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.

“Dear Alena, I just want to say thank you very much for finding Zuzana as my Slovak teacher. My progress is far better than I expected. Even my wife is happy with my new found Slovak language skills. Zuzana is a very enthusiastic teacher and the lessons with her are always fun and productive. I believe in saying what you think about things, which is why I have written this message to you. Keep up the great work. Regards, David Knight (Uxbridge, UB8)”

AEOLIS-Cultural Development Society of Lesvos Island

and the Hellenic Culture Centre.

GRANTS offered!

AEOLIS offers 3 individual grants to students of Modern Greek and Classical Studies Programmes in Universities! The grants cover the participation fee for a one-week group course of Modern Greek in any level. Contact us for details on the application.

Contact us to guide you to fill in your application!

• “I TEACH GREEK” in Lesvos (Teacher training seminar for teachers of Modern Greek) (22-26 August 2011)

This is Julie’s email we have received after her session:

Kalimera, Alena:

First of all, enormous thanks for giving me such a great introduction to mastering the Greek language.  I am extremely fortunate to have found such an excellent teacher.

After 7 years of wrestling with books and CDs (and not being able to progress beyond remembering set phrases), I came away with a strong feeling that 1:1 lessons with you are the key for me to be able to reach my goal of being able to have meaningful conversations (rather than just being able to ask for coffee, choose food in tavernas, book a hotel, etc) and read and write Greek with accuracy and confidence.  I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

In the meantime, I will do my homework (and I’m sure, in no time at all, my house will be covered in Post-It notes with Greek words) and keep listening to the recording and reading my notes to ensure everything stays in my head. 

On the subject of reading, I have “Alfavitario”, my childrens’ book,  which before the Saturday with you I found quite challenging and is now, all of a sudden, way too easy.   

Many thanks again for a great start to this next phase in my goal, Alena.  I realise Greek is not an easy language to learn and I will need to work at it – but I do think it is achievable and I’m really looking forward to seeing you again. (I will take a train; the total journey time from home to you is about 3 hours each way but at least it’s not like driving, where I’d have to concentrate all the time).

I hope you can tell by this e-mail that I’m really enthusiastic about all this!

Julie Mangum

In our experience, there is absolutely no difference in the capability for language acquisition between a retired student and a student in their twenties. On the contrary; most mature learners find learning foreign languages much easier than a younger student, often because of the difference in their educational background; many older students have been taught grammar when they were at school and therefore have a better chance to grasp their new language quickly as it makes sense to them straight from the beginning of tuition.

It is fascinating to see a mature student learning a new language. Older students  are extremely diligent, dedicated and really enjoy their lessons! They almost always find learning languages both fulfilling and relaxing.

It is never too late to start learning French, Italian or Spanish, or any other language you feel really passionate about. At the London Language Studio we run private courses specifically tailored to suit mature students and those who have retired. Above all we make sure our lessons are interesting, enriching and fun.

Learning Czech is not an easy task. Indeed, the Czech Language is possibly one of the most difficult and complex European languages. Despite this, an incredible number of British students come to us for private Czech lessons. Their reasons or motivations are usually very similar. They have a Czech partner and often even children whom they would like to be able to communicate with. Very many students have been married to their partners for many years, and so they are not new to the language, yet they can not speak it at all. 

Their partners are generally unable to help them; so after many years of frustration, they come to us. 

Why is it this language so difficult to pick up? 

It is because of its grammatical complexity as well as its syntax. It is virtually impossible for the average native Czech speaker to explain anything. It truly does require a qualified linguist to guide a learner through the learning process and to facilitate the language acquisition for him or her. 

It is a beautiful and fascinating language. If you decide to learn Czech, you will truly enjoy your lessons. As you slowly progress and start understanding the mechanism behind it, you will probably become a very passionate student; Czech is enriching, fun and will give you an unbelievable amount of satisfaction when you feel you can finally communicate.

I strongly believe that the best way is by learning words in a context. If you simply learn words by reading a vocabulary list, you will probably forget most of them in the following three days. Instead, I suggest you learn new vocabulary through reading and translation articles or if possible, listening to native speakers and asking them for an explanation or translation.
Learn it using Post-Its

This really works for concrete things you can see around you and touch. Decide which words or phrases you want to learn. Write each one on a post-it, if possible with a picture or symbol (This uses both sides of the brain, and makes the most of your linguistic grey matter). Stick your post its around your home – anywhere is fine, as long as you will see your words regularly. Even better, stick it to the actual thing you want to remember how to say in your target language. If we are talking mainly about things-nouns, in many languages these will have a gender. Colours can help with this – why not use blue post-its for masculine nouns, and green for feminine? Every time you come across one of your notes, simply say the word out loud. When you think there is a word you have learned and remember, simly remove the note. This way you will see less and less notes around you, which to you will mean you know more and more words. It is surprising how effective this effortless memory technique is.