The following is a letter from an actual parent who toiled with her children’s Greek lessons and stumbled upon Greek LOL, our Greek language school partner which provides lessons online.
Every Friday evening over the last 2 years I had the same fight with my two children. After I asked them to prepare their school bag for greek school the next day, we always had the same conversation.
-Me: “Do you have your bag ready for tomorrow? We’ll have to leave early and I don’t want you to be late again.”
-Jason: “Oh come on Mum, why do I have to go to greek school again?”
-Me: ”And how will you communicate with papou, yiayia and your cousins when we go to Greece next summer?”
-Maria: “But we don’t really learn a lot at Greek school. I really like my teacher but we speak English most of the time.”
-Jason: “Why do I have to go to school on Saturdays, too? I want stay home like the other kids and play with my friends.”
Going to Greek school has been a tradition for me, my husband and my whole greek family for years, but life has become so demanding. Our schedule from Monday to Friday is literally crazy. So, as time passed, I started realizing that Jason was actually right.
My children have been going to greek school already for 2 years but their Greek has not really improved. I’m not blaming their teacher or the school, maybe my kids were too tired to concentrate after a long week at school. And I have to admit that driving the kids around town for 2 hours every Saturday was not much fun for me either.
Tired of the continuous fighting I searched on the Internet for a solution and came across an article about Greek Lessons OnLine. An actual Greek language school with teachers who are native speakers, providing lessons with flexible hours right at your home.
I got enthusiastic and booked a trial lesson for my kids. Since they are both quite tech-affine they liked the idea and where looking forward to their upcoming lesson. Our trial lesson even overcame our expectations.
Our teacher, Lina, expected us in an actual online classroom. She is a native Greek living in Thessaloniki and she provided my kids an interactive and fun lesson. I was amazed how a lesson could be conducted completely online with many fun applications, games and videos while at the same time you feel so close to your teacher as if she is sitting next to you in the classroom.
After the lesson my children asked me enthusiastically when they could have their next lesson. They are now students of Greek Lessons Online for 6 months and have learned more Greek than in 2 years of greek school in our home town. We still meet with our friends in the Greek community and do not miss out on our traditional dance lessons and celebrations.
But I admit, I really enjoy the weekends not driving around town, having more well-spent ‘family time’. The fights are over and I love to see the excitement in their eyes when they think of their upcoming greek lessons.
Oh, and papou and yiayia could not believe their ears this summer.
I highly recommend Greek Lessons OnLine to all families who find it difficult to attend their local Greek school.
