Adventures in Greek Language

How to learn a difficult language and have some fun at the same time? That’s always been an interesting challenge for teachers and learners alike. This year we’ll be meeting that challenge by running our annual refresher Greek language course in the beautiful, historic yet vibrant lake-side city of Ioannina, thus providing lots of opportunities to wander, relax and be convivial after our normal run of intensive morning classes. As in previous years our programme, in the company of Ellie and Virginia – our highly versatile and accomplished mother-tongue, language teachers – runs at two levels. 

The first, Lower Intermediate is designed for those who have some basic grounding of the language – amounting to three years or more of evening class Greek or an equivalent knowledge – including an ability to say simple things in the past, present and future. Our aim will be to build upon this base so that you have more confidence understanding and responding to native Greek speakers in a variety of everyday situations. This will include widening out your knowledge of different tenses, grammar, sentence structures and vocabulary but always with an ear to how Greeks themselves converse colloquially. Audio-visual exercises, one on one conversation, lots of listening plus quizzes, games and reading extracts will all be part of the recipe. 

If you already have some Greek but are not sufficiently confident yet to have wide-ranging conversations with native speakers then our second, Higher Intermediate level:Conversations in Greek, is for you. The course is designed for those who have been learning modern Greek for some years – perhaps in a classroom environment – but who have had less opportunity to express their ideas, thoughts and opinions in Greek in a more complex, nuanced and fluent way. Our classroom learning each day will involve some grammar but the greater emphasis will be on listening to, speaking and understanding Greek as it is spoken. The course will also include a range of topical cultural, social, political and economic issues which will expand your vocabulary and deepen your knowledge of contemporary Greece. As well as  one on one conversation we will be using newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, poetry, film and other media.

Both levels will operate each morning, partly in the classroom, partly in outdoor activities where you will hear and speak Greek.