Would you like to learn Greek fast and have a lot of fun at the same time? London Language Studio invites you to join Aeolis’s Greek Language school this summer! Enjoy learning Greek; enjoy spending time in a beautiful Greek island.

Greek language lessons at all levels plus a daily schedule of educational/ cultural activities that will bring you in contact with the cultural, professional and social life as well as with the natural beauty of Lesvos.

Find further information on our programmes on our web-site, www.aeolis.edu.gr, in English and Greek.

See http://www.aeolis.edu.gr/lang-el/greek-language-programme/programme.html for the dates and fees scheduled for 2012.

We would be happy to see you and your friends in our summer school this year! Your help in disseminating this information to more people that are interested in learning about Greece, its language and its culture, while getting into contact from people and cultures from all around the globe, is as always valuable.

See you in Lesvos!

Michael Nyilis, London, W1U 1BT, London

Mike has currently had a crash course in Czech at the London Language Studio, as he was planning a week’s holiday in Prague. He is an experienced linguist and speaks several languages already. In only ten Czech lessons he managed to grasp the basics of the Czech language and when in Prague, he really felt the difference; his efforts in learning Czech paid off and he had a great time during his holiday.

He was very happy with our tutor’s course and has just booked 10 lessons of German with us. Michael’s drive for langauges is truly extraordinary!

”Dear Alena,

Of course I do not mind at all to give you some feedback.

Well, what can I say…

George is a very kind, patient and a professional teacher.

I think in all honesty, I am a pretty slow learner. Due to many work and personal commitments I do not have as much time as I would like to spend on revising enough for the classes but George is always very patient and accommodating to my needs (I also teach students nurses at Kingston university and I can honestly admit that I am not as patient with them as George is with me!). Unfortunately, I very often hear the word ‘oxi’ !

But I do very very much enjoy learning Greek. I have been travelling a bit to Greece recently for work and I fell in love with everything that country has to offer. The language, the culture, the scenery, the food, the weather so pretty much everything that comes into my mind:-) and despite being slow in learning the language I am determined to keep going with it because I find the language beautiful.

He is also very accommodating and flexible to move classes according to my work and travelling schedules.

I hope this feedback has been helpful and once again thank you for providing such a valuable tutor to me.

Kind Regards,

Eszter”

Eszter Bakody
MSc, BSc (hons), PGcert He, RN

”Hi Alena,

Sorry for the late response. Yes all is going well with the lessons, it’s hard work, and a very complicated language, but worth it in the end if I can talk to my children in Slovak.

I’ve been very happy with the lessons, and have found the approach that Zuzana has used excellent- lots of talking, referencing grammar tables when necessary – it has all been very helpful.

Many thanks, Mark”

And here is a view that Zuzana, Mark’s tutor, gives on his overall progress in learning Slovak:

”Mark started to learn Slovak with me when he was at a lower intermediate level and has now achieved a higher intermediate level. Our lessons are mostly conversational. He likes to talk about his family. His wife is Slovak and he likes the fact he can speak Slovak to their children. He is also a musician and many of our topics were about music but also politics, sport and culture. He doesn’t like to do grammar exercises from books. So we don’t do them.  After all,  learning a language is primarily about communication, talking Slovak and using the real language, rather than fabricated sentences without any significant context. He can use present, past and future tenses confidently and I am teaching him conditionals at the moment. I used flashcards to teach him new verbs and adjectives. I always use my own material for each lesson such as grammar tables, cases table.”

The book Zuzana also used with Mark, mainly for grammar reference, was Slovencina pre cudzincov.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Regarding the lessons with Zuzana, I’m really enjoying learning with her, and have found that compared to my previous Slovak course I get more time to speak, which is great.

My primary aim is to speak Slovak, as my wife has a large extended family, and we both want our children to be able to speak Slovak when we visit grandparents, uncles and aunties, and cousins. Obviously it’s important I am able to help with this, and speaking a lot in lessons is very beneficial.

In addition I’ve found that the grammar tables that Zuzana uses have helped me to get to grips with Slovakian grammar, which as you may know, is almost impenetrable.

So all in all I couldn’t be happier with the way the lessons our going.

