Hellenic Language School Alexander the Great

I liked the fact that the teacher adapted lessons to my needs in a 1:1 situation. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and it was lovely to be greeted by smiley people with a cup of coffee in the morning. Location was great, in walking distance from bus station, old town and very close to the beach. There was a confusion about the day I was starting the course and when I arrived the school was closed. I was pleased with how this was sorted out in the end, but before this I was worried that the course did not exist.

Had al great time. Patient teachers. Great location of the school.

I had no knowledge of the greek language or grammar. I found it (as a person of 60 years), hard to get it all in my mind.
I did not see the structure with all the exceptions and rules how the words were changing.

The teachers, which were all nice and friendly, did their best and adapted my lessons to individual lessons with aditional exercises.
What l didn't like most was the smoking in the school by the teachers. It hanged in the class room and was irritating.
Like any other public room in Europe, it should be not allowed to smoke inside a school.

Perhaps it was also because of the structure in the "school".
There were only 2 suitable classrooms with closable doors, the 3rd room was seperated with a sliding wall at the other side was the office and the 4th room was hidden unter the stairway.
The school is in a apartment, where the rooms gave been adapted as a class room.

There was variation in activities after school lessons, museum, greek dancing, greek restaurant.

I was lucky to have the same teacher in the 2 weeks, but they where adapting it too other oblications at the university or the level of students. One participant had 3 different teachers in 4 weeks, which should not be.

I was most happy about my housing at the Ideon hotel. A very friendly family hotel with very nice and helpfull staff. It was very well located.

Teaching material "You speak Greek already" B edition 2023, contains many mistakes (τυν/τυ), the alphabet in the book is difficult to read, many long and no longer used words are included in lessons A1 and for a beginner this makes it very difficult to get going. Considering this book was supposed to be written and edited by Greek professors this is very disappointing

I did not know what I could expect. I did think that the lowest level would be more practical. More speaking and reading simple greek. This will probably be my one and ony course in greek. I did not need a lot of grammar at this stage. More words and practical everyday use. I think it was too academic to me. I fell off. Lost my self confidence and felt stupid. Not the right way of learning language. But noone asked what we expected by arrival. And the young people in my class seemed positive. I liked the school and the teachers. But it was not the right place for me to be for three weeks. Or I AM too old to learn greek(61), but I do not think so. Grammar is not the first you need to know in a language, you must learn words and phrases. I think.
That was all I had to say about my last three weeks. Good luck and remember to check students expectations before start. Beginners are not always the same.

I liked all teachers, especially mine who was really very ambitious and competent.
I liked the location because it was easily reachable from my accomodation.
I liked the friendly atmosphere at school as well as at my accomodation, although I didn't expect my single room to be so small with hardly any balcony!

My teacher was really smart and able to teach the first level of a new language. The director of the school warmly welcome us, organize traditional dance workshop and a typical lunch together.

The location of the school is super: 2 minutes from Nea Chora beach and 15 minutes from the historical city centre of Chania on foot. Furthermore Chania is a wonderful city to stay and nevralgic point to travel in the west side of Crete even by bus.

I didn't like the text book because there isn't any recordings, neither exercise-solutions so it's not possible to keep on self-training.

Everything was arranged very well. The day before I left home I already got a message from the school to tell me that the taxi driver would wait for me at the airport. She gave me his name and phone number just in case, the name from the hotel and the address from the school and she would meet me at the school on Monday.

The taxi driver was very friendly. The hotel was perfect, close to the school and the beach with a lot of good restaurants. From there I could also easily walk to the old town. Everybody in the hotel was friendly and very helpful. The breakfast was super and the room was very clean.

The reception in the school was very good. All the teachers are so nice. There where some other students, almost all from Germany. I had one fellow student in my class and that made me very happy. Our teacher Maria is an excellent teacher. She explained everything very well and she is very motivated. Of course, we had some homework to do and everyday we wrote a text. After a few days we started to discuss some topics so we learned to speak better and we also learned more about the way things are regulated in each country. It's nice to know a little bit more about the Greek society. Maria talked most of the time Greek during class (slow) which I really liked, that's the way I learn best.

We did two activities, the first week we went all together to a restaurant on Friday (very good), the second week we went to Minoan's World, a 3D Museum and 9D cinema with a movie about the Minoan society and some myths (good for me because I choose Greek but it's more for children in my opinion).

This was a good experience for me and I certainly want to go back.

Since I was alone in my level (C1), I had two hours private lesson every day + homework, and this was perfect for me. The teacher, Eugenia, made her best efforts to adapt her lessons to my needs and requirements and I have learnt a lot. She is a very interesting person and she taught me a lot, not only with regard to grammar, but also with regard to the Greek society through the analysis and discussion of newspaper's articles.

We also had an excellent personal contact and she even gave me a dictionary as present. The negative point was that the Athenian branch hadn't mentioned my coming to the Cretan branch. So nobody was waiting for me. But the school's manager in Chania reacted very efficiently and found immediately an appropriate solution.

The class where I had my Greek lessons was too small with echo, what made it difficult for me and for the teacher to hear each other properly. The other rooms were bigger. Due to the covid, all the social activities had been cancelled, but the teachers organized a very nice lunch in a restaurant and a trekking in the mountain. The mood in this small school was excellent, I felt quickly I was with a group of friends. Location and facilities are just perfect ! I rent a studio in the centrum of Chania, 20 min by walk, just great. I would have liked to have more interactions with the other students but I haven't seen them a lot since our program and timetable were different.

Very nice school. Very good and educated staff, who does everything they can to help you in any way they can.
I am definitely going back there.

Als einziger Schüler bekam ich die ganze Aufmerksamkeit der Lehrerin und hatte pro Tag zwei Stunden (Einzel-) Unterricht. Frau Pontikaki war sehr freundlich und kompetent. Das Gelernte ist für mich eine gute Grundlage, um das Erlernen der griechischen Sprache fortzusetzen.

Die Lage der Schule ermöglicht schöne Spaziergänge in die Stadt und an das Meer. Einkäufe sind jederzeit möglich.
Im Hotel "Christina" habe ich mich sehr wohl gefühlt und war auch dort freundlich aufgenommen.


ENGLISH:
As the only student I got all the attention from the teacher and had daily two hours (individual) lessons. Miss Pontikaki was very friendly and competent. What I've learned is a good basis to continue learning the Greek language.

The school's location allows beautiful walks around the city and the sea. Purchases are possible at any time .
At the hotel "Christina" I felt very well and was welcomed there.