a thunderstorm, with winds and hail the size of golf balls!) While I was watching nature unravel its might, one of the Professors I was meeting arrived, soaking wet.

Herself being a Professor of Modern Greek, we started a conversation in Greek about how moody the weather can be in those parts of the world, and she asked me about the various expressions and words in Greek, used to describe such extreme weather conditions. While I was squeezing my brain to come up with Greek synonyms, the peculiarity of the whole situation dawned one me: There we were, in Sofia, Bulgaria, one Greek and one Bulgarian, using Greek to communicate - and not English, the lingua franca par excellence - and talking about the Greek language!

Needless to say, I couldn't help feeling a bit of pride; the world has changed a lot, and people have developed new interests in language learning. In the old days, everyone had to know French to get by. Later, it was - and still is - English. Now, it's not only English but other languages as well, and Greek is one of them.

2006-05-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Exams for the the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Greek started today and we're quite busy with the hundreds of candidates taking their written and oral tests in M. Greek.

Some candidates are students of our Program; will they do OK? We're pretty sure they will, with all the hard work they have put in, some of them for months now. The rest have taken Greek lessons elsewhere or they have lived in Greece for so long that their Greek is as good as a native speaker's.

Nearly all candidates seem a bit stressed, but that's a feeling that anyone who's about to be examined has. Some carry books and notes (for that last-minute, before-the-exam-starts quick repetition); all carry pencils, pens, erasers. Some might even bring with them a lucky charm, given by someone close: a small fluffy animal, a cross, an icon, the photo of someone they love.

The exams will carry on all day today and tomorrow, and, on Saturday, 20 May, we're going to have a long session of oral exams, from morning until late afternoon. Lots of work for the examiners, but they will cope alright.

In English, when someone is about to be tested, they say "Break a leg" or "Good luck". In Greek, we say "ΚΑΛΗ ΕΠΙΤΥΧΙΑ" (/ka'li epitih'ia/)!

2006-05-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

Time really flies, and, for us, teachers and administrators at the M. Greek Program of the Hellenic American Union, it's near the end of the spring period of 2006. Just like every period, this one has had its own - small but precious - moments:

teachers rushing for their classes
students chatting during breaks
the "thank you" when a lost item was recovered and delivered to its owner
students going out with their teachers to a Greek theater show or to an Art exhibition in Athens
teachers coming to the Coordinator's office with new material to be used in class
students using the computer labs to visit Greek sites and read and talk about them
the smell of new textbooks and what they look like at the end of the period

above all,

PEOPLE from all the over world, over 40 countries, meeting each other, learning Greek, learning about the Greek reality.

Dear visitor of this blog, WELCOME! or ΚΑΛΩΣ ΗΡΘΕΣ! (/ka'los'irθes/)