Kind regards,

Mark Cartmell

And of course, you have to find a good one!

Most of the students who come to us to learn Czech have Czech partners. Some of them initially tried to exploit their partners, hoping to have some free Czech lessons at home, which, perhaps, one day, might lead to a fluent conversation in Czech.

  But after a few frustrating attempts, they come to us, asking for a Czech tutor who could help.
Why is it we can’t learn Czech from our partners?

  The answer is simple. You can’t learn from someone who can’t teach. And it isn’t enough just to be Czech to be able to teach Czech.

 It takes many skills to teach the Czech language. We are talking about an east eauropean language which is very complex in its essence and grammatically incomparable to English. Therefore, understandably, it is impossible to explain how and why we say certain things unless you are talking to a linguist or a Czech teacher, or someone who really understands Czech.
 
Learning Czech from your partner is often limited to vocabulary, simple phrases and expressions, and maybe some basic grammar patterns, acquired mostly by repetition rather than understanding.

Joining a Czech class is another option but the results seem to be poor mostly because students in a typical classroom have very little opportunity to speak Czech and practice what they have just learned. It is really important to have as much Czech conversation as possible within your lessons, so that you can put in practice what you just learned and to consolidate often rather complicated grammatical rules.

 We run many one to one Czech lessons in London and teach students who are genuinely determined to conquer the language. It is a real pleasure to see their progress and excitement replacing the frustration and apprehension they felt initially, before coming to us to try private classes.

In fact, I spoke to one of our students recently who has been learning Czech for just over a year, starting from scratch, and his resilience and hard work as well as a great relationship with his dedicated tutor has resulted in incredible progress; indeed I recently learned that he felt so confident he was able to have an argument in Czech, over the phone, with his new mother in law!

Most of the students who come to us and request private Slovak lessons have a Slovak partner or spouse. They often travel to Slovakia with them on a regular basis to visit friends and family and feel frustrated when unable to speak Slovak or even understand a few words. They experience the famous Slovak hospitality, fall in love with the country and come back determined to learn Slovak somehow.

There are of course several ways to try to learn Slovak but lets just name a few. These are the typical pathways which students go through before getting so frustrated that they feel forced to opt for a private Slovak tutor;

1) I want to learn Slovak and will do it my own, to surprise her/him!

OK, so lets go to Waterstone’s and buy all the books they have to help me learn Slovak. At home, open the books, start reading enthusiastically, close the first book after ten minutes in panic, go to make a coffee, come back, open another book, have a quick peek at page 154, shut it, throw it on the table, have a couple of palpitations, a cup of tea, a brisk walk, third attempt, open the big dictionary, try to read aloud two or three words, tongue tangles, can’t untangle it, books shoved under the bed, anxiety attack, sedatives, bed.
 
2) I want to learn Slovak from my partner so she/he will have to teach me!
Question: Darling, why do you weirdly change people’s names all the time when you speak? Can’t explain that darling, sorry. Why do you say this differently when you talk to your mom and when to your uncle? Sorry darling I can’t explain that. Why did he say..Sorry darling I don’t know ..Why?..sorry..W..? B…… Ooooh never mind!!!
 
3) I am not giving up. I want to learn Slovak. So I will join a class. (Oh, I can’t find one! Ah, here we go..)
Sporadically, Slovak classes are run across London but as well as with Czech, Slovak is not an easy language to learn in the first place and learning Slovak in a classroom full of other keen students doesn’t allow one to either follow, keep up with or to practice what has been taught, so progress is often very slow.
 
4) I want to learn Slovak and I try and try and I still can’t speak. WHY???? I am feeling quite frustrated now.

Because it is a difficult language and unless you are a linguist or exceptionally gifted for languages you will get lost doing this on your own.
 Asking a Slovak native speaker for help doesn’t get you very far either because again, they would have to know a lot more about the language than just being fluent. And even if they knew, how would they explain a concept to a person with English as a mother tongue where such concepts do not exist?

Eventually, all more or less frustrated students do give it a go and very quickly realise that the best and by far the most efficient way, which brings the fast and steady results, is to opt for private Slovak lessons.